The Interlochen Center for the Arts announced Friday that it will tear down the Green Lake Lodge, a building that once bore the name of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The decision follows a vote by the school’s board of trustees and comes after the institution learned that at least two of Epstein’s accusers said they met the financier at the camp in the 1990s. Interlochen said the lodge “carries associations that are not reflective of who we are as an institution or the values we strive to uphold.”
The lodge, located on the campus’s Green Lake property, was originally known as the Jeffrey E. Epstein Scholarship Lodge. The school renamed it after cutting ties with Epstein and scrubbing references to him following his first conviction in 2008. The building was funded in part by Epstein’s donations, which totaled more than $400,000 between 1990 and 2003. Of that amount, $200,000 was earmarked for the lodge’s construction.
Epstein first visited Interlochen as a teenager in 1967, a trip that preceded his later philanthropy toward the school. The billionaire’s connection to the camp resurfaced in media reports after his 2019 arrest on federal sex‑trafficking charges. According to court‑released correspondence, Epstein directed tuition for at least one student to be paid from his donations and once flew violinist Itzhak Perlman to the school on his private jet.
Two of the women who have accused Epstein of sex trafficking have said they met him at Interlochen in the 1990s. The school said it was aware of those claims and has invited the victims to speak with an independent investigator as part of an external investigation into historical misconduct at the campus.
Interlochen’s internal reviews, the most recent conducted after Epstein’s 2019 arrest, found no reports of misconduct involving him in the school’s records. Nevertheless, the board concluded that removing the lodge “in a safe and timely manner is the right step for Interlochen at this time.” The demolition is slated to begin later this summer, signaling the institution’s effort to address its ties to Epstein and to reinforce a campus environment that aligns with its stated values.