From Fortnightly (November 26, 2001):

The story of the Old Kenyon Fire of February 27, 1949 is familiar to all that have studied or worked at Kenyon. With nine students lost in the fire, it remains the most tragic day in the history of the College. Photographs of the fire are haunting: the majestic spire of Old Kenyon shrouded in tentacles of flame; the eerie silhouette of the outer stone walls illuminated from within by the glowing inferno; one lone stream of water trying to quench the unrelenting thirst of the fire.

Lee Schermerhorn was a sophomore at Kenyon in February 1949. He had driven his date back to Mount Vernon after a night of dancing and was returning to Gambier when he saw emergency vehicles in transit to and from the College. After arriving back on the Hill and finding Old Kenyon aflame, he did one thing, however, that no one else thought to do: he went to his room in Leonard and got his movie camera. He captured the final intense moments of the fire as the flames spread to the east and west wings, shooting out the bulls-eye windows into the night sky. He captured glimpses of the final huge wooden beams that once supported the roof over Middle Kenyon, just before their collapse into the ruins. He captured the sudden bursts of flame that rocketed from the hollowed out shell of the building like fireworks. And unlike all the black and white photographs of the fire, he captured it in color. Perhaps the only thing missing from his film is the sound of that night. The stark silence of his film, however speaks very clearly of the horror of February 27th.

Schermerhorn returned the following day to view the smoking remains of the building. Over the next few weeks, he chronicled the beginning of the demolition, the salvage operation of some stone from the wings, and some of the final blows of the wrecking ball as it assaulted the stalwart stones of Old Kenyon. In October 1949, he filmed the laying of the cornerstone for the new Old Kenyon, and his camera was witness to the installation of a new steel spire atop the resurrected building.

This past summer, Schermerhorn donated a copy of his film to the Kenyon College archives. His donation is one of the most significant in recent years, as it gives us the most haunting and poignant evidence of the darkest day in Kenyon history. The archives is particularly grateful to Lee Schermerhorn '51, Will Pilcher '51, Adam Sapp '02, and Russ Geiger in the Office of Development for their assistance in identifying and arranging the donation of the film.

The question remains, however, what other treasures of Kenyon history still remain forgotten, or neglected in an attic, or basement, or drawer? Printed materials, such as yearbooks, Collegians, even letters, and campus photographs are often discovered and donated to the Archives. Being on paper makes them easy to see and identify. Even someone who had never heard of Kenyon College could identify a copy of a 1922 Kenyon Collegian and return it to the College. Multimedia formats pose another challenge. How many of us have unlabeled boxes of film, audio, or videotapes lying around. Because these require projectors, tape players, or VCRs to examine, these materials are much less likely to be identified and donated as historical material. Supporting evidence for this are the very few films and videos in the College archives. Currently, we are actively seeking donations of film, video, and other multimedia resources of Kenyon, Gambier, and Knox County. Surprisingly, it is the everyday and mundane film of life in Gambier that proves the most interesting, and will be the most valuable for future generations.