Pomona College relocated its Replica House late Monday night to make room for the college's new studio art building.
The Replica House, a copy of the structure that originally housed Pomona, was built in 1937 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the college’s founding. It has served a variety of purposes since then, although it has been primarily used for storage space, said Karen Sisson, Vice President and Treasurer at Pomona.
The Replica House was moved from its former location at Fourth Street and Columbia Street to private property near the entrance to the Claremont Wilderness Park.
The move was overseen by the construction firm Hamilton Construction. According to Bruce Mills, the president of the company, the move was successful. The company and the college opted to perform the move from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. to minimize disruption to students, faculty and Claremont residents.
“This is probably one of the least controversial, least problematic projects I’ve worked on since I’ve been here,” Sisson said.
She added, “We did work very closely with the city to plan the move, so I think that mitigated a lot of the issues that might have arisen if we hadn’t been careful to plan in terms of the route we chose, and making sure things like trees and electrical wires won’t get disrupted.”
After receiving noise complaints from Claremont residents, the Claremont Police Department shut down the move shortly after the moving permit expired at 4 a.m. Tuesday. By city ordinance, construction-related noise is banned between the hours of 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. The project resumed at 7 a.m Tuesday, at which time the Replica House’s move to its new location was completed.
The Replica House was the home of campus radio station KSPC before the station moved to Thatcher Music Building in 1972. After the move, it was used as storage space for KSPC, Sisson said.
This is not the first time the Replica House has been moved to make way for construction. Until 1969, the House occupied the space that now houses the Oldenborg Center before it was moved across Fourth Street to make way for the new building.
According to a Pomona press release, the new studio art building being built on the Replica House’s location will be two stories high, with a central courtyard, studios, classrooms and exhibition spaces. Construction of the building is expected to be completed in spring of 2014.
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