SerpApi.Org
Within a few years, it appears, a building that has stood in Old Town Manassas since 1908 will be no more.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted Tuesday to authorize a change order for the judicial center expansion project in Manassas, greenlighting the demolition of the adjacent Old Bennett School on the soon-to-be upgraded courthouse grounds.
The board voted 7-1 in favor of the change order, with Gainesville District Supervisor George Stewart casting the lone dissenting vote. Stewart pulled the Bennett School agenda item from the board's consent agenda for further discussion during Tuesday's meeting.
Concerns for county taxpayers dominated the discussion on the dais, with several supervisors lamenting a lack of participation from the city of Manassas in the school's preservation efforts.
According to a county staff presentation from a May 13 meeting of the county's Joint Interjurisdictional Ad Hoc Committee with leaders from the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, Bennett School renovation costs – including a 25% contingency fund – would amount to about $46.9 million, with an additional $7.5 million for relocation and construction of a new foundation, elevating the total to $56.25 million.
"True preservation isn't about leaving a building … boarded up and abandoned," Coles Supervisor Yesli Vega said, referencing concerns of asbestos, lead, paint and black mold on the premises. "Our staff is thorough."
Efforts to commemorate and memorialize the Bennett School as part of the renovated judicial center will still proceed, however.
According to county documents, "The county has received a proposal from Dewberry Architects for $315,141 to incorporate into the design of the Judicial Center Expansion project appropriate significant architectural pieces, as well as to create an exhibit with an interactive experience, with the goal of memorializing the Bennett School."
An ongoing debate
The board majority met some resistance from city residents during Tuesday's public comment.
Colin Turner, a Manassas resident who for months has spearheaded the Facebook campaign to preserve the Bennett School, said there were more questions than answers following the vote. Turner is running for Manassas City Council as an independent this fall.
"There's nothing routine or non-controversial about taking formal steps toward demolishing the 117-year-old Bennett School," Turner said, emphasizing his displeasure with the change order's fastracked inclusion on the meeting's consent agenda. "There are at least two reported burials on the Bennett School site, [and] county staff still have not explained what happens if the commonwealth determines those graves cannot be removed."
Built in 1908, the Bennett School was erected over the discovered graves of unknown Civil War soldiers. It served as an elementary school from 1909 through 1969. Tuesday was the 165th anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of First Manassas – which took place on July 21, 1861.
Viewed as an African American landmark, the facility was one of county's first "Freedom of Choice" schools in 1965 amid public school desegregation efforts following the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954.
After it stopped operations as a school, the building was used for county operations and eventually storage, but it's now been vacant for decades.
Because the school is not included on the Virginia Landmarks Register or National Register of Historic Places, demolition does not require approval from the commonwealth's Department of Historic Resources as part of the judicial center expansion project.
In May, Preservation Virginia, a statewide nonprofit, announced the Bennett School was listed on its 2026 list of "Virginia's Most Endangered Places."
Board Chair Deshundra Jefferson said the $56.25 million price tag on county taxpayers would be "too high a cost" and added the county needs to be "rational and pragmatic about it."
Woodbridge Supervisor Jeannie LaCroix said county clerks are "cramped up," noting her former role as a court reporter in stressing the pressing need for space for the county's courthouse operations.
"It's just packed," LaCroix said. "I don't think we have a choice."
Rick Canizales, Prince William County's director of transportation and capital construction, said demolition would take about a year once initiated, with the entire process lasting about "30 months" given likely delays.
Ground penetrating radar and GeoTech analyses are also commencing, Eric Brunner, the county's assistant director of capital construction, told the board.
