The Legacy Board announced that the 2023 senior class gift will be a renovation of the Slayton Arboretum in honor of its 100th anniversary.

The class of 2023 gathered in the Searle Center last Friday to hear details about the project which will include a restoration of the firepit, the pond, and the small stone house on the property called the “Little Stone Lab.”

Legacy Board member Madison Pyhel said the project could help the Arb become a place where more students can study, gather, and rest.

“Class of 1872 alumni George and Abby Dunn Slayton gifted Hillsdale the land for Slayton Arboretum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation,” Pyhel said. “It’s only fitting that on the centennial anniversary of the Arboretum’s founding we uphold their legacy and furnish our own.”

Braden VanDyke, assistant director of alumni relations, said there is not an official finalized cost estimate due to supply chain issues and continued project research.

“However, we believe the project will land within the $15,000 to $20,000 range,” VanDyke said.

Senior Legacy Board member Tom MacPhee said the Legacy Board wanted to give something that students could enjoy every day but also something beautiful.

“We wanted something beautiful, something that might one day find its way onto a Hillsdale postcard or catalog. We wanted a gift that would be memorable,” MacPhee said.

MacPhee said the Arb is an important part of Hillsdale’s past.

“One hundred years ago, the Arb was the social spot for Hillsdale students,” he said. “Somehow, over the years, the Arb lost its importance to our student body. In short, we forgot and lost a piece of our tradition.”

The “Little Stone Lab” is a stone building near the waterfall, down the hill from the Arb’s main gate. The stone lab was probably the first stone structure built in the Arb in the early to mid-1920s, according to Associate Professor and Biology and Director of Slayton Arboretum Jeffery L. Van Zant. 

It was originally a garden house where gardeners from the community would meet.

 While the lab had been used for storage in recent years, the old fireplace and an antiquated bathroom remain. 

Van Zant, who was the evening’s keynote speaker, said the committee plans to turn the lab into a year-round meeting space with an eight-foot table, a love seat, and some end tables to go in front of the fireplace.

“We want it to look as quaint from the inside as it does from the outside,” Van Zant said.

The class gift will also revive the old fire pit deep in the woods of the Arb, which was built in the late 1920s when the college forbade students from having open fires, according to Van Zant.The fireplace is currently covered with moss and filled with debris and is disused.

“It will be renovated, and we plan to add two stone benches around it,” Van Zant said.

The senior Legacy Board hopes to install one or two floating fountains in the pond in the Arb, which will spray several feet high in different patterns, according to Van Zant. The pond, which is currently covered almost completely with green algae, is home to many fish, including large koi, according to Van Zant.

“We want the pond to look more clean and inviting and less swamp-like,” Van Zant said.

After Bertram A. Barber, a biology professor and longtime caretaker of the Arb, died in 1967, the Arb fell into disrepair. The college decided to stop funding the site altogether in 1971. Former Collegian editor Andrew Nickel ‘ 71 headed up an effort to revitalize the Arb in the 1970s by sending a special edition of the Collegian to alumni, Van Zant said.

“The college got a lot of positive feedback and started funding it again,” he said.

Senior Class Vice President Josh Barker said he approves the choice to build permanent spaces that can be used year-round and improve the beauty of the campus.

“I think we might see more events in the Arb, especially smaller gatherings that might prefer the more intimate firepit to the expansive Chapel Square,” he said. “I think this is an excellent way for our class to make a lasting impact on campus and really improve facilities for everyone.”

Van Zant said with proper funding the projects should be underway soon.

“It would be great if everything is pretty much completed by graduation, but we will certainly be well on our way by graduation,” he said. “They are not that difficult of things to do. It just requires raising the money and getting those things ordered.”