On June 25, a structure fire broke out in the barn of Proctor’s Thoreau House dormitory on Lawrence Street just before 3 PM. The fire spread within minutes to the faculty residence of Craig Leaman and Katherine Goller and the rest of the dormitory.

The Andover Fire Department and the Andover Emergency Medical Service responded immediately and with mutual aid from 14 other area fire departments were able to contain the flames by early evening, but not before the building was deemed a complete loss.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the blaze – school was out for the summer, and the Gordon Research Conferences that Proctor hosts each week were between sessions.

When a tragedy like this hits our community, we are reminded how thankful we are for the work of firefighters and local community volunteers who, on a hot Saturday afternoon in June during a dry spell, risked their lives to be sure the fire did not spread. All of us at Proctor extend a heartfelt “Thank you!” to everyone who responded to the fire and reached out in support of those impacted in the weeks following.

Thoreau House first came online as a dormitory when girls re-enrolled at Proctor in the 1972-1973 school year, eventually being named Thoreau House in 1974-1975. For the next five decades, the quirky little dorm on Lawrence Street was home to hundreds of students and dozens of different faculty families.

Tucked away beyond the Proctor Block between town residences, those who lived in Thoreau House often complained about the walk to classes and to the dining hall, but they took great pride in the dorm they called home and took special care to make it just that.

Proctor is in the process of raising funds to build a new dormitory to house the students displaced by the fire. The goal is to have a new dormitory located on the west end of campus online for the winter term. Learn more about this rebuilding effort by visiting ProctorAcademy.org/Page/Giving/Rebuilding-After-Thoreau.