Norwich Lodge to be demolished
by Mandi Rice
Norwich Lodge, the dormitory and one-time conference center, sticks out. The building stands amid the trees and trails of back campus, almost a half mile past the next closest dormitories. But it won’t be there long—demolition on the building is set to begin this week.
The Japanese archway that once covered the building’s entrance currently sits about 15 yards from the front door. The skylight in the foyer illuminates a planter full of sawdust, insulation and just one living plant. Already sections of the building’s roof are being removed.
The decision to close Norwich was approved by the College’s board of trustees in June. With the completion of the college’s dormitory renovations, it was no longer needed for student housing, said Kevin Schaudt, associate dean of students.
At the end of the school year, the building’s future was uncertain. The college had offered the building to several local non-profits, said Dick Smith, vice president of finances, hoping that one of them would rent it. However, none of the groups could afford the building’s expensive utilities and necessary repairs, Smith said. Much of the building is not wheelchair-accessible, either, which posed a problem for some organizations.
“Given the budget situation of the college, we also didn’t want to take it on,” Smith said. “In a year without raises, it’s pretty hard to justify keeping a building open that nobody really is clamoring to keep open.”
To operate as a Norwich dormitory for 21 students, the college paid $30,000 per year for utilities. Smith said that cost was considerably higher per bed than in the dorms or college-owned houses. Norwich also needed expensive repairs, including a new roof that would have cost at least $100,000, he said.
“It would’ve required extensive remodeling,” explained Alan Bigger, director of facilities.
“The students that lived in Norwich Lodge were very creative and very helpful, and they tolerated the little quirks that went on there with great spirit,” he said. “But the reality was that the building was deteriorating really beyond the state of economic viability.”
“Let’s just say there was a veritable bucket brigade,” Bigger said, referring to the number of buckets needed to compensate for Norwich’s leaky roof.
Discussions about the building’s demise also took place in 2003. The building, opened in 1964, had been used as primarily a retreat center and headquarters for the Yokefellow Organization, an interdenominational Christian group. It was also used to host short-term visitors to campus, includ-ing members of the Board, those interviewing for teaching positions and alumni visiting for Home-coming weekend. By 2003, however, the college was losing about $40,000 a year on it, partly because of the staff it needed to operate.
Earlham planned then to close the building, said Tom Hamm, college archivist. But that was before the college enrolled its largest-ever incoming class. At that point the college needed all available beds, and decided to employ Norwich for student housing.
Since 2003, the college has constructed a new dorm, Mills Hall, and finished renovating Olvey-Andis, Barrett and Earlham halls. When Earlham Hall opens for student use again this fall, there will no longer be a student-housing crunch, Schaudt said. Consequently, there will no longer be a need for Norwich.
Tiny Kushan Chirantha, rising sophomore, lived in Norwich his freshman year. He said he’s sad to see the building go because of its unique privacy and tranquility.
“It was the best place in the whole campus,” he said. “I would have been there until graduation if they let me.”
He said inconveniences like the far walk and leaky lobby didnt’t bother him or other students. Without Norwich as a housing option, Chirantha said he plans to live off campus this fall with another former Norwich resident.
Schaudt said that no students had contacted him expressing disappointment that the dorm would be closing.
“I think that one of the reasons that students didn’t have strong emotions about the building being removed is that it was never intended for student use,” Schaudt said. “It was never routinely used, so I don’t think that the personal attachment was ever there.”
For now, Norwich is still serving a few functions. It housed the school’s annual garage sale in early July, during which the college sold much of the building’s furnishings. It’s still being stripped for reusable materials — chalkboards, furniture, sinks, windows. As demolition continues, the build-ing’s structural components will be recycled, and money from their sale will be used to defray the demolition costs, Bigger said.
If all appropriate clearances, like an air quality check, are attained by this weekend, the Boston, Ind. Volunteer Fire Department will use the space for training, Bigger said. Then the building will be demolished.
The college doesn’t currently have any plans for development on the lot, which Bigger said will be turned back into green space.
“It should hopefully be like a rolling slope,” Bigger said.
After 45 years supporting an isolated building, that plot will no longer stick out from the green space that surrounds it.
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