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Mount Allison Alumni take note: Another House Smashed by the university

Welcome Mount Allison AlumniWelcome Mount Allison Alumni! Remember those old houses you used to take classes in, where your professor's office was, or maybe you lived at one while you were a student at Mt.A? Well, one by one they're getting smashed to bits...
Palmer Hall demolished by Mount Allision University - alumni take note
Doorframe stonework
from Palmer Hall

Latest News:

Baxter House and Sprague House scheduled for destruction.

Palmer House demolished. See below for more photos of Palmer.

 Palmer Hall demolished by Mount Allision University - alumni take note
Doorframe stonework
from Palmer Hall

Palmer Hall Mount A
Palmer Hall 1933-2003

Palmer Hall Mount Allison Reading the Mount Allison new residence plan, it appears that the building is being lost in order to satisfy the desire of new students for private bathrooms and single residence rooms:

"We are competing with other Canadian undergraduate universities for the top students. Mount Allison must be proactive in keeping its facilities upgraded or we risk losing students to other universities that may be better suited to their residential needs."

I guess we just have to believe that's true, since it uses big made-up marketing buzz-words like "proactive". And we have to sacrifice everything to the marketplace, don't we?
Foundation stone of Palmer House
Cornerstone of Palmer Hall

Mount Allison Academy
Founded 1839
This stone was laid by
Mrs Josiah Wood
Niece of the founder
July 15, 1933
Mount Allison University Demolishes Hillcrest HouseRemember Hillcrest House, at the corner across from theMount Allison History / Math Deptartment ( Hillcrest House ) Physics building, which was home of the Mount Allison History Department (and later the Math and Computer Science Department)? Hillcrest House was built in 1880 and survived for 120 years until...well until Mount Allison demolished it. A pretty nice house really - lots of pleasant architectural detail, and obviously the product of an era when some care and craftsmanship went into houses. Now it's just a heap of kindling.
Mount Allison University demolishes the French HouseHillcrest House being demolished by Mount Allison UniversityHow about the French House, or as the residents called it, La maison française ? No doubt many who took French at Mt.A have some recollection of the French House; it used to be right next to Hillcrest House actually, but now there's just a big empty lot. Adieu, la maison française! It was demolished in 1998.

Then there was Hess House at the end of Rectory Lane, next to the parking lotMount Allison University Tears Down Another House behind the Jennings meal hall. But one day, SMASH! and there was a mound of splinters where it used to be.

Mount Allison University Tears Down Another House

 

Which house will Mount Allison tear down next?Mount Allison will Demolish Baxter House and Sprague HouseBaxter House and Sprague House (on the right) will be destroyed next. You might recall the Philosophy and Political Science departments being in them. You can't tell from the map in The Record [since the map key was omitted], nor from the Facilities Master Plan map [which is too blurry to make out the dotted lines indicating planned demolition] but if you put the two together you see that Baxter and Sprague houses have a date with the wrecking ball. No doubt the excuse for their demolition will be that they would cost too much to repair - a very convenient excuse, after years of neglect. Coming from a university --a place that should have other values besides mere economic expediency-- and particularly a university with such a long and respectable history, this wanton disregard of historical buildings only leaves one with an impression of a total lack of taste, esthetics, and imagination.
Tell Mount A University alumini office if you support the preservation of these housesSo, when the Alumni office phones you up to ask for a Tell Mount Allison Alumni if you support the preservation of these housesdonation this year, why not ask them if Mount Allison is prepared to commit itself to preserving the community's architectural heritage instead of just bringing in the wreckers and smashing it up. Help preserve Sackville's century-old homes by encouraging Mount Allison to properly maintain them so they can be passed on to another generation. If you liked your years on the Mount Allison campus, let someone in the Mount Allison administration know that you'd prefer that no more of the campus is bulldozed into the ground.

Links:

Love of the New Means Death of the Old (Argosy)
Razing Palmer (Argosy)
Mourning Hillcrest House (Argosy)
Hillcrestfallen (Argosy)
Historic Sites Identification Project
Letters from Visitors

If you have any fond memories of Mt.A houses past, want to vent your outrage, or even if you think we should just raze the whole town and start from scratch, send an e-mail to :
smashed@eastmarket.com