Post by Logan on Mar 19, 2016 23:25:38 GMT -6
ATHENS, OHIO - The campus mansion that served as the home of Ohio University's presidents for decades won't house any future presidents. The university's Board of Trustees approved a campus master plan on March 11 that calls for the home at 29 Park Place to be renovated and dedicated to yet-unspecified student uses.
Current President Roderick J. McDavis and his wife, Deborah, moved out of the house a year ago. They had complained that the 116-year-old home, last renovated in 1995, was infested with bats, and at one point Mrs. McDavis broke her foot while dodging a bat.
The house sits in the older part of the campus, across the street from the main library. An informational page on the home, which still appears on the OU website, states, "Living on campus enables the president to be more actively involved in campus events." More recently, though, officials have cast that proximity as a problem, describing the area as no longer residential and too crowded.
A university statement at the time of the move, dated March 19, 2015, said officials had been considering the future of the Park Place house since at least the previous March, noting that the construction of Baker University Center and other building changes had shifted the center of campus. It said the off-campus home to which the McDavises were moving, at 31 Coventry Lane, was well suited for a president's residence, particularly to serve as "a facility to host official functions, particularly those relating to alumni outreach and donor relations."
Read more: www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/03/19/ohio-university-approves-plan-to-create-new-use-for-presidents-mansion.html
Current President Roderick J. McDavis and his wife, Deborah, moved out of the house a year ago. They had complained that the 116-year-old home, last renovated in 1995, was infested with bats, and at one point Mrs. McDavis broke her foot while dodging a bat.
The house sits in the older part of the campus, across the street from the main library. An informational page on the home, which still appears on the OU website, states, "Living on campus enables the president to be more actively involved in campus events." More recently, though, officials have cast that proximity as a problem, describing the area as no longer residential and too crowded.
A university statement at the time of the move, dated March 19, 2015, said officials had been considering the future of the Park Place house since at least the previous March, noting that the construction of Baker University Center and other building changes had shifted the center of campus. It said the off-campus home to which the McDavises were moving, at 31 Coventry Lane, was well suited for a president's residence, particularly to serve as "a facility to host official functions, particularly those relating to alumni outreach and donor relations."
Read more: www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/03/19/ohio-university-approves-plan-to-create-new-use-for-presidents-mansion.html