Midget House @ Duck Pond

Colleges and Universities A-Z Virginia Tech
1

<p>Does anyone know anything about that miniature house by the duck pond? I heard that it's simply a bathroom, can anyone verify or refute that?</p>

2

<p>No clue. And with all this snow, i refuse to walk that far away from my dorm to find out</p>

3

<p>It’s real creepy. Does anyone know anything about this?</p>

4

<p>I thought it was a shelter for the ducks. It seems like I saw the chickenducks coming out of there a couple times. Could be wrong though.</p>

<p>And by the way, make sure you check out the duck pond in the snow at least once. It’s awesome.</p>

5

<p>The home, ‘Solitude’, was built by the Preston family in 1801. It was purchased by VAMC. (Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College) in 1872 and remains the oldest building on campus. Of course, Tech was known simply as VPI at the time.</p>

6

<p>No that’s not it, it’s not a home it’s extremely small. I heard it’s a bathroom, the door was locked when I checked.</p>

7

<p>Solitude is on the following map at J-6, 275, which I thought was the cute little historical home you were talking about.
There is a Golf Course Clubhouse also on the Duck Pond you may be thinking of at I-5, 295.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.vt.edu/where_we_are/maps/campus-map-highres.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vt.edu/where_we_are/maps/campus-map-highres.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>It took me quite a bit of digging through old folders but I found a picture of what he’s talking about:</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.freeimagehosting.net/][img]http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/19a980fea8.jpg[/img][/url”&gt;http://www.freeimagehosting.net/]

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/19a980fea8.jpg

[/url</a>]</p>

9

<p>Ahh, great find Chuy. I love history. I missed the mark on my last guess. After a birdseye on google earth I think there’s a good chance that the home in the background of the picture you found is Solitude and the ‘duck shack’ may have been part of the original property. That doesn’t answer LAConfidential’s original question of ‘what’ it is. Maybe I’ll be able to find out.</p>

10

<p>Yes, that building in the background is Solitude. I know I have more pictures of that building somewhere but I can’t find them.</p>

11

<p>As shown in the thesis for MS in Arch by Michael J. Pulice, the building is a springhouse.</p>

<p><a href=“http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06202000-16120053/unrestricted/MpsThesis.pdf[/url]”>http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06202000-16120053/unrestricted/MpsThesis.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>p. 6, fig. 7<br>
p. 55 - photo</p>