Twenty-five years ago, just after 9 p.m on April 24, 2001, flames appeared in Longwood’s Rotunda, the iconic domed building that had stood on High Street for nearly a century.
By morning the building was in ruins. Grainger Hall was flooded with water and had significant smoke damage. Campus was devastated, but thankful that no one was hurt. The Rotunda had long been the physical and spiritual heart of campus, where generations of students had worn down the stone step at its entryway, climbed its curved staircases, attended classes, lived, and met and studied under its painted dome.
President Patty Cormier
Now 25 years later, on the anniversary of the Great Fire, as the blaze became quickly known, the Rotunda continues to occupy that central place in campus life – the testament to a resilient and connected campus community who vowed to rebuild their iconic building just as it was before the fire.
The anniversary year will also mark the start of a years-long project to refresh the exterior and interior of the building to ensure that its beauty is maintained for more generations to come.
April 24, 2001
The first call came into Longwood police at 9:22 p.m. The Rotunda was on fire.
Flames spread quickly through the building that was under renovation – kismet in a way: important and timeless artwork, including Joanie on the Stony and a series of presidential portraits, had been removed from the building so they were undamaged during construction. The paintings on the interior of the dome were under restoration at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
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The fire moved so quickly that by the time the Farmville Fire Chief arrived on the scene the western half of the building was a total loss.
As students were evacuated from nearby residence halls in French, Tabb, South Tabb and South Ruffner, eleven nearby fire departments arrived and began fighting the fire, which had by then spread to the eastern half of the Rotunda. Smoke was turning the walls and roof of Grainger Hall black and sooty. The sky was alive with sparks flying up from the historic corridor of campus, and students, faculty, staff, and town residents watched, shocked and horrified at the image.
Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish the roaring fire, pumping millions of gallons of water into the Rotunda and Grainger, and managed to stop the flames moving eastward toward Main Street. Legend has it that Joanie on the Pony, who in 2001 sat in the Colonnades, glowed red from the heat of the fire and fought back the flames from burning more of her beloved college.
Randall Johnson ’01, a business administration major and member of the Farmville Volunteer Fire Department during his Longwood career, remembered staring into the 2,000-degree blaze in the Rotunda from the third floor of Grainger Hall in a special edition of the Longwood Magazine published just weeks after he graduated.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever been afraid,” said Johnson. “It was just unbelievable. It was frightening.”
The Rotunda had caught fire twice before in its history: in 1923 a blaze destroyed the south wing and in 1949 fire struck the east wing, damaging classrooms and student residences. Neither, though, destroyed the entire building.
As dawn broke on the morning of April 25, the Rotunda was a smoldering pile of brick and concrete. The walls of Grainger stood, but the interior of the building was destroyed from flooding and smoke damage.
President W. Taylor Reveley IV
Word went out that President Patty Cormier had called students, faculty, and staff to Jarman Hall at 11 a.m. Amid the heartache and pain, Cormier addressed the crowd. Classes and exams for the rest of the semester were canceled, she announced, though Commencement would still take place on Wheeler Mall—just steps away from the devastation of the Great Fire. Temporary faculty offices would be set up behind Greenwood Library. And the Rotunda, she said, would “rise like a phoenix from the ashes” and be brought back to its former splendor.
“I have faith in the strength and character of this institution, and we will recover,” said Cormier. “The damage is severe, but we will overcome it because it is bricks and mortar. Not one student was injured, not one student died. This campus is a campus of character and you showed it in all of your glory last night. I thank you so much.”
Rise it did – a new Rotunda rebuilt as it was originally constructed just four years later, and an important legacy of Longwood was preserved – down to the angled stone step that serves as its entryway.
“President Cormier’s leadership in that moment was extraordinary,” said Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV. “Because of the strength and unity of purpose that she was able to summon amid so much destruction and pain, Longwood is what it is today – and a powerful symbol of the alma mater remains at the heart of all we do.”
“The beating heart of campus”
A quarter-century on from the Great Fire, the Rotunda continues to be the postcard image of Longwood, its central corridor and flanking wings sitting on its original footprint, and its stone entryway traversed by thousands of footsteps each day. As days get warmer in the spring, seniors put on their graduation gowns and take photos in front of its doors, as they have for generations. Students still touch Joanie on the Stony as they head to their final exams for a bit of extra luck. At the end of each class period, the lobby buzzes with the energy of students passing in and out.
Dr. Larissa Smith, provost and vice president for academic affairs
“It’s hard to overstate what this building means to campus,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Larissa Smith, whose office is on the first floor of the building. “Almost every student who graduates from Longwood walks these halls or takes a course in one of its classrooms. In many ways it is the beating heart of campus. The legacy of the fire has become one of a great sense of community and resilience at Longwood that lasts today.”
This summer, work will commence on refreshing the building while it continues to be used as classroom, office, and meeting space for campus. The first phase will return the dome to its original copper-clad exterior, which will over time develop a handsome patina. Additional exterior work will fix minor leaks, repair and repaint trimwork near the dome, and ensure that the building is as stately as it was when it was first designed and constructed more than 120 years ago.
Following the exterior work, attention will turn to the interior of the building. The main lobby will receive new carpeting, paint, and become home to an extensive silver collection bequeathed in 2024 to the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts by collector Jack Blanton, which will be displayed in cases throughout the Rotunda. The planning for that work, being led by the team that refurbished the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, is underway.
At the same time, classroom spaces will be improved with furniture and paint. Interior work will take place over the next several years.
“The Rotunda is a special building,” said Reveley. “She has risen several times over the years and will stand far into the future as a testament to Longwood’s great spirit.”