Help the Hanawalt House

The Old Gym is long gone. The Sports and Science Pavilion has officially been unveiled. A parking lot stands where the tennis courts once were.

And this is only the beginning of the huge transformation that the University will be going through in the next few years.

But there is one building that remains untouched, and we are still waiting for an answer about its fate: When is construction going to begin on the Hanawalt House?

We have all been waiting for years. Yes, years, and the historic building still stands. Now, it is not the fact that the building is actually there. It is the fact that it stands still ruined by fire damage back in 2004.

On top of the damage from the fire, the building has accumulated broken windows, is missing a chunk of the roof, and holes loom throughout the interior and exterior.

There are even stories circulating among on campus residents of drinking going on inside the house after hours.

The Hanawalt House stands at a central part of the campus, where students and visitors to the campus pass by every day. The chain-linked fence does little to protect the crumbling structure, and it continues to deteriorate before our eyes.

The house was a former residence of W.C. Hanawalt, a past president of the University, and his family. It not only is the oldest building on the campus, but it is considered one of the oldest buildings in the city of La Verne. It makes us wonder why the building, which has so much history, still remains in its horrible state.

Walking through campus, there are so many changes going on. Why haven’t there been any changes made to the Hanawalt House thus far? Rather than memorializing the school’s history with a beautiful renovation, the house stands out as a sore thumb on campus.

With all of the changes and transformations that the campus is going through, wouldn’t it be nice to salvage a little piece of history here at La Verne rather than leaving it to rot and become even more worn down?

Along with this, with all of the money that is being used to tear down and construct new, state of the art facilities, there has to be some money somewhere to renovate a building that is already there. What was once a shining residence on our campus, is now an eyesore.

This historical landmark has been wasting away for nearly three years and nothing has been done. It would be nice if the windows were replaced and the roof fixed to prevent further damage to this historical house.

We are still waiting for progress and will continue to wait for something to be done. At this point, we have all been waiting long enough. Though there are plans to have construction completed in the near future, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Do something to save a piece of our school’s history!

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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