The Homestead at Denison University

The Homestead at Denison University is a student-run intentional community in Granville, Ohio. Founded in 1977 by a group of students and the biology professor Dr. Robert W. Alrutz, it is an evolving experiment in learning through living. Membership is limited to twelve full-time students of Denison University per semester.

Description

The Homestead resembles intentional communities like Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Sandhill Farm, and Cobb Hill CoHousing. It differs from these communities in its direct connection to a liberal arts college, and its lack of long-term residents. As all Homesteaders are students, their residencies last from one semester to three years.

The Homestead differs dramatically from typical college housing arrangements. It has no television, and no internet access (Homesteaders visit the Denison main campus to use the internet). Its structures and utilities are designed, built or installed, maintained, and improved by students (as feasible.) It relies heavily on alternative and renewable sources of energy. Technologies have included an off-the-grid photovoltaic system for limited electricity, wood stoves for heat and cooking, and passive solar design as another source of building heat.

The Homestead is located on about in a wooded valley; students typically walk or bike the one mile (1.6 km) to the Denison main campus. Originally, three wooden cabins (built in 1977-78) served as residential spaces for the twelve Homesteaders. A strawbale cabin (named Cabin Bob in honor of Robert Alrutz, built in 1999-2001) serves as a kitchen and community center. An earthship named Cabin Phoenix was completed in 2009.

Homesteaders grow some of their own food, using organic gardens, orchards, beehives, and chickens (for eggs). Manual labor is an integral part of life at The Homestead, as residents must haul and split wood, tend gardens and livestock, maintain and repair buildings, and cook.

Each resident must balance the responsibilities of being a Homesteader with those of being a student. Homesteaders receive academic credit only for the annual Homestead Seminar (usually on sustainability issues) and for the summer internship program.

The Homestead Coordinator, a Denison employee, advises The Homestead on some of its decisions, and supervises some of its projects. The Homestead Advisory Board (HAB) is composed of Homesteaders, The Homestead Coordinator, and university administration, faculty, and staff. It oversees The Homestead's major decisions, and helps to integrate The Homestead with its parent university. HAB helped to establish The Homestead May Term as an internship open to all Denison students and helps serve as an academic link to the Homestead.

History

The Homestead was the brainchild of Dr. Robert Alrtuz, a professor at Denison. At a symposium in January 1976, Alrutz raised the idea of a student-run Homestead. Afterwards, nine students approached Alrutz and expressed a desire to make the homestead dream a reality. Alrutz and the students jointly prepared a formal proposal, and won approval (including a startup loan) from the board of trustees.

In the summer of 1977, students began construction of The Homestead. They started building three wooden cabins, established a water-well, and grew a sizeable garden. Alrutz supervised the project; the university physical plant and outside volunteers helped. By late September 1977, all of the original eleven Homesteaders had moved into the first two still-unfinished cabins. They installed insulation and wood stoves later that fall.

Homesteaders used oil lamps for interior lighting until 1982, when they installed a photovoltaic system.

The Homestead has remained an active community since its founding, although membership has varied from four residents to twelve. The extent of on-site gardening and livestock-raising has varied with the interest of the students.

Alrutz died in 1997, twenty years after the Homestead was founded. He had served as the faculty advisor to the Homestead from 1977 to 1990.

Construction began on a new cabin in the summer of 2013, replacing the demolished Cabin 3. Enhanced fire alarms and water suppression systems were installed in all residential cabins.

The Homestead is no longer officially off the grid as of 2013, but it remains solar-powered.

Archive

In May 2012, the Homestead celebrated its 35th anniversary. This sizeable gathering of current and former homesteaders afforded the opportunity to collect, describe, digitize, and preserve the official archive of the Homestead. Joshua Finnell, humanities librarian in the William Howard Doane Library, in collaboration with Linda Krumholz, Associate Professor of English, received funding from an Andrew W. Mellon Next Generation Libraries grant to build the community archive. Several Homesteaders, including Ryan Culligan, Juan Pablo Torres, and Henry Jochem, helped build the archive during the summer of 2012. The complete archive was constructed, and is currently hosted, in the OhioLink Digital Resource Commons under a Creative Commons ShareAlike Copyright license.

References

External Links

*
*
*
*Dodosh, Mark N. “Students find out how to be both rich and uncomfortable”, ''The Wall Street Journal''. January 2, 1981.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Marcotty, Josephine. “The Homestead.” ''Dayton Daily News''. Dayton, Ohio. November 13, 1977. pp. 1B
*Murray, Cars. “Solar shines in licking”, ''The Denisonian''. October 8, 1982, page 5.
*“New pioneers: Denison’s eco-throwbacks”, ''Columbus Monthly''. March 1992. p. 12-13
*Paprocki, Sherry Beck. “Homesteading, ‘90s’ style”, ''Beacon''. January 5, 1992. p. 9, 13-15
*
*Robinson, Sarah. “Community spotlight: Bob Alrutz”, ''Granville Sentinel''. Granville, Ohio. May 2, 1991.
*“Students at Denison live on land”, Associated Press (AP). November 20, 1977.
*
*

The Homestead: official site

The Homestead in the FIC Communities Directory

The Homestead Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homestead at Denison University
1977 establishments in Ohio
Denison University
Intentional communities in the United States