Page 15 - BusinessWest May 12, 2025

“This space
will serve as a
unifying gathering
place for our
community. The
dining commons
will become the
heart and soul
of our campus,
and a central part
of the student
experience.”
Turning Back the Clock
Project Will Restore WMA Chapel, Make It a Gathering Place
Brian Easler calls it “an inflection point
... a seismic shift in the academy’s
upward trajectory.”
He was referring to a $20 million proj-
ect to create a new kitchen and servery at
Wilbraham & Monson Academy (WMA)
and convert its historic chapel into a dining
commons.
Those phrases ‘inflection point’ and
‘seismic shift’ refer to several aspects of this
project and cover a lot of ground. Indeed,
they reference everything from the magni-
tude of the upgrade in dining facilities —
from fairly nondescript quarters to the fully
restored chapel, with its vaulted ceilings
and stained-glass windows, what students
are calling the ‘Harry Potter dining hall’ —
to the way this project will shift still more of
the activity at WMA to the east side of Main
Street, thus reducing traffic crossing the
busy street.
“This will move the center of the campus
from the west side of Main Street to the
east side,” said Easler. “And that will gener-
ate a 70% reduction in student Main Street
crossings, which is just one big impact.”
Meanwhile ‘inflection point’ also refers
to the way this project galvanized the WMA
community and especially its alumni base,
The historic chapel, seen above in an
archival photo, will be restored to its
former glory and given a new role as a
dining facility, as seen in the architect’s
rendering at left.
from which the vast majority of the funds
for the project were raised.
“This was not one of those fund-raising
efforts where you put the ask out to every-
one in the community ... 7,000 alumni and
everyone chips in,” Easler explained. “This
Staff Photo
was a handful of donors already close to the
school, already close to me.
“We went out to them with personal
WMA
Continued on page 17 >>
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