The Savoy building at LAS: a place so full of history that many of us have roamed the hallways of. Built in 1900, the Savoy building has been a longstanding home for LAS students and faculty. From learning in the classrooms to bonding with roommates, the Savoy building has provided fun, learning, and incredible views for generations! We reached out to our alumni community on Facebook, asking them to share memories of their time at Savoy when they were students here. 

 

Share your Savoy memories by emailing advancement@las.ch!

Send us your memories!

 

---

 

Marty Walker '63
"I attended LAS the first two years that it existed: 1961-1963. I was one of seven 8th graders accepted in 1961; we three girls of that small class stayed in the Head Mistress’s chalet that year. (I remember having to teach myself how to smoke!!) The next year (9th grade) I roomed with all the girls in 2nd & 3rd floors of Savoy. We bought apple cider in bottles, put them on our porches to ferment over winter! I remember rappelling from the roof—a great requirement and experiment. Skiing every Monday and Thursday was a great practice. And I was in our school's first ski races that year—I went on to be on the ski team at University of Colorado years later because of it. So many great memories!"

Joe Burby '93
"I lived there for two of my three years attending the school. During my time there the building was always getting upgrades. It was neat to see what new look or features were put in place year after year."

Rick Olson
"Having to accommodate ghosts in the room, it got crowded at times! One particular group of ghosts was quite persistent. I also remember jumping off the lower floors into the snow. We had a lot of snow in 1969."
 

Andrew Parsons
"We would sneak into the kitchen to find food at night (1977 & 1978—back when times were hard and we were calorie-restricted). I was the smallest and would get into the dumbwaiter. My friends would push the button to send it down to the kitchen. I'd pry the dumbwaiter doors open, get into the kitchen, then open the main doors to let the others in. I don't think the staff figured out how we did it—again and again—although it was clear they suspected me. Great fun."

Doug Coombs '65
"Yes, in 1964-1965 the boys were on the top two floors. A couple of us rappelled from our balcony one night and swung into the girls' rooms on the lower floors just to say "hi!" Great fun...but also many rope burns! No harnesses in those days, or helmets, or safety ropes. Stupid, but fun stupid!"
 

Byron Loubert '65
"1964: climbing up the side of the building, trying to impress John Harlin (instructor and Olympic climbing champ), then repelling down. Beautiful vistas of the mountains across the Alps from our balcony."
 

Kaz '70
"Because Savoy was a TB ward previously, there’s no doubt that there are ghosts in those buildings.  In the middle of the night, from the seventh floor, I stepped into the open door of the elevator after hearing it operating.  I touched nothing and the elevator took me up and down and delivered me to the basement floor to look around, at the many crooked walls, and then I got back in the elevator, touched nothing, and took me back to our dorm on the seventh floor.

Also, rappelling to escape the Savoy was great fun for a quick hike to the Club Vagabond, then a drain pipe ascent to the girls dorm, and then ascend the gold-line rope back to bed. Next day ‘So now we go ski, yah’ with coach Yanos…"


Rob Jones '71
"Here is how Savoy looked when originally built. It certainly changed a lot over the years."

Bruce McKinzie '71
"Herr Bischop, the head chef, had two Saint Bernard pups. Those dogs were the size of mini horses! One day, the grease traps from the kitchen in the Savoy needed to be cleaned. They brought in an excavator to dig a big, BIG hole, and the dogs got into all that muck! I don't think I've ever seen two dogs more happy, more messy, and more smelly in my life!"

 

The famous St Bernards and Herr Bischoff, head chef. Photo credit to Charles Odell '73.

 

 

Collage by Martha (Ross) Bash '62