The quaint village of Andover is undergoing dramatic "improvements" and there's no end in sight. If you haven't been back for a while, Currier & Phelps Village Store (the "G store" to thousands) is now an insurance agency and Durgin's Garage is Jake's Market. Now, a bland post office has been built down the street opposite the fire station, and the old PO building is a suburbanesque bank with a drive-through feature. Here's what it looks like from the Development Office windows:

Meanwhile, the good people of T-Rex Demolition are gutting Holland Auditorium as that facility begins the transformation into the Wise Student Center.

Holland was part of an addition to Maxwell Savage Hall in 1958, and became the site of Proctor's remarkable, cathartic assemblies from 1971-2001. The new student center is phase 1 of the entire renovation of Maxwell Savage Hall. Built in 1932 after fire destroyed the Second Academy Building, Maxwell Savage is the front door to the school, and features several visual icons: a handsome belfry, the front portico (which appears on the School Seal), and the green lantern for which the school yearbook has been named for the better part of a century. Here's Ryan Flynn venturing off for a January ski tour in front of the familiar edifice.

Phase 2 awaits full funding. When completed, the new facility will retain a serendipitous feature of the existing structure: to access mail, students are brought into constant contact with faculty. The new "front door" will swing around to the east, where a thoroughfare brings the community into spaces for mail, offices and the student center, all under a new, three-story rotunda. All new English and language classrooms will occupy the third and second floors.