To some passing motorists on Route 140 in Finksburg, it still looks out of place.
“When I drove by it for the first time, I thought, ?What the hell is that?? ” said Jim Johnson, president of the Finksburg Planning and Citizens? Council.
The bold Georgian architecture of Gerstell Academy?s Robert E. Smith Hall stands in marked contrast to the other structures ? mostly modest homes and businesses ? that line Old Westminster Pike.
Modeled on the style used at the University of Virginia, the hall rests at the heart of Gerstell?s 260-acre campus.
Thomas Jefferson, U.Va.?s founder, is a personification of the style of leadership that is celebrated every day at Gerstell, a coed private school, which develops “leaders with strong character by educating students to think critically, to develop self-confidence and to respond to the needs of others,” according to its mission statement.
“Jefferson was a Renaissance man ? an author, planner and linguist, plus he was athletic,” said Frederick Smith, who founded Gerstell Academy in 1996. The school will eventually enroll students in grades K-12, though currently it only has enrollment through sixth grade.
The imposing Robert E. Smith Hall, which holds a life-size bronze sculpture of Jefferson in its main lobby, now holds Gerstell?s nearly 140 students.
Far less familiar to passing motorists is what Smith has planned for Gerstell?s campus in the future.
Construction has begun on an approximately 65,000-square-foot sports complex, which will include basketball courts, exercise and weight-training rooms, 10 classrooms and a multipurpose room.
Construction will also begin soon on a new cafeteria. A planned middle school, upper school and fine arts center will someday border the campus? main quad directly behind the 56,000-square-foot main hall, which will eventually only hold the lower school.
“We will have upward of 750,000 square feet when it?s all complete,” said Smith, who added that there is no firm completion date for all of the buildings and sources of funding for construction have not been finalized.
While conceding that Gerstell?s aesthetics are “out of context” with anything else in the community, Johnson said, “We support their educational objectives and would like to understand more about their future plans so we can have a cooperative relationship with them in the future.”
