 "Photo: JUDSON PECK/THE BATES STUDENT")
A new student residence will open next year and extend the College campus further down Frye Street, confirmed an Announce e-mail from Housing Coordinator and Residence Life Assistant Carrie Murphy last Friday. The recently-acquired house, which sits at 10 Frye Street, will be incorporated into the March 14th suite lottery.
When creating a living space, administrators consider issues of sentimentality and historic preservation, and balance them with the practical need to give students appropriate housing arrangements, said Murphy to The Student. The College must be especially sensitive to Frye Street, given the area’s historic significance.
This year, Bates houses multiple students in overflow, off-campus apartment facilities. Though a necessary provision, ideally students would be surrounded by an engaging residential community, Murphy explained.
“In these [overflow apartments] there is no residential life advisor, sometimes there are only three kids living together – not necessarily the Bates idea of community living,” she said.
10 Frye Street will undergo renovations in the next few months to make it a more communal living space. The imagined design opposes the house's now-fragmented layout, which was originally intended for individual apartments. The hope is to bring students back to campus and provide them with a better living option.
The Announce e-mail was not the first notice of the residence's opening. In fact, its floor plans have been available on the Bates Web site since February, and information regarding its accommodations appeared in the Housing Brochure. The Brochure listed erroneous occupancy statistics that have since been corrected in various media representing the residence.
The house does not target any particular class, though Murphy imagines that it will most likely be filled with juniors and seniors.
“Where any suites are, there are likely to be upper-class students – they seem to be most appealing to juniors and seniors. It wasn’t designed for anyone; it depends on demand” she said.
10 Frye Street houses three four-person suites and three three-person suites. Though individual rooms are single-sex, suite arrangements may be co-ed.
The houses located on Frye Street are a part of the Main Street-Frye Street Historic District, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The U.S. Department of the Interior added the district to its register in January 2009.
To qualify for placement on the Register, a property must first be nominated by its State Historic Preservation Office. It then must meet a number of criteria for approval including age, degree of resemblance to its original construction, and historical and cultural significance, according to the National Register of Historic Places Web site (http://www.nps.org/nr).
Once listed in the Register, the property is subject to a number of benefits, including federal preservation grants for planning and rehabilitation, federal investment tax credits, preservation easements to nonprofit organizations, International Building Code fire and life safety code alternatives, and possible State tax benefit and grant opportunities, among others (http://www.nps.org/nr).
Regina Tavani contributed reporting to this article.
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