Three projects are receiving wide attention this summer. As everyone knows, Morton House is coming down. Here is an archival image from the 1980s.

While welcome and long overdue, the demolition of Morton impacts people in many different ways. Alumni have been sharing stories of lives in Morton House with emotion, and some are interested in receiving scraps of the old building as keepsakes. Joe Zeitler '03 recently visited to see his old haunt one last time. Here, he sits on the front steps.

The school is attempting to salvage and recycle as much as 90% of the edifice. Wood, for example, will be ground up for bio-fuel. Windows and doors have been carefully extracted. Here we see radiators ready for salvage.

Contractors are now bidding on the actual demolition, which should commence in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, the old building is derelict.

Across the valley, at the Blackwater Ski Area, the old access road to the top is being cleared and graded in anticipation of cement trucks that will pour the foundations of the new lift towers. This is an attempt to minimize--or eliminate--the need for helicopter service to install the towers. Here, we look down the stripped lift trail, with the top shack at right. The top shack will be modified to make room for a new tower.

Another project, slated for August 21, caused a stir when it was announced via email. The venerable maple between Holland (the Wise Center) and the stone chapel is dying, and needs to come down. A photograph of this tree graced the front cover of the "Belief and Outcome" brochure we published in 2003, pictured here with ring binding:

Although it looks OK today, it has so much rot at its core that cables are holding branches in place as a safety precaution.

The stump will be saved for educational purposes (and a bench,) and a new tree will be planted close by. Still, families at Commencements will miss the old tree's shade; kids will miss climbing its immense branches.