New “Green” Visitor Center Features Recycled Materials

At the recent ribbon cutting ceremony for the new “green” visitor center at the Temple Hall Farm Regional Park, Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) Board President Brian Knapp highlighted the new center’s LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. 

NVRPA achieved this certification in part because they used recycled local building materials in the center’s construction. The Town of Leesburg donated lumber and stone from two barns on the former Kincaid Farm property in Leesburg for the new visitor center.

In 2003, the NVRPA received a bequest from the estate of A. V. Symingtion that made construction of the visitor center possible. Mrs. Symington also bequeathed funds to the Town of Leesburg and those funds were used to construct the indoor tennis courts and outdoor pool at Ida Lee Park.

The Temple Hall Farm Visitor Center ribbon cutting ceremony took place under the center’s open-air pavilion that features recycled framing timbers from the two barns.  In addition to the framing timbers, wood from the barns was used for siding on the outside of center’s main building and for paneling and trim inside the center’s main meeting room. Stone from the barn’s foundations were used to construct retaining walls. A plaque noting the donation will be installed at the center.

“The reuse of the Kincaid Farm barn materials was a great partnership,” said John Creamer, the Town of Leesburg’s utility maintenance manager, who led the recycling effort. “The Town saved probably $18,000 in demolition and disposal costs, the Park Authority achieved LEED certification for their visitor center, and the history of Kincaid Farm has been preserved for future generations.”

The two Kincaid Farm barns (picture attached) stood on property adjacent to the Town’s Water Pollution Control Facility, near the present day intersection of Route 7 and Battlefield Parkway. The Town purchased the property in 2002 for the construction of a new Utilities Maintenance Facility, which was completed in 2008.