October 21, 2009 – News & Views

Stuyvesant Hall

Photo by Amy Allan

Estate Gift Designated for Renovation of Stuyvesant Hall
One of Stuyvesant’s original resident advisors leaves OWU $1 million

In 1931, Ohio Wesleyan first-year women found themselves in a brand-new home—the then-state-of-the-art Stuyvesant Hall. With its courtyard and fountain, reception center and stage, soaring bell tower, large first-floor common space, and four-woman suites, Stuyvesant’s design was years ahead of its time and for decades was a gracious, stately landmark building. It is today on the National Register of Historic Places.

Alice Klund ’31, then a senior, was one of Stuyvesant’s first resident advisors. After graduation, she and her husband, Harold P. Levy, were generous donors to Ohio Wesleyan. In late 2008, Alice Levy died at age 98, and, as she had in life, she remembered Ohio Wesleyan, this time with an unrestricted estate gift of more than $1 million.

The OWU Board of Trustees chose to honor Alice Levy by designating her bequest as the first principal gift for the restoration, renovation, and renewal of Stuyvesant Hall, which today is home to both male and female students.

The University is now examining the costs required for a complete renovation of the facility; such a renovation would involve replacement of the roof; restoration of the tower and its carillon, upgrades to heating and plumbing; and refurbishment of the student rooms, parlors, and the “Stuy Smoker.”

A committee, co-chaired by Board of Trustee Chair Kathe Rhinesmith ’64 and board member Patricia Belt Conrades ’63, has been formed to examine the possibility of raising the funds necessary to return Stuyvesant to its former status as the most desirable living space on campus.

– Gretchen Hirsch