Campus Alert Archive
Conn

A 214-Year-Old Steeple Falls Next Door and Fifty Students Move Into a Holiday Inn

AI-generated · every claim is source-linked
CTevacuationemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

When the steeple and roof of the historic First Church of Christ in downtown New London collapsed) around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, 2024, the New London Fire Department ordered the adjacent Manwaring Apartments, Connecticut College's off-campus student housing, evacuated as a precaution. Campus Safety sent a CCAlert to the entire student body and relocated roughly 50 displaced Manwaring residents to a nearby Holiday Inn for several nights while engineers assessed the church site's stability.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Connecticut College
Private Liberal Arts · CT
~1,800 studentsCCAlert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction99 chars
CCAlert: Manwaring needs to be evacuated immediately. Please check your email for more information.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The push alert itself is described as terse, naming only the building and the action required, with substantive detail pushed to a follow-up email
Manwaring is off-campus, upperclassman apartment housing directly adjacent to the collapsed church, so the alert addressed a hazard outside Connecticut College's own property line
Sent to the entire student body rather than only Manwaring residents, consistent with Connecticut College treating this as a campus-wide emergency notification
UPDATEEmail
Verified verbatimThe College Voice, quoting Dean of Students Victor Arcelus's email to Connecticut College students, faculty, and staff95 chars
The New London Fire Department notified Campus Safety and they immediately evacuated Manwaring.
This sentence is directly quoted by The College Voice from Dean of Students Victor Arcelus's follow-up email; the surrounding text of the full email was not published, so only this confirmed portion is treated as verbatim
Attributes the evacuation order to the New London Fire Department rather than Campus Safety's own judgment, clarifying the chain of authority behind the precaution
The passive framing, 'they immediately evacuated,' emphasizes speed as reassurance to a wider audience beyond the displaced Manwaring residents
Context

Background

Connecticut College leases Manwaring, an off-campus apartment building on State Street in downtown New London for upperclassman housing. On the afternoon of January 25, 2024, the steeple of the adjacent First Church of Christ, a 214-year-old landmark, suddenly collapsed onto its own roof, closing surrounding streets. The New London Fire Department, concerned about the stability of the site next to Manwaring, directed Connecticut College's Campus Safety office to evacuate the building immediately, and Campus Safety pushed a CCAlert to the entire student body while separately notifying the roughly 50 displaced residents. The college relocated those students to a nearby Holiday Inn for several nights. No one, including the single person inside the church at the time, the office manager, was injured, and Manwaring residents moved back in on January 30, 2024, once the initial demolition phase was finished and the building was cleared as safe.
Analysis

Key Findings

The evacuation was triggered by an external hazard, a collapsing historic church next door, not by any failure inside the Manwaring building itself
Connecticut College distinguished between a campus-wide CCAlert and direct outreach to the roughly 50 directly displaced residents
The college covered hotel relocation for displaced students for five nights while the site was assessed, rather than dispersing students to find their own housing
The only verbatim-confirmed language comes from a Dean of Students follow-up email, illustrating how administrative correspondence sometimes preserves alert content better than the original push notification
Outcome
No students were injured. Manwaring residents returned to their apartments on January 30, 2024, once the immediate demolition phase was complete and the site was declared safe.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Legacy Lives On: A New London Staple Collapses - The College Voice
    thecollegevoice.org
    archived copy
  2. News
    Connecticut College students return to dorm as New London church demo continues - The Day
    theday.com
    archived copy
  3. News
    Streets closed, dorm evacuated after roof collapse at New London church - NBC Connecticut
    nbcconnecticut.com
    archived copy
  4. Source
    First Church of Christ (New London, Connecticut) - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org
    archived copy
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "Connecticut College: A 214-Year-Old Steeple Falls Next Door and Fifty Students Move Into a Holiday Inn." Incident of January 25, 2024. Added July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/connecticut-college-manwaring-evacuation-2024-01-25/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
evacuationemergency-notificationconnecticutoff-campus-housingstructural-collapseliberal-arts2024
Added July 2026Updated July 2026Via ingestion