Life is good in newly restored Rose Hill

Ten students moved into freshly renovated Rose Hill this fall and seem to relish living in one of Hollins’ historic Hill Houses. Built in 1911 for Ella Rosalie Cocke, the founder’s widowed daughter-in-law, Rose Hill was the first of the Hill Houses to be renovated and air conditioned.

Work on the house over the summer of 2011 kicked off the $3 million project to renovate, preserve, and update all nine of the Hill Houses and to improve landscaping and accessibility in that area of the campus. The purpose is to provide a small community-housing option for undergraduate students during the academic term and the flexibility to meet the varied needs of a growing number of programs, including graduate courses, during the summer. A $1 million challenge grant from Hollins trustee Linda Lorimer ’74 and her husband, Charley Ellis, provided initial funding. Next up is Rath House, which will be converted from the campus information technology headquarters to student housing during summer 2012, provided funds are raised. In accordance with the board’s policy, capital projects cannot begin until all funding is in hand. In addition to the gift from Lorimer and her husband, Hollins has also received Hill House funding from the Helen S. and Charles G. Patterson, Jr. Charitable Foundation Trust and from Jeremy Hardy FitzGerald ’61.

The Hill House project affords donors a wide range of opportunities to name a house or part of a house (parlor, bedroom, kitchen, porch) for herself, a friend, group of friends, a relative, or a favorite professor. Please contact Diane Markert, acting director of development at dmarkert@hollins.edu or (540) 362-6515 for information.

Photo: Seniors Lindsay Stern and Elizabeth Dodd, comfortably established in their room in the refurbished Rose Hill. Credit: Olivia Body ’08