The Potter’s House Making a Comeback

The Potter’s House Making a Comeback

By Pat Reilly

The Potter’s House in The Plains is now a run-down building surrounded by a low wall that barely separates it from Loudoun Avenue near the corner of Route 55.

For more than 15 years, bags of donated clothing and furniture were available on Saturdays free of charge to anyone in need. The house served the “hidden” part of the community, as First Baptist Pastor Timothy Ahl Sr. explained, and threw its light far and wide like a beacon of hope. Then Covid and a lack of repairs shut it down last November.

At the time, few knew that a permanent facility is being planned that will be a source of pride for the community, and a welcoming place for other nonprofits and volunteers.

The old house, believed to be the first owned by an African-American in the town, will come down and in its footprint will be a memorial garden. A multipurpose building with graceful, open porches will rise back from the road. A wooded walkway will lead to a quiet place with a pavilion amid striking natural beauty with birds and other wildlife to attract quests.

The mission also will expand, with counseling, self-development classes and mental health care. The

The Potter’s House is going be dramatically different following a major renovation after a groundbreaking this spring

food pantry “Peas and Grace” from nearby Grace Episcopal Church will join the repurposing of items the Women of Worship from First Baptist Church have always provided.

Pastor Ahl said the new facility is estimated to cost $3 million, but he’s certain that with continuing community generosity, they’ll break ground in May. A neighbor, John B. Adams Jr., has already donated contiguous land. A Grace congregation member enlisted an architect friend from Charlottesville to join the project.

Pastor Ahl calls the Rev. Weston Mathews at Grace Church a “jewel, an ally and an asset” to the project. A board has transitioned from the ad hoc committee that envisioned the plan.

One of the Women of Worship who started the Potter’s House mission is the current coordinator, Carolyn Colbert. She and her husband, John, are constantly on call to people in need of anything the mission can provide.

“I hope and pray what we continue to do won’t change,” she said. “People give us so much and it’s been such a blessing. It’s a joy just to see people’s faces. I don’t get tired doing this; I do it in my sleep.” She also has “four wonderful ladies who help.”

Over several weekends before Christmas, they worked from the porch with no heat, water or indoor plumbing. One Saturday, children were invited to shop for gifts for their parents, wrapped and giftbagged by volunteers from both churches. The next weekend, parents shopped for the children. Pastor Ahl estimated 1,000 people came, adding that 80 percent of Potter’s House clients are Hispanic, the other 20 percent African American and Caucasian.

“These are the people that work the farms around here,” he said.

Neighboring businesses, such as Baileywyck Antiques and the Front Porch restaurant, have contributed gift cards and toys for the special programs. And now, he’s urging the community to help support the transformation of this beloved and important institution.

For more information, go to tfbctheplains.org and look for the Potter’s House page.