Library board renames the Woodrow Wilson Library the Culmore Community Library
The Fairfax County Library Board of Trustees voted on July 10 to rename the Woodrow Wilson Library the Culmore Community Library.
That was the original name of the library before the board decided to rename it for President Wilson in 1960.
Over the past few months, the Library Board received numerous comments from the community urging the board to change the name citing Wilson’s support for racial segregation.
Changing the name to Culmore Community Library was done in response to those comments, said Board of Trustees Chair Suzanne Levy. It also reflects the board’s policy to name libraries for geographic locations.
Related story: New name proposed for Wilson Library
The Wilson Library, located at 6101 Knollwood Drive, is in the center of the highly diverse Culmore neighborhood.
Changing the library’s name will cost about $6,000 for new signage, Levy said. The board hasn’t set a timeline for carrying out the name change.
When the county first considered a library branch in Bailey’s Crossroads in the early 1950s, it was referred to as the “Culmore-Bailey’s Crossroads Library” or “Culmore-Bailey’s Library,” states a report on the library’s history.
The Culmore library opened in a vacant storefront in the Culmore Shopping Center on Leesburg Pike in 1961. It subsequently moved to bigger spaces twice in that shopping center before moving to its current location in 1967.
7 responses to “Library board renames the Woodrow Wilson Library the Culmore Community Library”
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Great. Now time to rename the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. How about one of the founding fathers, Lincoln, Eisenhower. Or if you don’t want to use presidents, how about Maj. John Gross Barnard, who was in charge of the defensive fortifications of Washington DC during the civil war. If you don’t want to use people, how about the Jones Point Bridge or the DMV bridge since it crossed DC, MD, and VA land.
Humans are overrated. I vote for the name of animals, plants, and other natural objects. Cat library, dog library, bear library, sunflower library, chameleon library, dandelion library – so much more fun!! (Sigh…)
I think this is a great change. It better reflects the community and addresses its concerns, but it also should make using the FFX library system a little easier. Many of the county libraries are named for people — Dolley Madison, Richard Byrd, Thomas Jefferson — so if I’m interested in an event, it’s not immediately clear where it’s located without a little extra digging.
We aren’t renaming Thomas Jefferson.
Stop trying to rename everything just because it offends you. You’d have to do a whole lot of renaming if you don’t like people’s past.
You can’t just erase the past. Things happened and Thomas Jefferson helped form this country
Commenter: The historical figure naming convention makes it harder to find libraries than place-based names. This might be a good change.
Response: Stop being offended!
When “making anything slightly easier, for anyone, at any time” is labeled “woke,” I fail to see how people are supposed to accept that it’s an insult (assuming that they ever did).
How much does it cost to build a new sign in the front of the library? The current one is made of granite and the letters etched into the front. What happens to the old one? Obviously, we can’t donate it to another WW library. Are there any in the world to donate it to? I would imagine this is going to cost way more than a headstone for a cemetery.
Easy solution – fill in the existing letters with grout. Assuming the back is not engraved with the name, flip it around and engrave the new name. Viola! Not expensive.