Community center renamed to honor Minnie Peyton, the matriarch of Springdale

Descendants of Minnie Peyton, residents of the Springdale community, and Fairfax County officials cheered as a new sign was unveiled designating the Bailey’s Community Center as the Minnie H. Peyton Community Center at Bailey’s.

Minnie Peyton (1889-1985) was the matriarch of Springdale, a historically Black community in Bailey’s Crossroads.

“We called her Ma Peyton,” said Willie Coleman, at a ceremony designating the name change on Sept. 14. Coleman, president of the Springdale Civic Association, was one of the leaders of the effort to rename the community center for Minnie Peyton.

Coleman recalled the time when residents of Springdale had to make do with dirt roads full of mud puddles, outdoor toilets, and kerosene lamps.

“But there was love in this community. There were people like Ma Peyton,” he said. “Ma Peyton set a fine example. She taught us we could be greater than our circumstances.”

In 1928, Minnie and her sister Florence agreed to buy five acres of land in Springdale, paying the owner $20 a month for six years. Each sister sold 1.5 acres to the Fairfax County School Board in 1954 for the building of a school.

Related story: A local Black community honors its history

The Lillian Carey Elementary School was built in 1957 and served the community’s Black children until 1963 when Fairfax County schools were integrated.

That building, currently adjacent to the community center, houses the Higher Horizons Head Start center.

Alyce Pope, the great-granddaughter of Minnie Peyton, has been an educator at Higher Horizons for 42 years.

“I’m blessed to be an educator. Education runs in my DNA,” Pope said. Her great grandfather was a slave in Stafford County, Va., and made his way to Freedom Village, where Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon are now. He worked for the Post Office and went to Howard University.

Pope’s great-grandparents were among the many Freedom Village residents who relocated to the Springdale area, where they urged Fairfax County to build a school and a community center.

The key question is “How are the children?” Pope said. “Without public education, what is our society going to look like?”

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay lauded county officials for “making sure that in our One Fairfax world we are actually celebrating the complete history of Fairfax County.”

“That includes reckoning with that history and challenging ourselves on how we can do better,” McKay said. “And that means honoring people who you won’t find in the standard history books.”

“Young people are going to come to his center and say, ‘Who is Minnie Peyton?’ That is exactly what we want them to do,” McKay said. “We want them to learn about somebody that might have changed their lives – somebody they might not have read about – but now have the opportunity to learn about.”

The community center hosts sports and other activities for children, a senior center, and programs for teens.

Related story: BoS considers renaming the Bailey’s Community Center for Minnie Peyton

Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez told the crowd that his predecessor, Penny Gross, advocated for changing the name of the community center to honor Minnie Peyton. The Board of Supervisors endorsed the name change last fall.

More than 150 community members participated in a survey on their preference for the exact wording. “Minnie H. Peyton Community Center at Bailey’s” got the most votes.