Renovations to the Dean of Students office at Scripps College unearthed a surprising discovery recently: a dumbwaiter walled away for more than four decades. Thanks to the Facilities department and president Lori Bettison-Varga, it’s now a time capsule.
The dumbwaiter was discovered during routine upgrades made to the facilities. Out of service since the early 1970s, it’s believed the lift was covered up when the Dean of Students offices expanded their floor space; the last date of inspection is from 1970.
“Every time we do construction there is potential to find tidbits of history,” says Melinda Jo Sanchez of Facilities. “We often find windows and doors that have been walled up, newspapers, and old photographs. We once found the original paint card for Scripps Green that had fallen behind a built in bookcase, sealed there for over 50 years.”
Clockwise from top left: the dumbwaiter’s distinctive Sedgwick label; one of three permits issued to the dumbwaiter during its lifespan; president Lori Bettison-Varga places a letter and other memorabilia inside the wall; the dumbwaiter as a time capsule.
While the dumbwaiter’s definitive history is lost to time, it’s believed it dates to the original construction of Balch Hall in 1929. Judy Harvey Sahak ’64, Scripps librarian and Curator of the Archives, suggests it was installed to service the Science room formerly above the space and was used between 1947 and 1970 by English professor Joseph Foster to transport books and printing equipment between the first and second floors.
“This artifact has the potential to capture imaginations and to join ghost sightings as an uncanny campus legend,” says Sahak. “Dean Lee, please report any creaking in the wall.”
With construction completed, the dumbwaiter once again takes a hiding place behind the drywall and paint of the office’s south-facing wall but it won’t be alone. President Bettison-Varga has written a letter explaining the mystery and placed it, as well as a copy of Scripps Magazine and some other campus literature, inside the lift.
“Whenever this dumbwaiter is uncovered again in the future,” the letter says, “this brief explanation may serve to clear up some of the mystery you might encounter in discovering it once again.”
Until then, Scripps adds one more hidden space to its roster.