A place to return, a place to belong
November 12, 2025 — The home at 1527 Broad St. has been a gathering place for Grinnellians ever since the doors first swung open in 1918.
That was especially true on Thursday as the Hannah Alumni House dedication began a new chapter for the historic home, capping a resplendent renovation that transformed the 107-year-old residence into a warm and comfortable place for alums to relax, socialize, network, and reminisce when they return to Grinnell.
“This house has served the College and the community throughout its long history,” said Rachel Bly ’93, assistant vice president for auxiliary services, during the dedication. “It’s been a place of growth, community, celebration, and service. It’s a beautiful space, and it’s now ready to welcome alumni back to create so many more memories. New ideas and new relationships will get a chance to form and flourish here. This space and the people in it will shape the life of the College for years to come.”
Rachel Bly ’93, left, President Anne F. Harris, and Bernadine Douglas cut the ribbon during the Hannah Alumni House dedication Thursday.
About 125 alumni, students, community members, faculty, and staff attended the dedication, which included a ribbon cutting and community open house. A $1 million gift from M.E Hannah ’58, DL ’82 helped make the house renovations possible and led to the housing naming.
Hannah Alumni House is the College’s first central meeting space for Grinnell alumni. Most of the house will be open for meetings, events, and guest room reservations starting in December.
Interior and exterior renovations have taken place over the last year. On the first floor is a meeting room, accessible bathroom, living room, a three-season enclosed porch, dining room and kitchen. Upstairs are four guest bedrooms, bathrooms, and another guest lounge. The carpeting has been pulled up in several parts of the house to expose original hardwood floors. New lights were added, and the fireplaces have been updated.
The historic house was originally built in the 1910s by two 1901 Grinnell alums, Jesse and Maude Fellows. It’s now named for M.E Hannah ’58, DL ’82, a trailblazer in higher education.
“I’m a little stunned by how beautiful it is,” said Alumni Council member David Kurzman ’96. He and his wife, Erin Kelly, named the primary bedroom the Sesquicentennial Class Guest Room. They were one of several donors who made gifts in support of the project, which are honored through an opportunity to name a space in the house.
David Kurzman ’96
“There are a lot of principles that I live by,” Kurzman said. “One of them is ‘it’s important to plant trees whose shade you will never benefit from.’ This is one of those examples where I can help provide space for people to feel safe and comfortable while allowing them to come visit and share their ideas. The room can be a jumping off point for alumni visitors to share their experience back with the student body.”
Beyond providing an appealing venue for events, meetings, and lodging, the house commemorates the exceptional legacy of Grinnell alumni. Working in tandem with the College archives, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) filled the house with a range of Grinnell mementos, historic photos, and displays that tell both the history of the house as well as celebrate alums. The Metzler Family Lounge on the second floor is lined with cabinets that currently display an exhibition celebrating the 2025 Alumni Award recipients.
“I was moved to tears to see what a great job the College has done to restore this beautiful home,” said Dick Metzler ’65. “I didn’t have any appreciation for how large the lounge was going to be and how many alumni would be honored in there through the display cases.”
Dick and his late wife, Dorothy Dosse Metzler ’66, served on their respective 50th Reunion committees, which held meetings at Grinnell House. One of the reasons Metzler wanted to invest in Hannah House is he knew it could be a terrific venue for future such Reunion planning meetings as well as a remembrance for his family.
Yesteryear Grinnell alumni photos line the stairway, hallway, and other spaces in the house.
“I think alums will be flabbergasted by the house,” he said. “To have a place that showcases the accomplishments of alumni from all generations will be something people will feel really positive about.”
The house already has accrued quite a few College memories, too. It was built by an alumni couple, Jesse and Maude Fellows, both class of 1901. The Fellows hosted many events for Grinnell’s faculty, students, and alumni. The home also served as a Grinnell College dorm in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Bly first noticed the house as a student walking around town in the early 1990s. When she married her husband, Bob Hamilton, Bly’s connection to the house became deeper. It had been owned for many years by Bob’s grandfather Arthur “Babe” Hamilton and great aunts Pearl Nollen and Blanche McGurk.
“Bob and his cousin told countless stories of spending time with Daddy Babe, as their grandfather was known, at the big house, making pancakes and popcorn on the weekends, watching Sputnik in the sky, and of Aunt Pearl doing crosswords in the den,” Bly said.
Bly, her son, Davis Hamilton, right, and her husband’s cousin, Stephen Rocheford, have their photo taken in Aunt Pearl’s Guest Room.
Bly made a gift in support of the house and named her space Aunt Pearl’s Guest Room. Pearl was an avid golfer in her day and the sister-in-law to John Nollen, Grinnell College’s sixth president.
“The house was a place for learning, family, and fun,” Bly added. “When the College shared plans to make it the Alumni House, it seemed like the perfect conflation of things that touched my heart. When my husband passed away last year, my son and I could think of no better way to honor him and his family legacy than to name a room in his memory.”
During remarks at the dedication, President Anne F. Harris noted how the house is a reminder that Grinnell is not just an experience for four years, but a lifelong home.
“It was my dream to have a space where we could honor our alumni, where we could show and monumentalize our love for them,” she said. “To our marvelous alums who are here throughout this audience, please know you are loved by this College and in this College. You inspire students and all of us to hold the standards and the values for everything we believe in and everything Grinnell College stands for.”
—by Jeremy Shapiro