By Rachel Sell//
Designs for the renovation of Brodbeck Hall, Hood’s oldest and reportedly most-haunted building, will soon be complete, over a year after the building caught fire as a result of a lightning strike.
According to Vice President for Finance Robert Klinedinst, the architectural firm designing the renovated building, Zavos Architecture + Design of Frederick (ZA+D), should complete its work on the design by spring 2023.
The start of construction will depend on funding for the project but, ideally, construction will begin in June and will be completed in time for the 2024 summer concert series, Klinedinst said.
Though the design for the renovation is not complete, it still offers a look at what Brodbeck Hall will have once it is complete. “The first floor will primarily be used as an event space and have appropriate support spaces,” Klinedinst said.
In addition, the second floor will be slightly smaller than the first, but still have adequate space to accommodate a set of offices, a classroom, and a practice room. On the third floor, the architect’s design has allocated space for more classrooms, practice rooms, offices, storage, and an ensemble space.
Brodbeck Hall will also feature a new accessible entry and an elevator, according to Klinedinst.
Chair of the music department Noel Verzosa said that the music department, which once used Brodbeck Hall for classes and performances, has struggled to find enough places on campus to accommodate their lessons and ensembles. In addition to losing Brodbeck, the other building delegated to the music department, Carson Cottage, was lost to flooding only a week before the Brodbeck fire.
“Within the space of a few days, two-thirds of our music space was gone,” Verzosa said.
For the time being, the music department has relocated to Coffman Chapel for classes and lessons, but it has been a challenge, according to Verzosa.
“There are only four classrooms in the building, and in addition to hosting other department’s courses those rooms now have to double as music classrooms, music studios for teaching one-on-one lessons, and rehearsal spaces for our music ensembles,” Verzosa said.
According to Verzosa, several other departments that use the Chapel have been patient in accommodating the music department, but the space doesn’t really work. “We haven’t found a system that works for everyone and are not likely to until Brodbeck is operational again,” Verzosa said. “There just aren’t enough places on campus that can accommodate the considerable activity, and noise, that our department generates.”
Although the music students have found ways to continue their lessons and prepare for their concert series, which has been on hiatus since the pandemic, the department’s guest concerts have been impacted by the loss of Brodbeck.
“We had a rich tradition of bringing in superb pianists for solo recitals,” Verzosa said. “The pianos in the Chapel are fine for teaching purposes but are not worthy of professional concert use.”
According to Verzosa, the department has been able to make do with what they have. “We’ve used the newly renovated sanctuary as an opportunity to branch out a bit from our usual concert offerings and invite artists whose sounds and instruments work well with the space,” he said. Next fall, the concert series will open with the Alexandria Vocal Consort, a chamber vocal group including Hood’s Instructor of Voice Antony Zwerdling.
“But we’re looking forward to getting Brodbeck back and are optimistic that the considerable interest in music that students have shown these past few years will grow even more once we get a proper music facility back,” Verzosa said.
Brodbeck Hall has long been acknowledged as the “haunted” building on campus, with staff, students, and visitors reporting lights flickering on and off, hearing voices and footsteps, and even glimpsing a ghost within the halls. In a past article of the Blue and Grey, campus safety officers claimed to have encountered the spirit of a little girl walking from Brodbeck to Coffman Chapel, in broad daylight.
During their investigation, staff members of the Blue and Grey and students practicing for an upcoming performance agreed that they heard a female laughing. Their attempt to communicate with Brodbeck’s spirits through a Ouija board yielded the age of a spirit— age 8— and its gender— female.
Perhaps this was the little girl that other members of the Hood community have seen wandering campus. And perhaps, following Brodbeck’s renovations, these spirits will still roam the updated space.
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