fireproof building; students are forced to climb its high flights of stairs several times a day—a situation not often conducive to the physical well-being of all young women. And so even though parts of the building can continue, with alteration, to serve admirably for administrative and academic purposes, it is no longer suitable for dormitory use. The elimination of the housing use of Peabody Hall will necessitate the erection of new dormitory facilities.” Helen Peabody From the Western College Memorial Archives, “Helen Peabody was born in New Hampshire in 1826. She was the youngest of fourteen children. Helen Peabody graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1848 and remained as a teacher for five years. She moved to St. Louis to be with her brother; however, in 1855 she was encouraged to become the first principal of the Western Female Seminary. Having been a student of Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke, Miss Peabody was qualified to establish a "Mount Holyoke in the West." She was principal from 1855 to 1887 when she took a leave of absence for a year. She presided over the 1888 commencement and announced her retirement after thirty-seven years at Western. Miss Peabody moved to California where she died in 1905.” She is buried in the Oxford Cemetery. Peabody today Today, Peabody Hall is only one of the three buildings once used to house students of Western still housing classrooms and offices. Along with administrative offices in the building lies a theatre where children and adult plays were once presented. Student rooms and utilities are all modern and the parlors and guest rooms are furnished with 19th-century antiques. In 1996 an article was released in The Cincinnati Enquirer discussing that the renovation of the 125 –year-old hall was nearly complete. The renovation was a $7 million project. The article goes on to describe how although the building looks as if something from a Dickens novel on the outside, the inside now models everything of the 21st century with its new rooms carved out, a computer room and video production studio added, and most room being hard-wired to a computer network. But to still keep some of the building's character from the 1800s when it was only a part of Western College, designers pick particular paint colors and wallpapers to achieve the historical accuracy. In this year the “new Peabody” also developed a renovated Leonard Theatre, the