On Sept. 21, 2020, the Clark House was officially opened as Longwood’s intercultural center, creating space for students to learn about each other and explore their differences. Located on Main Street behind Pierson Hall, the center became a home for National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) organizations and a place to study and lounge for all students.
However, while the Clark House serves as an important resource and space on campus today, the memories that reside within the walls reach further back than many realize.
Dr. Theresa Clark, a since-retired social work faculty member and department chair, served the Longwood community for 30 years. Dr. Clark, along with her husband Lorenzo Clark, both grew up in Farmville – experiencing the full impacts of the 1959 Prince Edward County school closures in response to desegregation.
As the Clarks settled down together in Farmville in the 1980’s, they built their House in the heart of Farmville – just a short walk from Longwood’s campus.
Megan Clark, their youngest daughter who now serves Prince Edward County as commonwealth’s attorney, described what it was like growing up in the home during her time there. She lived in the house until she was 6-years-old.
Though her family no longer owns the house, Megan still finds peace within the current use of it, “I’m happy about it,” she said. “I will tell you that when Longwood started expanding, I was always under the impression that the house was going to get torn down. That, of course, made me sad, but I also understand the growth of campus.”
“When they decided to keep it, of course, one, that made me happy, but two, when they decided to keep it and use it for multicultural affairs that made me even more happy,” Megan said.
However, she joked that not everything about the current state of the house was to her liking. “What I’m not happy about is that my old bedroom is the Deltas’ [Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.] room. It made me a little sad to see that,” she said, laughing. Megan, as well as her older sister and mother, are members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
Shelly Clark-Reed, Megan’s older sister and the Clarks’ eldest daughter, now works as a principal at Prince Edward County Middle School. Clark-Reed, like her sister, reminisced over fond memories of the Clark House.
“I had a fabulous childhood, and my home was all I knew,” she said. Unlike her sister, she got to live in the home until she was 12-or-13-years-old. She said loved coming back to their well-organized and well-kept home, as her mother always kept it.
Clark-Reed recounted her mother’s tableware parties when family, friends, and sorority sisters would come to attend. She said some of her fondest memories revolve around her mother’s cooking.
“My mother was given an award a few years ago, and they asked me to do her intro on video, and I said that my mother could make literally boiled water taste good,” she joked. Clark-Reed said these dinners would often fill the halls with the delightful smell of a home cooked meal – though with the caveat they would all wait for everyone to be home before eating, a rule that set in stone by her mother
Dr. Clark, who is now retired, focused on the meaning of family and living in the first home she had built with her husband Lorenzo Clark as an excited young couple.
During that time, she worked for Longwood University as the first full-time Director of Minority Affairs, so her students and her family would often interact. “We would carve out pumpkins and put them on the deck, the next morning they’d be gone. The next morning, they would be back with notes in them because the students had taken them and done some things to them to make my children happy,” she said.
Shortly after, Dr. Clark applied for a new position as a Human Services Social Worker for the university, eventually becoming an Associate Professor of Social Work. She valued the growth of her children at a very young age, discussing how Megan learned how to walk and talk in the house.
When she came home from work, she said she was “happy for the family to come together, and we all did what I thought a family was supposed to do. I came in and prepared dinner, no one ate without the other, so my children would have to wait until my husband came home.”
Dr. Clark also remembered finishing her master's degree while in the home, as well as even starting her doctorate in what she described as “...challenging times, to say the least.”
“Everything in our house centered around raising our children, trying to do it right, serving the community, and education while we were there,” she said.
Eventually, the Clark family left the house. Dr. Clark said, “There were mixed feelings, happy and sad. Happy there was going to be some distance between my employment, my profession, and my home. However, after leaving there, even today, I realize those were some of the best times of my life.”
Dr. Clark retired from Longwood University in 2018, but is still serving her community to the best of her ability. However, she is now prioritizing her rest. Regardless, Dr. Clark's contributions to the Longwood and Farmville communities continue to manifest themselves through the ongoing service of the Clark Family, and the Clark House’s significance to students today.
