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The Homestead at Denison University is a student-run intentional community in Granville, Ohio. [1] 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.
In its core values and activities, The Homestead has much in common with 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. [2]
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. [3]
The Homestead is located on about 10 acres (40,000 m2) 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.
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.
Dr. Alrutz died in 1997, twenty years after the Homestead was founded.
After much planning, construction began on a new cabin in the Summer of 2013. In order to keep up with changing building codes, students, faculty, and administration agreed that the best way to maintain the viability of the Homestead in the future was a major update. The new cabin sits on the former site of Cabin 3, which was demolished in the Spring of 2013. Cabin 1 was also retired as a living space and will soon become and art and social space. The new cabin houses up to nine students, and combined with space for three in Cabin Phoenix maintains the capacity of twelve students.
The new cabin brings substantial advances in sustainable technology. Heat for all cabins is now generated by an external wood-gasification boiler and transmitted via underground hot water pipes. The cabin itself uses both a radiating retention tank and in-floor radiative heating. A new photovoltaic system was installed that generates more than 10 times the original electrical capacity and maintains a net output onto the grid. Furthermore, enhanced fire alarms and water suppression systems were installed in all residential cabins to prevent catastrophic fires. [4]
To keep up with an evolving society, other sustainable conveniences were incorporated into the build, such as showers, laundry, and a composting toilet. Some changes have led to controversy among former residents, however, all such changes were made in concert with the original mission statement.
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.
Columbus is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, and the third-most populous U.S. state capital. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County; it also extends into Delaware and Fairfield counties. It is the core city of the Columbus metropolitan area, which encompasses ten counties in central Ohio. It had a population of 2.139 million in 2020, making it the largest metropolitan area entirely in Ohio and 32nd-largest metro area in the U.S.
Licking County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. At the 2020 census, the population was 178,519. Its county seat is Newark. The county was formed on January 30, 1808, from portions of Fairfield County.
Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. It is located near the center of Ohio, about 30 miles (48 km) north of Columbus as part of the Columbus metropolitan area. The population was 41,302 at the 2020 census. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816.
Granville is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,946 at the 2020 census. The village is located in a rural area of hills, known locally as the Welsh Hills, in central Ohio. It is 35 miles (56 km) east of Columbus, the state capital, and 7 miles (11 km) west of Newark, the county seat.
Homestead may refer to:
Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Denison University from 1946 to 1948, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio from 1949 to 1950, and Ohio State University from 1951 to 1978, compiling a career college football coaching record of 238–72–10. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1983.
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges.
Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. It was first called the Granville Literary and Theological Institution, later took the name Granville College, and, in the mid-1850s, was renamed Denison University, in honor of a key benefactor. The college enrolled 2,300 students in Fall 2023 and students choose from 65 academic programs.
The Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in Central Ohio surrounding the state capital of Columbus. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, it includes the counties of Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Hocking, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Perry, Pickaway, and Union. At the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 2,138,926, making it 32nd-most populous in the United States and the second largest in Ohio, behind the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The metro area, also known as Central Ohio or Greater Columbus, is one of the largest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the Midwestern United States.
Columbus Alternative High School is a public high school in the Columbus City Schools district located in the area known as North Linden, in Columbus, Ohio. The school is a magnet school for college-bound students in Columbus, with both AP and IB programs.
The Newark Holy Stones refer to a set of artifacts allegedly discovered by David Wyrick in 1860 within a cluster of ancient Indian burial mounds near Newark, Ohio, now believed to be a hoax. The set consists of the Keystone, a stone bowl, and the Decalogue with its sandstone box. They can be viewed at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. The site where the objects were found is known as the Newark Earthworks, one of the biggest collections from an ancient American Indian culture known as the Hopewell that existed from approximately 100 BC to AD 500.
Old North Columbus is a neighborhood located just north of the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. It was founded in 1847 where, at the time, it was a stand-alone city out of the confines of Columbus until it was incorporated into the City of Columbus in 1871. In its early years the city was a popular stagecoach stop with people traveling from Worthington to Columbus. Today Old North Columbus is popular for its local music and its unique "untouched architecture", which is reminiscent of its old roots.
Nicholas Fletcher is an American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois from 1995 to 1999 and Denison University in Granville, Ohio from 2000 to 2009, compiling a career college football coaching record of 63–86.
Berwick is a residential neighborhood located on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. It is one of the most unique neighborhoods in Columbus with unique mid-century homes, wide winding streets, and a "suburban" feel. Berwick is characterized by its warm nature and welcoming community atmosphere, as well as its diverse population, including significant numbers of African American and Jewish citizens. The median household income is higher than the state average at $84,173, and the average household net worth is $509,793. The median age of residents is 46. Notable Columbus citizens, including Heisman Trophy Winner Archie Griffin and Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, have resided in the area.
Frank L. Packard was a prominent architect in Ohio. Many of his works were under the firm Yost & Packard, a company co-owned by Joseph W. Yost.
Keith W. Piper was an American college football coach. He was the head football coach at Denison University from 1954 to 1992. He compiled a career record of 201–141–18. He gained national fame for perpetuating the single-wing formation decades after it had been discarded by other programs.
Gavin George is an American classical pianist.
Adam S. Weinberg is an American sociologist, academic administrator, and the 20th and current president of Denison University. Previously, he was the President and CEO of World Learning and Vice President and Dean of the College at Colgate University.
The ISKCON Krishna House is a Hare Krishna temple in Columbus, Ohio. Established in 1969, it is the oldest Hindu temple in Ohio. Its significance has been recognized with an Ohio Historical Society marker.
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