“We want to be able to get together and enjoy the history the center has brought to Middletown,” Mitchell said.
Dubbed the Community Center Reunion, Kimbrough said he hopes the event will “put a light” on the center and the possibilities of what it can be for the community again.
“We want to bring it back to what it used to be,” said the one-time director of the center from June 1968 until June 1969.
The center is one of the only forms of recreational activity and quality of life amenities offered by the city since it eliminated its recreational department a few years ago. It also serves as an educational resource for Middletown by offering computer classes, tutoring, college information, sewing classes, arts and crafts, and the Parent Resource Center.
The center in the 1970s had thousands of youths and adults every month participating sports like basketball or boxing, or taking advantage of some educational opportunity, such as tutoring or some type of class. Today, the center serves about 500 children and adults each month for those recreational and educational opportunities. The center also has hundreds of monthly visitors for planned events, such as parties and meetings.
A time, date and agenda for the Community Center Reunion is still being worked out, Mitchell and Kimbrough said.
Armco’s board of directors appropriated funds in 1941 to build a “community house” near Douglass Park for the black community of Middletown, according to research by Abdul Shakur Ahmad.
The center was built and dedicated in 1942 by Armco President George M. Verity, who died less than a month after the dedication. The center was paid for by members of Armco’s union of black workers, which was called the Colored Community Association. Money was appropriated out of every CCA member’s paycheck until the city took ownership of the center in September 1968.
“They were the ones who took money out of their paychecks so I can have a good time as a teenager,” said Mitchell, who also worked at Armco, the predecessor of AK Steel.
The center was renamed by the city after Middletown’s former mayor, the late Robert “Sonny” Hill Jr., died in November 2009.
About the Author
