Ohio's Antioch College Alumni To Restore Historic Campus
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Sept. 17, 2009
Things are looking up for a small, 157-year-old university in southwestern Ohio, which shut down last year amid financial problems.
In an unusual agreement, university officials this month transferred the school to an alumni group, which will take over as stewards of the historic campus. Next month workers will begin renovating the oldest building, Antioch Hall.
"It's a gorgeous building, and it's symbolically the right thing to do," says Matthew Derr, Antioch's chief transition officer.
Antioch was founded in 1852 in Yellow Springs, Ohio. University officials closed the campus in June 2008, leaving its buildings vacant—and unheated. Last February, a resident noticed water seeping through the brick walls of Antioch Hall, constructed in the 1850s. Inside, a frozen sprinkler system had caused a massive water leak, flooding the hall. Three other unheated buildings suffered similar water damage last winter, to the dismay of locals and alumni.
"There was great affection for the historic buildings, particularly for Antioch Hall. There are some quite extraordinary buildings that were truly falling into disrepair," says Richard Detweiler, president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, who worked with university officials and alumni to mediate the Sept. 4 transfer. "The real drive [behind the transfer] was the incredible power of the Antioch educational experience. It became important to get back the historic campus because that was the symbol of that [experience]."
Next month workers will begin repairing Main Hall in preparation for the annual reunion in October.
The nonprofit Antioch College Continuation Corp., which has raised $10 million so far, hopes to reopen the school to students in two years.
"There's a lot of work to do," Derr says, noting that his group wants to raise $40 million more. "It feels like an enormous privilege to be here at this point in the college's history."
For more photos, stories, and tips, subscribe to the print edition of Preservation magazine.
Subscribe to the Today's News RSS feed
Comments
