(Above) The East Loop will be closed to both vehicles and pedestrians during the project. The University is requesting that walkers and bikers who want to access the Rumsey Bridge and the C&O Canal trail traverse the commuter lot to the west of the Nursing School to exit onto Duke Street.
When students return to Shepherd University in the fall, they will notice some changes to the east campus. Over the next few months, two former dormitories on the East Loop — Kenamond Hall and Turner Hall — will disappear. For those not familiar with the campus, the East Loop stretches from the circle in front of the Nursing School and around past the old dining hall to connect to the parking lot by the stadium pavilion (more about the parking later). The University had previously evaluated options for renovating these buildings, but the costs of addressing the structural deficiencies and maintenance issues were prohibitive.
The University has hired Reclaim Company, a demolition company that specializes in reclaiming, recycling, and repurposing materials, as part of the removal project. Reclaim will use a slightly different process from the typical bulldozer and dumpster approach, but one the University felt had value — both from financial and environmental perspectives. Work is already underway to remove and process usable materials from Turner Hall. Once anything with salvage value is removed, the crew will move on to Kenamond Hall (in about a month) and the heavy work of bringing down Turner will begin. Kenamond Hall will come down at the end of the summer.
The plan for the Turner site is to restore the area to green space for now — while preserving future options to build a new structure on the site overlooking the Potomac River once specific needs (and funding) are identified. The Kenamond site will become a parking lot. According to Sonya Sholley, Associate VP for Strategic Initiatives & Presidential Operations at Shepherd University, the brick and other masonry from the demolished buildings will be ground into gravel onsite and provide the fill below the new parking lot. Sholley remarked, “when we presented this plan to the students and told them we were adding 95 parking spaces for commuters, the room broke out in applause.”
Dr. Scott Barton, VP Finance & Administration for Shepherd, emphasized that the funds for these projects are coming from federal awards and are not diverting any funding that could be used to support student programming or faculty. President Mary J.C. Hendrix expressed her appreciation for the state’s Senators who supported the funding of this project: “Shepherd University is profoundly grateful to Senators Capito and Manchin for their Congressionally Directed Funding Awards, which have allowed us to begin the transformation of our East Campus”, said Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, Shepherd’s president. “This project includes deliverables that will benefit our campus and community at large. We are very excited to see the progress!”
