{"id":73984,"date":"2026-08-17T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/73984\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:17:16","slug":"after-decades-of-false-starts-berlin-community-center-feels-finally-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/73984\/","title":{"rendered":"After decades of false starts, Berlin community center feels \u2018finally real\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching the old community center on Flower Street<\/a> come down in May was troubling to some Berlin residents. To others, it was a sign of progress.<\/p>\n

After at least a decade of meetings, debate and false starts, plans to replace the crumbling building with a modern, inclusive community center are moving forward. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s visit Thursday to present a ceremonial $1.4 million check punctuated that progress.<\/p>\n

“To be there with the senator, it makes it finally real,” DJ Lockwood, president of the Berlin Community Improvement Association, said. “It was definitely a humbling and uplifting experience.”<\/p>\n

The Flower Street property’s history stretches back nearly a century. It was once home to a small schoolhouse serving Berlin’s Black community during segregation. A multipurpose building later hosted community dances, weddings and generations of children through the local Head Start program.<\/p>\n

But the building fell into disuse and disrepair.<\/p>\n

Lockwood, whose parents attended school at the site, began working on redevelopment plans more than a decade ago. He recalled walking the property in 2017 with Zack Tyndall, then a councilman and now Berlin’s mayor.<\/p>\n

Years of discussion produced little visible progress.<\/p>\n

“After a while, you start to become numb,” Lockwood said.<\/p>\n

That changed over the past year as funding and other pieces of the project began falling into place. Still, the May demolition stirred mixed emotions. Younger residents generally saw movement, Lockwood said, while some older residents feared losing a place central to their lives.<\/p>\n

“You see a building that you have pride in, that you enjoyed, rot to the ground. That doesn’t feel too good,” he said. “To me, it was progress. To some of the elders from our community, it took something from them.”<\/p>\n

One reaction helped ease his concerns.<\/p>\n

Leola Smack, 92, attended school at the site, later taught there and met her future husband, John Dale Smack, there as a child. She supported moving ahead, Lockwood said, including demolishing the deteriorated building.<\/p>\n

“If anyone should have been upset, she should have been one,” Lockwood said. “But she was 100% ‘Let’s get it done.’ That’s all I needed \u2014 to hear from Ms. Smack.”<\/p>\n

Van Hollen said the project reflects both the site’s beginnings during segregation and the progress made since.<\/p>\n

“You get a sense of how this requires everybody in the community coming together and pushing in the same direction,” he said last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Town officials credited Van Hollen and U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks with securing funding. Van Hollen also thanked the office of U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, for helping advance the effort.<\/p>\n

The proposed center would house Shore Up!’s Head Start program, programs for children and families, computer labs, recreational space and a museum devoted to the site and neighborhood.<\/p>\n

For now, the cleared property is a grassy field marked by a sign promising the “Future Home of the Berlin Community Center.” But residents and project leaders see what could rise there.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to coming back one day when this vision rises out of the ground,” Van Hollen said. “This is a place for everybody to come together.”<\/p>\n

The town will use the $1.4 million to complete design and engineering work and make the project “shovel ready,” Tyndall said. Officials will then seek private donations and additional grants for construction. The full master plan was previously estimated at $30 million.<\/p>\n

Have a news tip? Contact Eastern Shore bureau chief Josh Davis at jdavis@baltsun.com<\/a> or on X as @JoshDavis4Shore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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