married Elizabeth Noland , the ferry owner ’ s daughter , and purchased property from her father in 1785 . The couple ’ s sons and grandsons built homes and stores on three corners of the intersection of what was then Noland ’ s Ferry Road and the old Carolina Road . By 1880 , it had become known as Luckett ’ s Cross Roads .
By the late 1880s Samuel Luckett secured a post office , and by the turn of the century a mill and blacksmith shop opened . Roger Luckett built the current Lucketts store on the northeast corner in 1912 . In 1914 the Lucketts School was built on the southeast corner .
Mae Arnold Luckett , who continued running the Lucketts Store and post office after her husband Roger ’ s death in about 1948 , was known to accommodate farmers and others a bit late in posting a payment for a bill and quietly backdate the postal stamp , so the payment was not officially late .
Celebrity alert ! President Ronald Reagan ’ s wife Nancy Reagan was a Luckett .
The closure of the store , the loss of the post office and other commercial concerns , and the closure of the Lucketts school
Mrs . Luckett kept the post office open until 1960 . Courtesy Thomas Balch Library , remastered by James P . Lucier
( with elementary students attending a new brick school next door ), left some of its historic structures vacant . But the village remained the community ’ s center , with farmers jumping off their tractors to answer the call of the Volunteer Firehouse siren . Locals practiced on the baseball field for the next Loudoun community league game and children laughed and played at recess outside the new school .
Preservation
A strong local preservationist community of long-time residents , and more recent transplants , have joined together over the years to protect cherished community assets .
The old Lucketts School , which was first a high school and then an elementary school , closed in 1971 when the new school opened . Over time , the old school deteriorated , and citizens took action . They united to raise funds for its renovation and secured its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 . It became the Lucketts Community Center . In 2014 it underwent extensive renovation , completed in time for its 100th anniversary . Today daycare and after school programs again bring children through its doors , and the auditorium fills for community meetings as well as concerts .
Citizens in the late 1980s rallied to stop a proposed Outer Beltway from plowing through the village . And in the 1990s and early 2000s they successfully fought proposed housing developments on its western side . When “ for sale ” signs again appeared on one of those western parcels in 2017 , citizens and the Lucketts Ruritan Club mobilized . The parcel now is under a permanent conservation easement , and is owned by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy , which is reestablishing wetlands in its fragile limestone karst geology .
Mrs . Luckett ’ s Store remained a sad and neglected building — with a beautiful wisteria vine covering its southern side with spring blooms , as its tendrils pried their way into the structure — until 1996 , when Suzanne Eblen and her husband Pat bought and renovated the building . Today more than 35 antique dealers share in the prosperity that the renovated building has brought to the village .
The future
Lucketts and the National Scenic Byway face new threats . New suburban-style development along the corridor has ballooned traffic volumes south of Lucketts ( with 75 % of the road ’ s daily volume coming across the Potomac River Bridge ). Distracted driving has caused more accidents , and substandard shoulders make accident response slow , resulting in increased delays .
County elected officials will vote early next year on redesignation of the entire road as an expressway , with a 4-lane , mediandivided highway up to Lucketts and a bypass around the village .
Lucketts does not know yet what its future will be . But its oldest stalwarts always welcome younger ones to help preserve this rural community ’ s center , along with its historic , scenic assets and small-business vitality .
Martha Polkey lives with her husband , horses , border collies , and a sheep guardian dog near Lucketts , where she raises prize-winning Merino sheep .
16 wander I fall • winter 2021