Broadview Hall, 5540 S. Hyde Park Blvd., will be sold and its Wick, Talbot and Palmer house communities retired. [DNAinfo/Sam Cholke]
HYDE PARK — The University of Chicago is selling three dormitories slated for closure in June 2016.
In April, the university announced it would close Broadview, Blackstone and Maclean halls, and now says it will also sell the buildings as students move into the Campus North Residence Hall, a new 800-bed dorm currently under construction at Greenwood Ave. and 55th Street.
Breckinridge Hall, 1442 E. 59th St., will also be closed, but will not be sold because it is on campus, according to Marielle Sainvilus, a spokeswoman for the university.
“The market will dictate how the properties are sold, but ideally all three could be sold to one buyer,” Sainvilus said.
The change will mean the end of five “houses,” groups of students all housed together and where new students are inculcated into the traditions of the university and their own house.
Broadview will lose the Wick House, named for Warner Wick, the dean of students at the university through the turbulent 1960s and who championed open expression on campus while decrying violent and disruptive protests.
The house, marked by its seal of a tortoise with a sword and shield, was known for its tradition of minstrelling to announce study breaks and holding an annual haunted house with the Sue Duncan Children’s Center.
The university is planning a retirement ceremony at the end of the year for the Wick, Talbot, Palmer, Blackstone, Breckinridge and Maclean houses.
Four other houses from the now-demolished Pierce Hall and New Graduate Residence Hall, which will be converted into the Harris School of Public Policy in 2016, will also be retired at the ceremony. Those houses include Midway, Henderson and Tufts.
The university will establish eight new houses in the Campus North Residence Hall and include the students in the resident masters program they previously were excluded from. The program houses a faculty member among the students who provides guidance for new students.
“Broadview, Blackstone and Maclean did not have resident masters and did not have apartments that could be used for the program, particularly since resident masters are expected occasionally to host student gatherings in their apartments,” Sainvilus said. “The new residence halls have been built with the program in mind.”
The university has not yet said when the buildings will be put on the market or an expected sale price.
Blackstone Hall, 5748 S. Blackstone Ave., will be sold and its Blackstone house community retired.
Maclean Hall, 5445 S. Ingleside Ave., will be sold and its Maclean house community retired.
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