Eaglebrook Breaks New Ground with Three Summer Construction Projects

It takes a lot of work to keep Eaglebrook a timeless sanctuary for learning, play, and discovery. Just ask Wes Smith, who has supervised the school’s physical plant since 2013 and is responsible for overseeing construction and maintenance across Eaglebrook’s 850-acre campus.

This summer, Mr. Smith is managing three construction projects, each of them critical to sustaining the Eaglebrook experience for new generations of middle-school boys.

At the Lewis Track & Field, a crew equipped with bulldozers and excavators is carving terraces into the adjoining hillside, improving drainage for the cross-country running trail, and building a staircase to connect the upper campus with the playing field below. 

The new terracing will include a stone retaining wall and stone steps that will allow parents and alumni to access folding-chair seating on game days.

The project will also install field lighting along the eastern and western edge of the track, allowing Eaglebrook to host Friday night games and other evening events.

These improvements – which seek to create a better space for outdoor play and nighttime activities – have been made possible in part by generous gifts from the classes of 2011, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

At Varsity Field, near the foot of the Macomber Ski Lift, another work crew is installing an extensive storm water drainage and infiltration system to protect Eaglebrook from the growing risk of severe weather events. 

Last summer, a microburst thunderstorm poured nine inches of water – the equivalent of three months of rainfall – on the Eaglebrook campus in one afternoon. The uncontrolled overflow washed out Pine Nook Road and required a major reconstruction project that included laying new gravel beds along the brook to prevent future erosion.

Given the increased likelihood of similar storms, the storm water drainage project at Varsity Field will create a reliable safety valve for water runoff. A long network of pipes, three-feet in diameter, will lace back and forth underneath the field, substantially increasing the volume of water that can be collected and released through natural soil leaching or via the mountain’s existing stream network.

The installation of the storm drainage system will also raise the elevation of Varsity Field to the level of Memorial FIeld. Soil from other construction projects around campus will be used to cover the pipes and provide the foundation for a new sod playing field.

The centerpiece of this summer’s construction projects is the New Dining Hall, which is scheduled to open during the 2025-2026 school year. The tradition of shared meals has been a keystone of the Eaglebrook experience for more than a century, and the new dining hall will become the school’s new heart and hearth, replacing Gibbs Hall, which was constructed in 1969.

The new dining hall will occupy the original footprint of Infirmary Field, and the process of making way for it has required the school to reroute much of its existing water, sewer, electric, and fiber optic infrastructure. 

Currently, crews are digging the foundation of the new structure and installing 21 new geothermal wells into the hillside near Kipling Cabin. Each of the wells, which provide a natural and sustainable source of heating and cooling for the new dining hall, will be dug to a depth of 450 below ground level.

When it is completed, the new dining hall will be Massachusetts’ first zero net energy dining facility, helping Eaglebrook accelerate toward its goal of creating a carbon-neutral campus. 

For the past four years, many gifts toward the construction of the dining hall have been matched by a generous donor.  If you want to contribute to the project, please contact Director of Advancement Schuyler Bogel at sbogel@eaglebrook.org. 

You can view architectural renderings of the new dining hall and monitor real-time construction progress by visiting this link: https://www.eaglebrook.org/about-us/a-new-dining-hall.