Fall 2012 Issue - Colby-Sawyer College

From the Archives
Amazingly, just one day
of school was missed because
of the fire, a testament
to the institution’s resiliency.
The building served
two purposes. The west
wing was dedicated to
academic purposes and
housed classrooms,
a library, a chapel and
recitation rooms. The east
wing provided boarding
accommodations for 100
women as well as parlors,
a music room and housing
for the lady principal (male
students lived in Colby
Hall). There was also a
dining room, kitchen and
laundry and gymnastic
facilities. Students worked
and lived in this towering
brick building for more
than two decades, although
despite its appearance
of prosperity, the
academy was accumulating
alarming amounts of
debt and its old buildings
were in need of repairs.
On April 25, 1892, tragedy
struck. The students had
left the school in midafternoon
for the annual
mayflower expedition to
118 Colby-Sawyer College Magazine
the North Sutton woods.
As they returned in early
evening, they saw a cloud
of smoke billowing up
over the hill and heard the
clamorous tolling of the
Baptist Church bell.
“Hurrying as fast as horse
power could take them
they reached the academy
in time to see flames
pouring from the third
story windows…With
a rush they charged upon
the building, grabbed
their belongings from the
rooms on the lower floors,
carried out most of the
books from the library, and
saved three pianos and
some of the other furniture
...There was no fire apparatus
in town and nothing
could be done but watching
the building burn…
When [the fire] burst
through the roof of the
tower the building was
doomed. In two hours
nothing but smoking ruins
remained of the building
which twenty years before
had been dedicated
with so much congratulation
and satisfaction,”
writes Rowe (174).
Those who lived on the
third floor lost nearly
everything and 50 girls
were homeless by nightfall.
The New London townspeople
found places for
them to stay for a few
nights, and the Heidelberg
summer hotel, formerly
the ladies’ boarding house,
was reclaimed and outfitted
for the rest of the
academic year. Makeshift
classrooms were set
up in Colby Hall, the town
house, the vestry and in
private quarters, and
the Baptist Church was
used as an assembly
hall. Amazingly, just one
day of school was missed
because of the fire, a
testament to the institution’s
resiliency. In the
June 1892 edition of
The Colby Academy Voice,
a writer whose byline was
just the initial G. notes
that the trustees held a
meeting on May 19, 1892
and voted to “rebuild the
academy at once on the
old site… Colby Academy
promises to remain forever
on Colby Hill!”
The old campus buildings
were renovated and
ready for classes the
next fall, but despite the
urgent desire to rebuild,
the school’s financial woes
stalled progress to such a
degree that the building
materials accumulated to
meet that goal had to
be sold off. The blackened
ruins of the brick building
stood as a sad reminder
of the academy’s loss,
and not until the turn of
the century was Colby
Academy fully functioning.
By 1908-1909, Colby
Academy was more
prosperous, with 149
students, and the remains
of the old brick building
had crumbled into dust
(Rowe 216). “The traces of
the fire on the campus
had been obliterated by
nature, but nothing could
make the school forget
its misfortune as long as
activities must be confined
to cramped and altogether
inadequate quarters,”
writes Rowe.