A campus is a spirit lamp.

It is the structural conduit for learning, with learning as that flame transmuting students' minds and hearts into higher versions of themselves.

Loftiness and alchemical equipment aside, campuses nowadays have the reputation of simply getting bigger and more densely populated. 

While we found that this was one aspect of the topographical story of UVM, it is, of course, reductive in its scope.

We found a surprising number of demolitions, near and complete losses to fire, storm-damaged structures, and some repurposed spaces - all within the context of an institution superimposed on indigenous land.

With this in mind, here we survey UVM's campus, its expansion and contraction through the past hundred or so years.

Land Acknowledgement

This article delves into one aspect of the physical relationship between the University campus and the traditional land it inhabits. As such, we'd like to acknowledge this land has been stewarded by the Western Abenaki far before the establishment of UVM. Specifically:

Official Land Acknowledgment, UVM Board of Trustees (2022)

We are grateful to and honor these Indigenous communities for their stewardship of these traditional territories.

Of The Green Mountains

The University of Vermont, founded in 1791 as the fifth college in New England, was chartered the same year that Vermont became the 14th state.

It draws its acronym from the Latin phrase, Universitas Viridis Montis: University of the Green Mountains.

For its first eleven years, the University, its Trustees, and founder - the politically-gifted and perpetually-indebted Ira Allen - struggled to drum up the funds to house the University.

These efforts were, however, hastened with the 1800 chartering of Middlebury College, newly competing for state pupilage.

UVM named its first president, Reverend Daniel Clarke Sanders in 1799, who would shepherd the University through its first shaky years before stepping down in 1814, on the heels of the War of 1812 and a brief University closure (1813-14).

A Residential College

Like several of the Ivies, UVM was modeled on the Oxford-Cambridge residential college system. 

On this model, the University centers faculty-student relationships to effect an involved and intentional residential on-campus community. President Sanders' home, on the east side of the Green, also served as the first dormitory for its handful of students, classroom, and library - with all its 31 books.

Since its designation as a land-grant institution in 1862, the faculty-student stewardship seen on campus ripples outward, wherein the institution serves and tends to the broader community.

UVM enrolled just four students in 1801, its first official year. By 1924, the University had expanded its faculty roster and saw a dramatic expansion of its student body to just over 1,000.

Teas, performances, and non-academic activities blossomed thanks, in part, to faculty who lived on or within walking distance to campus. 

The First Buildings

Some are surprised to learn that Old Mill is not the oldest standing building on campus.

That distinction goes to Grasse Mount, built in 1804 - and is based, frankly, on a technicality.

Unlike Old Mill, Grasse Mount was not built for the purposes of the University. Like several other smaller structures built around this time eventually procured by the University (Bittersweet, 1809; Benedict, c. 1809; Nicholson, c. 1810; Allen, 1838; Wheeler, 1842; Wadhams, 1845; Capt. Nabb, 1850), it was first a private home.

Grasse Mount was first the residence of Captain Thaddeus Tuttle (1758-1836), before a downturn of fortune forced a sale to Vermont Governor Cornelius P. Van Ness. In 1895, the three-acre estate on 411 Main Street, then known as the Thaddeus Tuttle House, was acquired by the University to serve the women on campus -- as a dining hall and dormitory, with tennis and basketball courts along its south lawn.

Notably, Professor Bertha Terrill, the University's first female professor and Dean of Women, lived at Grasse Mount during some period between 1911 and 1940. (For those following the series, this is where Dorothy Mayo Harvey '25 lodged during her UVM days.)

The original Old Mill structure was built in 1802 -- then known as The College. Old Mill was built with pine from the Green and at the center of College Row. It provided classroom spaces, a two-story chapel, library, recitation rooms, a museum, medical hall, chemical laboratory, an administrative office, and 46 student dormitory rooms. Legend has it students had to "complete construction of their dorm room walls when they arrived on campus" (VTDigger).

This was the sole UVM academic building until its total destruction from a fire in 1824, bracketing a brief University closure from 1813-14 stemming from the war with Great Britain (for more, see "Old Mill").

For the next several years (1825-1829), construction on Old Mill (then "The College") would begin, with eight-foot fire breaks implemented between the North South, and Middle College buildings.

The Middle College was crowned with a Gold Dome, newly overlooking the city of Burlington and Lake Champlain.

The open fire breaks were replaced by parapeted fire walls around 1846, forming the state's then-largest building.

Its moniker of "Old Mill" took hold here, as the building's resulting long, narrow shape and brick exterior resembled a grist and textile mill.

The Iconic Tower

The Old Mill acquired its emblematic silhouette in 1882, with a $65,000 donation from benefactor John Purple Howard towards its modernization to a Victorian Gothic style. The renovation lengthened the ceiling by four feet, added a fourth floor with dormers, and rebuilt the front and side facades. The 150-foot steeple tower replaced the then-favored gold dome to mixed public reception.

Converse Hall, erected in 1895, served as the primary dormitory on campus -- but only housed male students then. It is still in use for its intended purposes, though it has since become a co-ed dormitory.

It was spared from the lightning strike that took down parts of Old Mill in 1918. This spurred further construction and alterations -- from which Old Mill would not fully recover for nearly eight decades until its most recent major renovation from 1995 to 1997. During this period, its fourth floor was reopened and an annex was added. 

Old Mill briefly served as a dormitory for another bout following World War II, when 17 rooms in its south end were reopened to house female students. Growing concerns of fire safety prompted a renovation in the late 1950s and discontinuation of the use of its dormers.

Billings Library

Billings Library was dedicated and opened for student use in 1885 -- to accommodate the over 12,000 books donated to the library by native Vermonter and railroad empresario Frederick Billings.

A far cry from the 31 books to the University's name at its inception, these were obtained by Billings from the personal library of George Perkins Marsh, famed congressman, diplomat, and conservationist.

Its main façade still overlooks what is now University Place (or College Row), a jewel on the Green.

Its design was inspired by French medieval churches. Of note, each of the 32 beams in its apse bears a uniquely carved design.

Eventually, the library -- which served dual purpose as a student center -- was bursting at the seams.

Rather than implement a planned addition to Billings, the University opened the David W. Howe Library (then Guy W. Bailey Library) in 1961. 

Despite its since-shared book-stewardship duties, it remains a favorite campus study spot, and provides a home to Special Collections, Writing Centers, and several other classroom spaces.

The Late-Nineteenth Century

The late-nineteenth century marked a period of expansion for the University, which would continue to present day.

Torrey Hall (1863), Perkins Hall (1891), Converse Hall (1895), Williams Science Hall (1896), and the Old Gym (1901) are added to the lot. 

During its earliest days, UVM was contained within Old Mill ("The College"). By the turn of the 20th century, it would grow to include Redstone Hall (1889) and Lodge (1891), Robinson Hall (1889), Perkins Hall (1891), Grasse Mount (acquired in 1894), Williams Science Hall (1896), and Converse Hall (1895), as well as the Old Gymnasium (1901; 1974, Royall Tyler Theatre), and Dewey Hall (1905) -- where they currently stand now.

The Johnson House was folded into the UVM campus in 1902 and has had a more transient relationship to the greater landscape.

Like Grasse Mount, its first use was as a family homestead, originally facing the University Green at the corner of University Place and Main Street.

In 1906, the Johnson House was physically relocated a few blocks to 590 Main Street, to make room for the then-new Morrill Hall.

In 2005, the building was relocated once more, to its current location at 617 Main Street to allow for the building of the Davis Center. It's housed many a program, farmhand, institute, and center; it now offices the University Strategic Communications team.

Similarly, Morrill Hall, was built in 1806 as a wooden house and relocated in 1904-1907 to 590 Main Street to occupy the southeast corner overlooking the Green. Its purpose was to house the UVM Agriculture Department and Agricultural Experiment Station, named for U.S. Senator Justin Smith Morrill, who authored the Morrill Land Grant College Act.

Campus Map

A 1924 Student Handbook we found in Prescott Lovejoy's Memory Book included a campus map with 27 unique buildings.

These included, per the map index:

"1 - Medical Building

2 - Billings Library

3 - Museum

4 - Engineering Building

5 - Williams Science Hall

6 - "Old Mill"

7 - Gymnasium

8 - Morrill Hall

9 - Greenhouses

10 - Agricultural buildings

11 - Meteorological Observatory

12 - Howard Gymnasium

13. President's House

14. Professors' Residences

15. Converse Hall

16. Commons Hall

18. Grassmount

20 and 17. The Annexes"

Breaking Ground in 1925 for the Ira Allen Chapel

The Ira Allen Chapel, another jewel along the Queen City crown, was completed in 1926, its cornerstone laid during the 1925 commencement.

Its gold-domed bell rises 165 feet into the sky and was built to replace the stuffy chapel on the second floor of Old Mill.

Although it no longer serves as a site of religious services, it retains a stronghold in the community as a place for gathering -- hosting campus meetings, meaningful events, and special ceremonies.

Trying Times: UVM at the Turn of Twentieth Century

From 1902 to 1975, fifty-six buildings are built or acquired - including Morrill Hall (1907), the Water Tower (1934), and Waterman (1941).

Demolished, to make room for the Fleming Museum (1931), is Commons Hall, around 1930. This first served as a boardinghouse for men enrolled in summer courses, then used exclusively as a cafeteria during its later days.

By 1941, the University itself is embroiled in a financial crisis, following the Great Depression (1929-1939) and the still-felt financial imprudences of the late and former President Guy W. Bailey.

A vigorous campaign, carried by alumni, students, and the community, raises $150,000 and supplements a two-year state loan.

With this, the University would continue to keep open its doors -- its victorious students paraded down Main Street "eight hundred strong," holding hands or carrying "Vermont Saved!" banners, and returned to campus to build bonfires and "sing college songs by torchlight" (University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years, p. 250).

Construction, particularly on Redstone Campus, takes a pause with the onset of World War II. During this time, some of the University serves as barracks for the US Army from 1943 to 1945. Women, who traditionally dormed at Redstone, were displaced to board elsewhere on and near campus.

Nationally, it was a somber time, with Vermonters rationing their daily goods -- from milk to gasoline: "walking, bicyling, and carpooling became patriotic acts" (VT Digger, 2020).

UVM: Midcentury to Today

Still, the University struggled to find firm footing through the latter half of the twentieth century. Following the close of World War II, the G.I. Bill effected a surge in enrollment.

By 1950, three thousand students formed the UVM student body -- and with them, now totaling eleven fraternities and eight sororities from which to choose. 

The mid-1960s produced another influx of students with the baby boom. The Vietnam War sparked another social revolution on campus.

The Old Gymnasium undergoes significant renovations and, in 1974, is rebirthed as Royall Tyler Theatre -- an homage to Vermont's 13th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and author of what is considered the first American comedic play. 

It has since provided a home to the theatre and dance program and hosted scores of student and professional productions - plays, musicals, and dance.

With a growing student population, additions to Howe (1980), Fleming Museum (1983), Billings (1986)  and others are constructed subsequently (Pomeroy, 1997; Lafayette, 1995).

The Aiken Center (1982) and Kalkin Hall (1987) are added to the campus.

By the fall of 1989, over eight thousand full-time students attend the University.

To accommodate the bustling community, campus sees dramatic growth: the Stafford Building (1991), Dudley H. Davis Center (2006), University Heights (2006), Jeffords Hall (2010), Discovery Hall (2017), Central Campus Residence Hall (2017), Ifshin Hall (2018), and Innovation Hall (2019) are built to serve expanding programmatic offerings and, with it, increased need for on-campus housing.

The purchase of Trinity campus in 2002 brought 20 more acres of land and 17 new buildings.

The Cook Science Building, Angell Auditorium, the Alumni Medical Building, and Carrigan Dairy Science Center are also demolished from 2006 to 2017 to make room for new life in keeping with UVM's growing national standing as a highly-respected state institution.

Perched in the center of Burlington it still stands luminous, shining through and upon its community of over 14,000 students and 4,000 faculty.