*Middleburg - African Americans have been an important presence in this town, often called the capital of Virginia’s Hunt County. In 1864 they established Asbury Methodist Church, Loudoun County’s first official African American congregation. Three years later, Baptists founded Shiloh Church. The federal government opened a Freedman’s Bureau Office at Jay and Marshall Streets, and many black families lived on “Bureau Corner.” They opened the first school in 1868, but the best remembered is Grant School, started in 1888 and named for teacher and principal Oliver L. Grant. Middleburg men founded the Aberdeen Odd Fellows Lodge in 1873, and women, the Grant Household of Ruth, in 1884; an Elks Lodge followed later. Solon Cemetery was established in 1883. By 1938 African Americans had a remarkable business presence in Middleburg—the strongest in Loudoun County—with John Wanzer’s blacksmith shop, W.N. Hall & Sons general contractor, two roofers, restaurants, a pool hall, barber shop, shoe repair, two cleaners, two beauty parlors, and three private cabs. Dr. Maurice Edmead had a medical practice there from 1933 to 1952. African American horsemen, farm workers and managers, and domestic help were employed in the area by wealthy white landowners. Community life was rich, including Memorial Day and July 4th parades through the town and celebrations at Hall’s Park nearby. John Wanzer served as president of the County-Wide League, which agitated in the 1930s for an accredited black high school, built in 1941. Middleburg area residents then lobbied for a modern consolidated elementary school, and finally Benjamin Banneker was opened in nearby St. Louis in 1948. Philanthropists and black citizens united to remodel, expand, and reopen the Grant School in 1950 as the Marshall Street Community Center. It had a large kitchen, a lending library, an auditorium/ballroom, a multi-purpose game room, and an outdoor basketball court. The center hosted plays, concerts, dances, wedding receptions, sports programs, preschool, a range of everyday activities, and, with the churches, was the heart of the black community. On the west end of Middleburg, black builders constructed frame houses on a slope named Windy Hill, and across Rt. 50, the three-story stone house called Hole-In-the-Wall. In 1961, in response to pressure from the NAACP and an upcoming visit by President John F. Kennedy, black and white leaders met and agreed to integrate public facilities in the town. For more detail see Destination Middleburg: A Walking Tour Into the Past.