9/8/21, 12:17 PM
The Fire
https://dev.lb.marist.edu/archives/MHP/hermitage/hermitagethefire.html
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The Fire at The Hermitage:
Between 1955 to 1957 the original Fontaine Hall was
built to house the scholastics, the faculty was moved to
St. Peter's, and the infirmary was relocated to
Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. The farmers were moved to
St. Peter's. This left the Hermitage empty.
Bill Duncan from Pleasant Valley was hired to demolish
the old building. He decided that the fastest way to
demolish the building was to hit it with a demolition
ball; therefore, he attached one of the furnaces to a
crane and proceeded to try to knock down the building.
All he succeeded in doing was to put holes in the walls
thus making the building unsafe to enter.
On October 23, 1958, at about 8 a.m., a fire broke out
in the building. This created great confusion both on
campus and across Rte.9 at Western Printing. Men
were quickly put on the roof of the Western Printing
building to water down any sparks which came from
the Hermitage fire. Flames soared a hundred feet into
the air and the building burned to the ground. No
attempt was made to extinguish the flames. So ended
a building which had served the Marist Brothers for
more than 50 years.

*click on any image to enlarge*


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last updated on June 10, 2004