Greenhouse donation helps school

The old greenhouse which was left behind at Blackburn Hall when the Biology Department moved to the ERS building will have a new life in Norwood.

The greenhouse has already been dismantled by Norwood High School senior construction class. A foundation will be built for it this spring, and next September the greenhouse will be reconstructed from its numbered parts and it will be used for the high school's environmental science program. Students will study plant propagation techniques, horticulture and greenhouse management. The Norwood Parents Council donated funds for the foundation, the wiring and plumbing.

Marty van Haaften is a teacher at Nor wood High School and a 1990 graduate of the Watershed Ecosystem Graduate Studies Program. He wrote President Bonnie Patterson and asked for the greenhouse. Within a week he heard the good news.

The approximately 700-square-foot greenhouse was built along with what was the universityıs main staging building in 1967. Bob van Dompseler, Manager of Facility Services, says it was intended to be a temporary biology facility, "like a portable." After the ERS building was constructed, it had some use by individual students, but it was mostly used for storage.

Van Haaften has a "huge thank you for Trent" for the greenhouse, which he estimates would cost $40,000 to build in today's dollars.