1st Woman President in the Americas

Gym at Blackstone Campus

Years ago I was at a Methodist Conference Center in Blackstone, VA, for a weekend. The main building was, hmmm, I don’t really have the words, let’s say almost “grand.” Huge classrooms with high ceilings, wide, street like hallways, a palatial entryway, dozens of dormitory rooms, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, etc. Quite a place, but a place that when I was there, had seen better days.

In its early days, the complex was home to the Blackstone College for Girls which was a feeder for Randolph Macon College for girls in Lynchburg. Two Blackstone College alumnae became famous, one was Bea Arthur, best known for her portrayal of Maude in “The Golden Girls” and “All in the Family.” The other woman, not so well known in the US, is Violeta Chamoro, elected President of Nicaragua from 1990 until 1997. Chamorro was the first woman elected to a presidency in all of the Americas. She’d gone to Blackstone for a short time before the school closed in 1950.

The campus was purchased by the Methodist Church and operated as a conference center for many years until it closed in 2016. Just a few months ago, after a major renovation, it reopened as the Inn at Blackstone. Looking at the images on their website, it looks like they’ve captured the grandeur of the building.

My images are from February 2016, just months before the place was shuttered. I wandered about the campus at sunrise and into unused sections of the buildings. The top image is from the running track that circled above the basketball court. The bottom image is the front of the building, where the main entrance used to be.

Sports has always been an observation thing for me and standing in this old building’s gym was no different…I imagined all the energy used by the young women on the basketball court and track. Natsukashii.

Blackstone Campus