Castle Douglas Community Centre
Castle Douglas Community Centre originally started out life as a school, one of four in Cotton Street in Castle Douglas. One of the Centre's buildings was commissioned by the Kelton School Board in 1873 and built in 1875 by architect James Barbour1 [the twin brother of the founder of Barbour’s Department Store in Dumfries]. James also designed the Town Hall in Castle Douglas along with many other fine buildings in the area. In 1910 a second school was also built on the site. The four Schools of Cotton Street consisted of the current main building opened in 1910, the Annexe building next door (1873), the former Free Church school (1844) now private property and the Catholic school (also a private residence).
The Community Centre is now called the zone and is a charity run by a Board of volunteer Trustees elected from its membership. The Centre is very well used with around 400 members and 600 users a week2. The primary aim of the Trust is to ensure that the Zone is able to thrive and prosper for the people of Castle Douglas and the surrounding communities.
The Trustees now aim to take the history of the four schools as a basis and education as a theme, to trace changing social history over time, linking in with other interesting and relevant stories along the way. Local people who have memories and material are being encouraged to contribute to the project which will then be archived online available to everyone to access and research.
References
1http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200331 2http://www.cdzone.org
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