LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 13 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Travel ban prompts airport protests
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Feb. 2 – 8, 2017 ]
With Metro in Sight, Loudoun Rethinks School Construction BY DANIELLE NADLER
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Real estate agent Sean Dunn stands in front of the old Weona Villa Motel in Round Hill. It has been closed since 2007 but now, under new ownership, could be a sought-after destination once again.
Sale Expected to Bring New Life to Iconic Motel BY JOHN MCNEILLY
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hen word got out three weeks ago that the long-vacant, eight-room Weona Villa Motel near Round Hill was for sale, social media exploded with curiosity. Sean Dunn, the owner and lead broker of Purcellville’s Fieldstone Real Estate, who’s managing the motel’s sale, had posted about the Weona on his business’s Facebook page on Jan. 13 to get in front of the official listing announcement the following week. Within three days, he had received several solid offers from potential buyers. And after six days, the property was officially under contract. “The response was truly overwhelming,” Dunn said. His office received hundreds of calls and
emails inquiring about the 63-year-old motel, and his Facebook post was shared 88 times. “It clearly shows how special the property is, and how important the Weona Villa remains to western Loudoun,” he said. Few seemed to know the entire story behind the empty though well-maintained Weona Villa Motel, located on Rt. 7 Business just east of Round Hill. Several folks speculated online about the motel’s mysteriously long vacancy. Some said they heard it was haunted—that a person had been murdered there and a ghost aimlessly roamed the property— but the property’s heirs say that isn’t true. One person wrote that the motel rooms, decked out in ’50s vintage chic, chillingly remained exactly as they were since the day the place closed nearly a decade ago (which, as it turns out, is true). But according to a family heir of the property, the full story behind the historic
property is anything but scary or macabre. Jack Harper, a highly regarded, recently retired Boston TV reporter and the coheir of the motel has fond memories of the property that his aunt and uncle, Dorothy and Bob Harper, built and opened in 1954. The couple ran the motel until it was unceremoniously closed in 2007, following Bob’s death. Jack Harper remembers hearing that his father wasn’t an early believer in the motel. When Bob shared with his older brother his idea to close his nearby gas station to instead build and run a motel in off-thebeaten-path Round Hill, Jack’s dad said it “was crazy and would never work.” Not only did it work, it flourished. From the time Bob Harper had his seven-acre, six-room motel (two larger rooms were added in the 1980s) and private MOTEL SALE >> 12
If there’s one thing Loudoun County knows how to do well, it’s school construction. The school system has built and opened 21 school buildings in the past decade. In 2010, the construction team adopted ready-made prototypes for elementary, middle and high school designs to bring down costs and speed up construction, as it worked to keep pace with unprecedented enrollment growth. But now, the coming Metro stations brings a push toward urban community designs and school system leaders might have to rethink what a typical Loudoun County school looks like. As county supervisors plan for what type of homes, retail, office space, and, yes, schools will surround the future Metro stations, they are asking members of the Loudoun County School Board and the schools’ construction department to get ready to think creatively. “For many reasons modern, town center-style school sites are definitely something we have to consider,” said Supervisor Ron A. Meyer Jr. (R-Broad Run), who represents the part of the county that will include the Loudoun Gateway and Ashburn stations and land near Innovation Center station. School leaders have described the potential new model as “Metro schools.” The county staff has called them “urban-style schools.” Whatever the term, the idea is for elementary, middle or high school to have several stories and less open space, plus modified designs to allow for some parking and fields. Schools like this will definitely be needed as Metro’s extension into Loudoun County comes online in 2020, according to a report from consultant MTFA Architecture. Two major developments, Waterside and The Hub, already have been approved near SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION >> 34
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