Powhatan's Holiday Market Sets Up in a Building the County Hasn't Decided to Keep

Where in Powhatan can you shop a Christmas craft show, play pickleball on a weekday morning, and walk through a museum of local history, all under one roof at 4290 Anderson Highway? The answer is the Pocahontas Landmark Center, a campus that started as a high school in 1937. Between late November and mid-December it will host two of the county's holiday shopping events.

Those events land in the middle of an open question. On September 28, 2026, the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors approved a feasibility study that will lay out options for the campus, from keeping and reusing it to tearing it down. The study doesn't stop at the empty wings everyone has argued about. It reaches the gym where the Holiday Market sets up, because the campus runs as one connected building.

What the Landmark Center Holds This Season

Holiday shopping starts on Saturday, November 21, with the Craft & Create Christmas Show, running 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with free admission.

In December, Powhatan Village's Farmer's Market brings its 4th Annual Holiday Market to the Parks and Recreation Gymnasium. The Visit Powhatan listing puts it on Saturday, December 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It names food trucks Brekkie Waffles and River City Wood Fire Pizza, live music by Simply Us, more than 30 local vendors selling crafts, baked goods, candies and meats, a Kid Zone with crafts, and a gingerbread house contest among county departments that the public votes on. The county's own calendar lists the market for Friday, December 11, from 4 to 7 p.m. Check the market's page before you load the car.

The building stays busy between the two events. Through the cold months, Powhatan Parks and Recreation runs pickleball open gym Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon, November through March. Three courts go first come, first served, and a drop-in is $3 or a ten-session pass is $25. The facility calendar also lists walking sessions, adaptive open gym, after-school hoops and other classes running into early December.

The Powhatan African American Cultural Arts Museum shares the same addition. It preserves artifacts, photographs and records, with a focus on the Pocahontas School System. Its posted hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with tours by appointment. Confirm before you visit.

A 1937 School With a State Marker Out Front

The museum's subject is the building itself. The Virginia Historical Highway Marker installed on the site in 2015, whose text the Richmond Times-Dispatch published at its dedication, reads in part:

"In 1937 on this site the county built a brick high school for African Americans at a cost of about $40,000. The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, a New Deal agency, granted $18,000 for the project... The building was named Pocahontas High School in 1941 and Pocahontas Middle School in 1969, when county schools were desegregated."

The campus grew around that first building. The county's May 2026 request for proposals for the study describes Wing A as the part people use every day. The original 1937 section was renovated in 2019 and now houses Powhatan County school administration staff. A 1992 addition of about 19,500 square feet, joined to the original by a covered walkway, holds the museum in front and Parks and Recreation in back, including the former middle school gym and locker rooms. Wing B, built in the 1940s as the campus elementary school, covers about 18,175 square feet and has stood empty for several years.

How a Demolition Plan Turned Into a Study

In August 2025, the school board voted 3-2 to move ahead with tearing down Wings B, C and D and keeping Wing A. WRIC reported that the reasons included severe water and mold damage, asbestos and other safety concerns flagged in a 2023 engineering assessment. In September 2025, the Board of Supervisors unanimously denied the school board's demolition permit.

The two boards then agreed to study the campus together. WRIC covered the February 23, 2026 vote, where board chairman Bill Donati said, "This [study] will put us in a position where we can get all of the data in front of the community."

At the September 28 meeting, supervisors voted 3-2 to award a $192,000 contract to Glavé & Holmes Architecture of Richmond. Steve McClung, Barbara Brown and Donati voted yes. Mark Kinney and the board's fifth member, Mr. Powers, voted no. According to the meeting minutes, the school board had approved the contract on September 8, and county staff said work could begin in early October. The contract runs about nine months.

Neal Wright, the firm's project manager, laid out four phases:

1. Research and site investigation, starting with an environmental check for asbestos, lead, water quality and air quality
2. Community and stakeholder input
3. Concept planning
4. Final deliverables, including three concept options, from retention and reuse to demolition, each with a cost estimate

Donati told the board the 2023 study never said the buildings had to come down. It found demolition was the cheaper option, and he said that point "got muddied over the years." Brown said people in her district care deeply about the building and connect it to their history. McClung pointed to the packed meeting room as proof of community support and said the building matters to every district, even though it sits in District 5.

Why the Gym Is Part of the Study

The longest debate that night was over scope. Kinney and Powers said they understood the study would cover only the wings the school board had wanted to tear down. County staff answered that the entire complex is part of the study.

The reason is the plumbing. County administrator Mr. Hagy explained that the campus is heated and cooled mostly by boilers and chillers sending hot and cold water through all the buildings, not by moving air. McClung described a hot water loop that runs through one building and ties into the next, so the whole campus has to be evaluated to know what can stay. He added that remediation will be needed whether the buildings are saved or torn down.

That puts the rooms residents actually use, the museum, the Parks and Rec offices and the gym, inside the study's scope. Wright said the occupied 1937 and 1992/1998 portions are still in use, and that evaluating them is part of the job. The first environmental assessment takes two days and will cover the occupied spaces first. Hagy said the county believes the mold is in the unoccupied part of the building and will move quickly if the consultant finds it affects occupied areas. About $900,000 in debt the county took on for the earlier demolition plan is available for any remediation the study turns up.

Because community input is one of the four phases, the public will get a turn while the study runs.

The Rest of December, and the Program That Already Moved

One holiday tradition has already left the campus. The Powhatan Christmas Mother, a volunteer program that has provided food and gifts to local families and older residents since 1967, used to run out of the Landmark Center. In September 2025, WRIC reported that it had received keys to a new space, also on Anderson Highway, while the debate over the building went on.

The 2026 Powhatan Christmas Mother is Mary Ellen Freer, owner of DeSigns by Mary Ellen and a board member of the Powhatan Chamber of Commerce. The program takes requests to adopt a family, child or older person, plus volunteer sign-ups for setting up the gift room, sorting, wrapping and delivering, at [email protected]. Checks can go to Powhatan Christmas Mother, P.O. Box 461, Powhatan, VA 23139.

The program's biggest day is at the courthouse. Every vendor fee and entry fee for the Powhatan County Christmas Parade goes to the Christmas Mother. Booths on the courthouse green cost $30. Parade entries cost $25, or $100 for car groups of more than six vehicles. Registration closes at 60 entries or on November 20, whichever comes first. Luck Stone Corporation is sponsoring this year's parade.

Fine Creek's Somewhereness Festival serves beer, cider and wine made with Virginia-grown ingredients, along with food, music and floral vendors. Quarterfield's Christkindl markets have outdoor vendors, food trucks, a live nativity and activities for kids.

If you go to the parade, Old Buckingham Road through the Courthouse closes until the parade ends. Don't park inside the closed area if you need to leave early. Other parking includes the grassy areas left of and behind the Rescue Squad building, the Powhatan Village Building, the athletic fields behind the County Administration Building, and the administration building lot. Some businesses and churches may open their lots too. Disabled parking is next to the food vendor lot, first come, first served. Santa will be at the park gazebo starting around noon, and he'll be back after the parade.

The Glavé & Holmes study is expected to run into next summer, so the Landmark Center will host this whole holiday season before any of its three options reaches the boards.

Hank and Patti have spent decades watching Powhatan's landmarks change hands, change uses and sometimes change shape, and we keep track of these decisions because they shape the county around your home. If you'd like to talk through what's going on near your property, or want a current number to plan with, call Hank Cosby directly or get your instant home valuation.