About NMH Northfield

Greenfield Recorder Article

NMH hopes a school will buy campus

By JANET BOND
Recorder Staff

April 14, 2005

NORTHFIELD - After a year of study, Northfield Mount Hermon School is launching a marketing campaign to find a buyer for its Northfield campus among colleges, secondary schools and other educational institutions in New England and New York.

The school is also sending a letter and question-and-answer flier to residents in Bernardston, Northfield and Gill to bring the towns up to speed with what the school has in mind for its Northfield property.

When school opens in September, the students will all be located on the Mount Hermon campus, located in Gill, according to NMH President Richard Mueller. This follows a decision in January 2004 by the Board of Trustees to consolidate the school from two campuses to one for a variety of reasons linked to financing the kind of education the school wants to be known for.

Mueller said the school might still need to use the Northfield campus, particularly the Silverthorne Theater, while comparable facilities are built on the Mount Hermon campus.

While there have been schools and others who have toured the campus, Mueller said no one has expressed any interest, or made any formal offer to buy.

He did clarify a rumor that had been circulating in Northfield. There is "one or more native American groups on the East Coast interested in forming a native American college."

Mueller said he did not know the names of the groups and that no one from an American Indian group had approached the school directly to even ask for a tour.

He said some of the people who toured thought the campus was "a beautiful place" but "so big, it would take a huge decision on the part of their board."

"It means that there are not a lot of institutions clamoring for such a campus," he said of the 300-acre, 450-bed campus.

After exploring the market through consultants, the school has decided to put an educational use as its first priority.

"Education is so important in this country and frankly around the world," said Mueller.

The school is open to a variety of part-time uses while it looks for a good match. Those could include summer schools, workshops and music programs, he listed.

Right now, the school is not looking at disposing of the outlying properties. Those include 24 off-campus residences, the East Northfield Water Co. and 375 acres of land that include the reservoir and watershed, 900 acres of timberland and 90 acres of farmland.

The school also owns a 9-hole golf course on approximately 60 acres.

The town and Mount Grace Land Trust have talked with the school about the other properties with a variety of interests, conservation of the forest and farmland being one.

At this time, the school is focusing on selling or leasing the core campus, said Mueller.

"We are not looking to sell off or get rid of these outlying acres right now before we have the core campus settled," he said, noting that the school doesn't know what a potential user might be interested in of the school's holdings.

The school is committed to preserving the legacy elements on campus, the Birthplace, the Homestead, the graves of founder Dwight L. Moody, a Christian evangelist. Moody founded the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies in 1879 and the Mount Hermon School for Boys in 1881.

Proposals have ranged from a park encompassing the sites at the southern end of the campus to a partnership between the town of Northfield and NMH for caring for the Moody legacy properties.

"We're not ruling anything out. We'd love to make it available to the public," said Mueller.

Mueller said the main point he wants to make to the school's neighbors is that "we definitely care who comes in. We really care what happens to (the campus)."

The school is looking for a "like-minded" entity to move into the campus, either as a lessee, a party in a joint venture, or a buyer."

And the school realizes it is in for the long haul in the process.

"We're not trying to put a gun to our heads in the process," said Mueller, who added it was a process that balances "urgency with patience."

He said in a mailing that the school is budgeting for building maintenance "for years."

You can reach Janet Bond at: jbond@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext.263.

Top of Page