When Dale and Michelle Rocheleau, a Class of 1980 alumni couple, visit campus on a clear August morning, it is a return to the university that is at once about the past and the future. "I haven't been inside this house since I was a student," says Michelle as she tours the mansion at the northwest corner of Summit and Maple Streets. Home to Delta Psi fraternity for some seventy years, the house remains stately, but also shows its age. As Michelle and Dale remember the many social events hosted by Delta Psi during their student years, it's not too hard to imagine Springsteen cranked to eleven, "Prove it All Night" bouncing off the lofty ceilings.

Just as easy, imagining the grandeur of what once was and could be.

"This will be a casual, beautiful space," says Dale, surveying the expansive first-floor entry hall distinguished by a large fireplace on a base of red marble and flanking benches. The entire hall is paneled in golden oak, a material that echoes throughout the structure, from floors to walls to the library's striking ceiling finished in a pattern of cased beams.

The Rocheleaus are among the many alumni working to bring new life and a new role to one of Burlington's most beautiful and historically rich structures through an ambitious renovation project that will transform 61 Summit Street into Alumni House. The couple helped to fund the feasibility study that got the Alumni House project rolling in earnest, and Dale chaired the Alumni Association subcommittee that studied similar alumni facilities at institutions such as Boston College, the University of Connecticut and Williams College.

"This has the potential to be one of the best in terms of the historical significance, the proximity to campus, the proximity to the alumni and development function, the beauty of the building, and the flexibility of the building," says Dale, taking in the view from the third-floor ballroom. "It's a very special place that gives the feeling that you are part of the history of this building and of this community."

For decades, the leadership of the UVM Alumni Association has urged the university to recognize the vital role that alumni play in university life by establishing a permanent place on campus that alumni can call home. The opportunity to make that vision a reality came knocking when the university purchased the beautiful home in December 2007. The trustees have since given the go-ahead to raise $13.5 million to restore and renovate the building as Alumni House.

Rocheleau says dedicated alumni space on campus has been too long in coming. New facilities like the Davis Center have helped, he says, "but I wouldn't call it a home for alumni. Our vision is for a space that alumni can call home, that fosters a lifelong relationship with the university. And this," he says, with an air of certainty, "is that space."

It was, according to Edward Wells, a Burlington business leader and banker, the best building lot in the city -- a site with excellent views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks that he purchased in 1886 to construct a mansion that would be "the best money can buy." Indeed, when Wells hosted his first social event at 61 Summit in 1894, the Burlington Free Press gushed that it was a "beautiful home, one of the finest in the city."

The house stands today as a superior example of the Queen Anne style of architecture, the craftsmanship and élan of a bygone era. Designed by prominent Boston architect Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb, the building's ornate detail includes interior woodcarvings by Albert H. Whittekind, the same artisan who fashioned the interiors of UVM's Billings Library. The house was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The university's connection to the house begins in 1924, when it was purchased as home for the UVM chapter of Delta Psi. Founded in 1850 as UVM's third Greek organization, early members of Delta Psi included no lesser lights than UVM's first African-American graduate, George Washington Henderson, Class of 1877, and pioneering philosopher/educator John Dewey, Class of 1879.

Tom Amidon '61 is a Delta Psi brother who lobbied hard for an alumni house during his time as Alumni Council president. For him, it's a bonus that the project will restore a building that was an important part of his life. "I think most of us are just really happy that the house is going to continue to be part of the university," Amidon says.

UVM trustee Jeffrey L. Davis '74 agrees. Looking back on the Delta Psi days, he says "A lot of wonderful men went through there," including his late father, Dudley H. Davis, for whom UVM's student center is named. And he shares the enthusiasm expressed by many of the Delta Psi brothers for this next chapter. "If the fraternity had to come to an end, it's great that things are turning out this way," he says. "This will be another front door to the university, not just for alumni but for faculty, students, staff -- the whole UVM community."

Though 61 Summit Street retains a remarkable share of its original architectural elegance and structural soundness given decades of less-than-adequate maintenance, a significant effort will be required to bring the building in line with modern building codes while preserving its historic character. Alumni House will be much more than a preservation of the past, however.

Plans call for a combination of restoration, renovation, and new construction that will both preserve the historic character of the house and make it a vital, highly functional, and welcoming space for alumni, faculty and staff, and the wider community as well. The nineteenth-century building will even keep step with UVM's twenty-first century green building ethos, as a geothermal heating system is part of the planning.

The most historically significant features of the house, primarily on the first floor, will be restored to their original elegant condition and used not only as reception, meeting, and function space, but also to offer many of the comforts of home. Think cozy sofas, cushy chairs, big-screen TVs -- the kind of place where you'd like to unwind after a long drive, meet up with friends, and maybe fire up a DVD for the kids. There will also be Internet access for alums who want to check e-mail and otherwise keep in touch with life beyond Vermont. The basement and second-floor levels will house Development and Alumni Relations offices and staff, and the third-floor ballroom, with its sweeping lake and mountain views, will host a variety of functions from parties to dinners to lectures.

"This is one of the most exciting projects that alumni have had the chance to work on in my time as an alum at UVM," says Ted Madden '92, president of the UVM Alumni Association. "It will foster the traditions that build relationships to the university throughout students' lives." Madden even envisions a high-tech tradition where the members of each graduating class enter their favorite UVM memories into a digital video archive during Senior Week each year and have them available to revisit as the years pass.

"An alumni home on campus sends an incredibly powerful message that can really play a very significant role in building alumni engagement," says Meg Guzewicz '73, immediate past president of the Alumni Association and an early backer of the project. "It sends that same message to future alumni -- students --and to other university constituents, including the faculty and administration, that alumni continue to be an integral part of the UVM family."

And now that family will have a home.

For more about the Alumni House project, including a list of naming opportunities, architectural renderings, and a virtual tour, visit alumni.uvm.edu/alumnihouse. Or, contact UVM Development and Alumni Relations, 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401; (802) 656-2010; toll-free voice: (888) 458-8691. Email, alumni@uvm.edu.

 

This story originally appeared in Vermont Quarterly magazine. The full issue may be viewed online at alumni.uvm.edu/vq. Print copies are available by request from University Communications, 656-2005, tweaver@uvm.edu.