Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center

I came here for a lecture dinner. This space has a huge room great for wedding and banquets . Big parking lot.

Nice clean facility with an outdoor area as well ....definitely liked the monument outside of the rifle and boots ...not sure if it's rentable to the general public but if so it would be a great place for an event/reception.

Hello, old friend Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center, I've come to visit with you again. Feel the old familiar feelings of patriotism. What!? It's now a library. Where is Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center? New location of here we discovered. Very different from the original Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building I was far more familiar with. Now nestled into a hillside on a narrow strip of land, the new, then $7.8 million, 9,000 square foot Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building was dedicated on 30 May 2005.Here there are flags from all the US Armed Forces, some military memorabilia, some military and Veterans plaques, a Blue Star Memorial plaque from the Lafayette Garden Club, and a Viet Nam Memorial plaque. It is far less of a Veterans Memorial and far more of a place for private events --albeit events that fund the mortgage, maintenance and upkeep of the building and grounds.After WWI and II, America's Veterans were often honored by their communities with buildings whose purpose was to host meetings of Veterans organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and social gatherings for returning Veterans. Scattered throughout the nation, these Veterans' halls were often centrally located."Financed by State bond money the original Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building was first located at the SE corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and First Street and constructed during the period 1938-1939 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Much of the interior finish labor was provided by Lafayette American Legion Post 517 members. The building was dedicated by that Post in mid-1939."Lafayette and Walnut Creek, located next to each other in Contra Costa County, both had old Veterans' halls located on prime parcels in their down-towns. The buildings were dilapidated and in disrepair, with uneven floors, leaky roofs and seismic hazards.For many years, Veterans in both communities complained, unsuccessfully, often and loudly about these deficiencies and sought financial assistance from Contra Costa County, which owned the buildings.The old Veterans halls sat on parcels that were critically important to both cities' long-term redevelopment efforts. Negotiators worked for months to work out a cost-splitting arrangement for a new facility. In January 2004, Contra Costa County and the cities of Lafayette and Walnut Creek announced plans to construct a new Veterans' Memorial Building in Lafayette. The original Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center and the Walnut Creek Veterans Hall were demolished.Once the new location was complete Contra Costa County vested title of original property to City of Lafayette. The old Veterans building was immediately razed. Construction of a new library building was completed in 2006 on the old siteA Historical Marker identifies the original Veterans Memorial Building location at 1201 Locust Street, Walnut Creek, CA. Walnut Creek now has its Veterans Memorial Plaza.On this day in history 30 January 1945 - occurred the largest rescue in American history, The Raid at Cabanatuan, also known as The Great RaidUS Army Rangers, Scouts and Filipino guerrillas executed a flawless rescue of 489 prisoners of war and 33 civilians, while suffering four Americans killed in action (two commandos and two prisoners) and four wounded, from notorious Camp Cabanatuan north of Manila, Philippines. A group of over a hundred US Rangers, US Philippine Army Scouts and several hundred guerrillas traveled 30 miles (48 km) behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. The Philippine Scouts was a military organization of the United States Army from 1901 until after the end of World War II 2 September 1945. In a nighttime raid, under the cover of darkness and a distraction by a P-61 Black Widow, the first US aircraft designed to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in bad weather, the group surprised the Japanese forces in and around the camp. Hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute coordinated attack. The GIs escorted the POWs back to American lines. The rescue allowed the prisoners to tell of the death march and prison camp atrocities, which sparked a new rush of resolve for the war against Japan. The rescuers were awarded commendations by General MacArthur, and were also recognized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A memorial now sits on the site of the former camp, and the events of the raid have been depicted in several films and documentaries.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAHhua04AAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HKJIO40R6g

I came here for a technical symposium. The Veteran's Memorial Center is located close to Lafayette BART station on Mt. Diablo Blvd. It also has a good-sized parking lot. Our venue rented out the largest room - I think its called the Freedom room. High ceilings, plenty of natural lighting from the windows, and decent sound and visuals. Slightly noisy since the property is behind some residential areas and close to the main road. Seats a bit hard so be sure to stand once in a while! Free Wifi with password.The center has some nice memorabilia celebrating the military with displays of flags, trophies, and medals. Plenty of seating in the outer corridor too.Note that they may have several parallel functions going on. My event had about 50 people but next door in the smaller Liberty room and main hallway they had a Weight Watchers meeting going on. Kinda awkward to have that scale in plain view of the main walkway!Probably a good venue for business, but for weddings or celebrations the Palm Center in Pleasanton or Mira Vista in El Cerrito have better views and ambiance.

I'm sad to say that I agree with "S.L." and "A.K." below. I don't even want to go into the details, it makes me so upset and I regret not listening to the bad reviews on this site. Let me just say that it was our wedding and I wished I had known better about Eileen and the general staff/event management. It's a fantastic facility at a decent price but don't do it if Eileen is still working there. Just don't.

We just had our wedding here and it was perfect. We lost our original venue when they closed on short notice and Eileen (the venue manager) came through and made it work for us! She helped coordinate catering and bartending for us, as well as every little detail to make the day run smoothly. She know what she's doing!!! The venue itself was spacious and beautiful, we had about 95 people and it definitely could of have fit more. The layout of the building has great flow, we had our ceremony, cocktail hour, photos, and reception all in the one location! It was easy and everything we wanted it to be.

The Lafayette Veterans Memorial building is a beautiful location for an event. My wife and I had our wedding reception here. The large room easy handled our 200 plus guests. Our caterer was able to use the kitchen with ease. We loved the extra bar/bonus room too! We had a dj and enjoyed a full night of fun that evening as so many thought the building was fabulous. It is newer and has many modern features. Really convenient to Oak/SF as it is near the freeway access. Many stayed in downtown Walnut Creek or the Lafayette park hotel. I think checking it out for yourself is worth it.....

Just don't choose this venue. I have a lot to say but I rather you just not even consider it at all. Very horrible experience on a day that was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

This review is a long time coming. I was so upset about our experience at the Veterans memorial, that I could not bring myself to write a review and relive it. Do not use this facility for a special event!! We had our son's Bar Mitzvah at the venue about 2 years ago. On a good note, we loved the facility. It is beautiful and was perfect for the event. During the planning, Eileen was intense, but great to work with.The problems started the day of the Mitzvah. We came to the center and immediately noticed that Eileen was in a terrible mood. She was rude, short tempered, and irritable. We were shocked to learn that she was not going to attend our event and had put a young staff person in charge. She had promised to manage the event and we had been working with her for months. When we expressed our concern and surprise, she was extremely hostile to us. As we set up for the next 2 hours, her behavior went from bad to horrific - she berated her staff, was abusive to the DJ, yelled at my sister, was condescending to my sweet cousin, slammed a door in my (disabled) mother's face, and repeatedly acted out (mumbling under her breath, stomping around, cursing, slamming things on tables, etc.). It was so bad and created such a tense environment, that I asked if she and I could check in to diffuse the situation. This just made her more angry. It felt like we were an annoyance, when in reality, we had paid thousands of dollars to rent the facility. It was unbelievable and humiliating. Eileen was so rude to our family (who had flown in from all over the country) that they STILL talk about it. We were lucky that Eileen ended up leaving in a huff before most of our guests arrived. The rest of the staff worked hard, and were very pleasant. They apologized profusely for Eileen's behavior, and let us know that this is a common occurrence with Eileen. Especially at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. They had seen it many times with other families. This would have been bad on any day. But for Eileen to act this way on the most important and holy day of our son's life was unforgivable. We made multiple attempts to report Eileen to the board that oversees the Veteran's building. They really did not care about our experience, which is a shame. It has the potential to be a great community resource.

Went here ALL day (8-8) for our department retreat/symposium/meeting.The good:-Layout: http://www.lafayetteveterans.org/floorplans.htmlThe layout of the building was great for a small-medium symposium. After entering the main entrance, we checked in and grabbed some coffee/snacks and headed into the main hall. We had chairs set up for PPT presentations in the Freedom Hall end and science posters set up on the Independence side of things. The layout was excellent for our event.-Full kitchen: We used their catering service (or so I was told). They fed us well with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, coffee. The food was decent, but the service was excellent. -The bar&lounge: Stocked and working fireplace? What's not to love?-The corridor outside of the Freedom/Independence hall is bright and cozy. There is space for food buffets and wine bars. There are also couches and plugs which was great for a side meeting to trade ideas. The bad:-Acoustics: chatter from one end of the hall will be transferred to the other. -Sound insulation: if a firetruck/bus passes, you'll know. If you had chatter or music in the background, you probably wouldn't notice. At a symposium, where the only noise are the guest speakers, you'll hear it. The ugly:-Parking: So we chartered a shuttle, took public transportation, and carpooled. I'm not sure how many spaces there are, but we ended up spilling over to the street. This was a bit inconvenient as we had to move our cars every 2 hours. ESSENTIALS: Parking, full kitchen, bar, atrium, and patio are good selling points. Public transportation is definitely an option.CONCLUSIONS: The Veterans Memorial building is handsome, easy to get to, and the staff was excellent. Definitely worth it to check out the location if you were to host an event here.