The Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan announced this week that its board of trustees has approved demolition of the Green Lake Lodge, a building that had been named in honor of Jeffrey Epstein until the school severed ties following his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, attended the Interlochen Arts Camp as a teenager in 1967. He donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003, including $200,000 that went specifically to construct the lodge. The school removed Epstein’s name from the building after his 2008 conviction, but the structure remained on campus.
Allegations that Epstein met at least two of his victims at Interlochen have surfaced in court documents, according to reporting by the Associated Press. The board’s decision to demolish the lodge rather than repurpose it marks a more definitive severance of the institution’s ties to Epstein.
“The lodge has, over time, come to carry associations that are not reflective of who we are as an institution or the values we strive to uphold,” Interlochen said in a statement. “After careful consideration, the Board determined that removing this structure in a safe and timely manner is the right step for Interlochen at this time.”
The demolition is the latest in a series of institutional reckonings with Epstein’s legacy, as organizations that accepted his donations or allowed him access to their facilities continue to face scrutiny.