TIFTON — If someone were to walk across the campus of Abraham Baldwin College today, they might think that the school is falling apart. Piles of rocks, stripped buildings and smashed desks litter the campus as three dormitories are being demolished there.

Mitchell Hall, Branch Hall and Fulwood Hall are being demolished as part of the project that resulted in the construction of the new ABAC Place Apartments. The three dorms, which stood together, will be completely torn down. Fulwood has already been stripped to nothing but steel girders and ceiling, with its walls torn away.

“Now that the new ones are finished, it’s time to take these down,” said Melvin Merrill, president of the ABAC Foundation.

With the building of ABAC Place, the old dormitories were unneeded and outdated, hence their demolition. The three dorms join Chandler Hall, which was destroyed in January to make room for ABAC Place. Another old dorm, Creswell Hall, will be cleared to make way for the $6.2 million Health Sciences Building.

The college has not yet decided how they will use the space the dorms once occupied. Call said that it may be used for new classrooms or it could be used for more housing down the road. Sasaki and Associates, a master planning firm, has been working with the college to determine how best to use the 421 acres of land the school has available.

“Initially, we’ll just grass the areas in,” said Tom Call, interim president of ABAC.

Almost all of ABAC’s residential students now stay at ABAC Place, the largest student housing program at a two-year college in America. The apartments have 635 rooms and cost $32 million. The complex, which features primarily four-bedroom apartments, is an improvement over the old halls, according to some of the students.

“They were not very nice,” said Casey Zeller of the old dorms. Zeller, an ABAC student from Newnan, used to be a resident at Fulwood Hall. Zeller now lives at ABAC Place.

The old dorms were mostly single room, two-bed apartments with no bathroom. The students had to use public bathrooms with showers only. The new ABAC Place apartments have their own private bathrooms and bedrooms, along with kitchen and living areas. ABAC Place also has a convenience store, a computer room, a gym and many other amenities.

“Where do I start?” said Areli Soto, a student from Lyons who once lived at Mitchell Hall before moving to ABAC Place. “The difference, everything.”

The oldest of the five dormitories that have or will be torn down is Creswell. It was opened in 1954 as the Girl’s Dormitory before its names was changed in 1956 to honor Edith Vaughn Creswell, who was dean of women and professor of home economics for the school.

Branch and Mitchell halls opened together on Valentine’s Day in 1970. Branch was named as a memorial to Frank G. Branch, who was president of ABAC from 1929 to 1933 when the school was known as the Georgia State College For Men. Mitchell was named for Orion Mitchell, a football and baseball coach who led the football team, called the Rams in those days, to a 13-12 victory over the University of Miami on Oct. 16, 1931.

Chandler and Fulwood were opened the fall quarter of 1973. Chandler was dubbed the New Women’s Dormitory originally and was named for Iva Mozelle Chandler on April 16, 1983. Chandler was dean of women and an associate professor of social science and director of Creswell Hall. Fulwood was originally called the New Men’s Dormitory, but was renamed a year later to honor Paul Fulwood Sr., a Tift County businessman.

A commemorative block has been erected within ABAC Place to honor the dormitories and the people who share their names.

“So, they’ll be remembered forever, these people that the buildings are named for,” said Mike Chason, director of public relations for ABAC.



To contact reporter Dusty Vassey, call 382-4321, ext. 208.