By Danielle Gentry
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Baltimore County is building a brand-new Jacksonville Senior Center that will be three times the size of the current facility.
The $19 million project, which will replace the existing 47-year-old center, is expected to be completed by summer 2027, county officials said.
“This new senior center shows our commitment to meeting the needs of active older adults in Baltimore County who want to stay engaged as they grow,” County Executive Kathy Klausmeier said at the groundbreaking on March 24.
The new 17,000-square-foot facility will include a multi-purpose room with seating for more than 200 people, a fitness room three times larger than the current one, a game lounge, three classrooms, a commercial kitchen, an outdoor patio and solar panels.
The building is also on track to earn Silver LEED certification, recognizing it as an environmentally sustainable structure. The existing center on Sweet Air Road in Phoenix, Maryland, will remain operational throughout construction.
The project didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with the members themselves.
Rachel Fender, the chief of operations for the county Department of Aging, said Jacksonville’s roughly 1,500 active members, two-thirds of whom identify as female, have been pushing for a larger space practically since they moved into the current one.
“Something about the Jacksonville community that I very much admire is how fantastic of advocates they are,” Fender said. “They went through the formal process of advocating through county government. They attended citizen input meetings. They reached out to their elected officials.”
That advocacy eventually reached then-County Executive Johnny Olszewski, now a U.S. Congressman, who pushed to secure funding for the project. The current administration under Klausmeier has continued that support.
A feasibility study confirmed that building an entirely new facility, located just down the hill from the current center, made more sense than expanding the existing structure.
When it came to deciding what the new facility would include, the Department of Aging leaned heavily on its members.
“They tell us what they want,” Fender said. “Our job is to take the information they give us, the data of who attends what sessions, what classes, but also just listening to them.”
The goal, she said, is always multifunctional spaces that can serve a wide variety of older adults and adapt to the needs of future members.
The center’s core programming centers on three pillars: healthy aging, lifelong learning and social connection.
On any given day, the Jacksonville Senior Center sees about 140 visitors. It is currently staffed by two full-time and one part-time county employee, a structure expected to continue in the new facility, supplemented heavily by volunteers through the senior center council.
Baltimore County Councilman Wade Kach, whose District 3 includes the center, called the expansion long overdue.
“A new and expanded Senior Center for Jacksonville will help make the invaluable and much-needed senior services available for this growing population,” he said.
For Fender, the new center represents something bigger than square footage.
“Senior centers are designed to be an entry point into the broader aging services system,” she said. “It is a place for older adults to gather, explore learning opportunities, access appropriate health and fitness activities, and connect with other resources when needed. They’ve been described to me as a lifeline.”
Baltimore County operates 20 brick-and-mortar senior centers and one fully virtual center called OPAL. While Fender stopped short of calling Jacksonville a template for future projects, she acknowledged the lessons learned will inform what comes next.
As for what she hopes the community feels once the ribbon is cut, she kept it simple: “I hope that they are proud of the building that they helped create.”
A ribbon-cutting and community celebration are planned for when the center officially opens in summer 2027.