STORRS-- The oldest building on UConn's main campus was heavily damaged in a Friday morning fire. The Whitney House (1769) has been unoccupied, and no one was hurt, according to the university.
Flames, first reported at about 6:20 am, started in the back of the two-story building and destroyed much of the interior. The structure still stands. By early evening, much of the home had been boarded up, and it's too early to tell what's next for the building, which predates the Revolutionary War.
While Whitney House sits prominently at the front of the Storrs campus, on Rte. 195 and next to Mirror Lake, it's not a place students or faculty have officially visited in recent years.
"In the 60's, it was known as International House. At one point, it housed our Rainbow Center," says university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, "but in the last decade or so, we haven't had a use for it. We have maintained it... but we have not had a current use for it, and therefore we didn't have any occupants in it."
UConn firefighters and members of other nearby fire departments are credited with bringing the blaze under control in less than two hours.
The cause of the fire is unknown. Reitz says while the building was unoccupied, the university did maintain heat and electricity there.
