Friends of Rustic Cottage: It's Gone

Rustic Cottage was torn down on August 7, 2008. Berea lost an inspirational icon.

History of Rustic Cottage

Berea College's Rustic Cottage was built in 1901 as the Green Building. Berea College President William G. Frost designed the building himself as a blend of Classical and Mountain elements. It was built on the site currently occupied by the Emory Building, facing Chestnut Street. When the Emory building was planned, it was moved to its final location along the main interior campus walk.

The building served a great variety of purposes on the Berea College campus. It was administrative space, a residence, home to Fireside Industries, classrooms, a doctor's office, a dentist's office, home to Upward Bound, and faculty offices. It also once served as offices for the Council of the Southern Mountains.

Rustic Cottage was not the only structure at Berea College built with rustic architectural elements. Prior to the 1920s there were several buildings on campus with Rustic elements, especially porches. There were also Rustic fences along streets and walks, and Rustic footbridges on the campus quad. President Frost appears to have believed Classical proportions and floor plans, combined with Rustic styling reflected the blend that was Berea--a merger of the best of the mountains with the best of classical education.

Rustic architecture was cleansed from campus beginning in the 1920s. A new college president, William Hutchins, led an effort to establish Berea College within the mainstream of American liberal arts colleges. He led the campus to adopt Georgian architecture as the College standard and removed deviations at each opportunity. His successors continued this movement. At the time of its razing, Rustic Cottage was the only surviving example of Rustic architecture on the main campus.

There are still a few remnants of Rustic architecture and Frost's desire to preserve the good things the mountains had to offer. However, these are on the margins of campus--the Log House Craft Gallery, Sunshine Ballard Cabin, and Clover Bottom Cabin--or off campus entirely--the Forester's House. They also are log structures that do not so obviously display Frost's vision of the Classical meeting the mountains as did Rustic Cottage.