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Antioch rededicates South Hall

South Hall, finished in 1853 and one of the three remaining original buildings at Antioch College, is rededicated Thursday, Jan. 14, after a major renovation.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood South Hall, finished in 1853 and one of the three remaining original buildings at Antioch College, is rededicated Thursday, Jan. 14, after a major renovation.

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Matthew Derr, interim president of the revived Antioch College, looks at historic photos of the college in the newly renovated South Hall.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Matthew Derr, interim president of the revived Antioch College, looks at historic photos of the college in the newly renovated South Hall.

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Guests mingle in the Herndon Gallery of Antioch College's newly renovated South Hall Thursday, Jan. 14, before a rededication ceremony.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Guests mingle in the Herndon Gallery of Antioch College's newly renovated South Hall Thursday, Jan. 14, before a rededication ceremony.

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Photos: Antioch's South Hall rededicated

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John Feinberg, architectural conservator and preservation planner for the new Antioch College, Matthew Derr, interim president, and Lee Morgan, chairman of the alumni board, look at old photographs of South Hall when it was a dormitory on display in the Herndon Gallery. The newly renovated hall was rededicated Thursday, Jan. 14.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood John Feinberg, architectural conservator and preservation planner for the new Antioch College, Matthew Derr, interim president, and Lee Morgan, chairman of the alumni board, look at old photographs of South Hall when it was a dormitory on display in the Herndon Gallery. The newly renovated hall was rededicated Thursday, Jan. 14.

Reoccupation of the historical building is first step toward reopening college.

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer Updated 12:07 AM Friday, January 15, 2010

YELLOW SPRINGS — Antioch College rededicated South Hall on Thursday, Jan. 14, marking a big step toward the fall 2011 reopening the newly independent college.

“It’s our first, symbolic reoccupation of an abandoned campus,” said Lee Morgan, chair of the Antioch board.

One of three surviving, original historic buildings on the Yellow Springs campus, South Hall first opened in 1853 as the college’s men’s dormitory.

Originally renovated in 1994, South Hall closed in June 2008 with the demise of the private liberal arts college, founded in 1852.

A sprinkler system pipe on the fourth floor of the unheated building burst in December 2008, flooding South Hall’s east end, said John Feinberg, the college’s architectural conservator and preservation planner.

South Hall was restored by contractors and volunteers at a cost between $165,000 and $175,000, including a new $80,000 heat plant for the building, Feinberg said. Work started in September, after the campus and other assets were transferred from Antioch University.

“The real critical piece that we’re trying to achieve in the first six months here is to protect these historic assets of the college,” said Matthew Derr, interim president of the college.

More than 25 campus buildings have been identified as being in critical need of repair, at a projected cost of more than $20 million, Derr said.

Antioch College has hired 42 staff members to date, many of whom will start moving into South Hall next week from rented facilities off campus.

“It’s coming home,” said Feinberg, a 1970 Antioch alumnus who has regularly traveled to Yellow Springs since September to oversee the campus restoration.

Work has started on eight buildings in need of repair after years of deferred maintenance.

Plans call for the installation of geothermal energy systems and more energy efficient lighting and windows. “Our goal is 10 percent of previous energy use for lighting,” Feinberg said.

The projects won’t all be complete by fall 2011, when Antioch is scheduled to re-open to students, Derr said.

“We will start with a small student enrollment and those students will have all the facilities they need,” Derr said. “As the college grows, the facilities will grow.”

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Antioch was influential in my formative years and I have benefitted from my experiences there for the past 52 years, My degrees from Earlham College (BA), Wesley Theological Seminary (M. Div.) and United Theological Seminary (D, Min.) built on a solid Antioch foundation. As a naative Miami Valley buckeye, I found out that there was a whole world out there that I did not even know existed. My entire ministerial career has been undergirded by the values learned at Antioch.

retired clergyman
9:50 PM, 1/21/2010

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Antioch College is a JOKE! I give it another year before your "open minded" college open its eyes and realizes its broke again. Outside of Yellow Springs Antioch is JOKE!

keep it real
4:59 PM, 1/15/2010

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Rise Antioch Rise up and be the best in the land!

Pam
4:51 PM, 1/15/2010

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Ya and I am the king of the world and I graduated from Stanford and cured cancer. If there are so many successful people coming out of that school why did it close--money. People who protest and have sit ins don't have jobs. If anybody made money who graduated from there it wasnt because of the school. They would have done it anyway. That school is a waste of time. Another vote for a Wal-Mart on that site.

Tom
1:16 PM, 1/15/2010

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Antioch graduates include Republicans, Democrats, and everything else, but you can be sure each made a thoughtful decision about what to think. Personally, I found Antioch a place where my youthful intolerance was replaced by a realization that there are many viewpoints which should be considered. Please remember you are talking about 17-23 year olds still in their formative years, and please don't judge them so harshly. Give Antioch a chance to work its good. Antioch ideals benefit society.

ksd
12:41 PM, 1/15/2010

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