The new Watersedge Community Center in eastern Baltimore County means the youngest soccer hopefuls in the neighborhood can play the game indoors year-round.
The $2.4 million brick building, which the county's Department of Recreation and Parks officially opened April 17, puts a long anticipated basketball program on a court in a school-sized gymnasium, and it gives the Watersedge Dancers a studio to call their own.
"Basically, we can bring the whole council under one roof and expand our programs," said Todd Smith, president of the Watersedge Recreation Council. "We are going to fill that building every night of the week."
The 9,000-square-foot center at 7894 Dundalk Ave. is a spacious gym with walls painted soft gray and deep green to reflect the colors favored by the Marlins, the name imprinted on Watersedge team uniforms. Natural light streams in from windows that line the top of three walls, and portable bleachers will accommodate spectators.
The building also includes a studio, complete with a mirrored wall and a ballet barre. There is an office, restrooms and meeting space, so that when the recreation council gathers, members won't have to jockey for available spots throughout the community.
The center sits on an 11-acre parcel that slopes down to a cove off Bear Creek. While wetlands spread across the remaining property, the site provides ample ground for a proposed walking trail and possibly a playground. The project meant razing a post World War II shopping center that neighbors said had outlived its appeal.
"The center makes a great positive out of a big negative," Smith said. "We have the building and open space where there was once a blighted shopping center with absentee owners who had no care for the community."
Outdoor sports have always been popular in this peninsula community. The opening of baseball season every May is celebrated with an annual parade down Dundalk Avenue to Fleming Park, where four baseball diamonds and a multi-purpose field stretch along Bear Creek.
The park has provided the community's young athletes decades of opportunities to play ball in fair weather, and its brick beach house served as a headquarters for the council. But the aging structure did little more than provide shelter and storage. The neighborhood continually scrambled for space at area schools for any indoor sports or activity.
