Rachel Pierce
Well above the city’s floodplain, a former Vermont College of Fine Arts dormitory is finding new life as a steady place to land for a rotating group of renters.
On a golden October afternoon, Rebekah Owens, owner of Evermint Properties, held open the front door and ushered in a prospective resident for a tour of Dewey Hall. She led the way past wooden mail cubbies and a bulletin board covered with flyers. In the first-floor women’s hallway, she showed off the gym-style shared bathroom before unlocking a bright, tidy dorm room. Two twin beds, a built-in desk with two chairs, and two deep closets hinted at the building’s past, yet it was easy to imagine working or studying there today.
The tour was part of Owens’s role leasing the building for Greenway Institute, a private nonprofit developing a hands-on engineering college at the former Vermont College of Fine Arts campus. For now, the brick building at 1 West Street is one of six buildings the organization is maintaining as it prepares to launch the new college.
Greenway began leasing Dewey Hall in 2024 as a “medium-term” option for people working nearby or experiencing a housing transition, with lease terms anywhere from one to 12 months. The second floor is leased to Cabot Creamery and its rotating workforce. First- and third-floor tenants include state legislators in session, newcomers to Vermont, and locals adjusting to moves, separations, and other life changes.
“It gives people a little bit of breathing room,” said Kristin Cantu, Greenway’s business manager. “We wanted to offer people an affordable place to live while they figure out what’s next.”
Cantu also noted that eventually the plan is to transition the dorm back to housing for students in a couple of years. “It won’t necessarily happen all at once,” she said. “It will be a slow transition as we grow our student population.”
Owens has managed the day-to-day leasing since May 2025. Most of the 80 units are occupied, and turnover tends to follow the seasons. Leases range from one to 12 months — flexibility that is difficult to find elsewhere. A flat $550 per month covers a room, reliable Wi-Fi, and all utilities. There is also a food-share refrigerator, an onsite coin-operated laundry, and ample parking, albeit currently on the old basketball court. According to Owens, Dewey Hall’s appeal is simple: proximity to downtown and month-to-month rent within reach.
The mix of residents is as varied as the reasons that brought them here. Kayleen Koumoue, a recent Norwich University graduate, had just started her first full-time job at Washington County Mental Health Services. Although she had only been there a few days, she had a positive first impression of Dewey Hall.
“People have been welcoming,” she said. “It’s pretty affordable. You have time to get back on your feet.”
Independent contractor Justin Pittinaro signed a lease in August 2025 under very different circumstances. After his house burned down in January, he spent months searching for a livable rental in his price range.
“There was nothing out there,” he said. “This was huge.” Pittinaro liked that the building is clean, calm, and quiet, and that residents can be as social or as private as they wish. “Given what it is, it’s spectacular,” he said.
As Dewey Hall fills up, Greenway Institute has been quietly pursuing its larger goal. The nonprofit is raising funds to establish a four-year engineering college that combines classroom learning with paid industry experience. It now owns six buildings on campus, and the first cohort is expected in fall 2027. Until then, Greenway is keeping the properties active rather than letting them sit empty. “It was important to us to find ways to make good use of the buildings that benefit the community until we’re ready to take them over,” said Cantu. “There’s a real housing need here in Vermont, and we saw the dorms as an opportunity to help meet that need.”
Greenway sees Dewey Hall as a temporary housing solution, but for residents like Pittinaro, “temporary” is a relative term. “They’ll have to kick me out to get rid of me,” he said with a grin.
Back inside Dewey Hall, Owens paused her tour to chat briefly with a young resident. A mother pushed a boisterous toddler through the lobby in a stroller. A silver-haired man nodded in passing. “We have people from all over,” she said. “Every single kind of person you can think of is here, and they all get along.” The occasional squabble, she said, usually involved neighbors smoking too close to the building or leaving dishes in the sink. She compared it to “living with roommates — just a lot more of them.” For the most part, Owens said, people seemed content with the living arrangement and inclined to stay.
She led her prospective tenant down a short flight of stairs, through a cafeteria bathed in afternoon light, and into a cavernous commercial kitchen. Residents prepare their own meals using the cooking equipment and appliances. Perishables are stored in individually labeled plastic tubs, and staples such as butter and milk are provided in a food-share fridge. Greenway hopes to transform the kitchen into a café serving both residents and the surrounding community. A request for proposals is being prepared for an operator to restore the kitchen to its former glory; the now-defunct New England Culinary Institute once used it as a public culinary learning lab.
Greenway also envisions the space as a gathering place in times of crisis, safely situated above the floodplain.
“Big picture,” Cantu said, “Greenway just wants to be a resource for the community.”
Until then, Dewey Hall will continue to meet one of Montpelier’s most pressing needs: affordable housing.
