The musical hum of souped-up electric cars droning down Gaskin Avenue, an increase of adults above the ages of 18 to 23, a sudden abundance of quarter-zips — this could only mean one thing: Alumni are visiting. At a college whose identity is so deeply defined by its small, tight-knit community, Kenyon alumni often flock back to the place that primed their careers and adult identities. It is a pilgrimage that many current students will doubtless make in the years after graduation, seeking to return to the school that changed them, only to find that it has also been changed in their absence. Thanks to Kenyon’s near-constant renovation and expansion projects over the years, students can expect to provide directions to small groups of lost alumni clad in purple merchandise. One question lost alumni often ask, however, eludes an answer by many current students: “Where’s the Cove?” 

The Pirate’s Cove, affectionately shortened to the Cove, was a bar that operated on Kenyon’s campus from 1978 to 2016. Located at 100 E. Brooklyn Street, across from Gund Commons and next to the College Township Fire Department, the Cove was a staple of the campus bar scene (a tradition that has largely dissipated in recent Kenyon memory, save for Flats and late-night trivia at the Village Inn). According to a 2007 Collegian article, it was a popular drinking destination for upperclassmen. The Cove was open past midnight, a beacon for those seeking their late-night fix of drink and conversation. It offered students and community members cheap food and beer, making it a surefire success on a college campus. 

Kenyon purchased the property from its original owners in 2002. According to the same 2007 article, the change in ownership came in the aftermath of the disappearance and murder of Emily Murray ’02, a Kenyon student who worked as a waitress at the bar. Gregory McKnight, her coworker, was tried and convicted for her abduction and murder. “In light of the Emily Murray incident, the College wanted to be able to control the property so they could oversee the restaurant and its operations,” former Business Services Director Fred Linger H’22 told the Collegian in 2007. “It’s hard to say there was actual cause and effect,” late College Historian Tom Stamp ’73 H’22 said in the same article, “but it certainly made sense for the College to have more control of the establishment considering the circumstances.” 

Kenyon closed and renovated the Cove, renaming it the Gambier Grill upon its reopening in 2002. Though it operated under a different name, the majority of students continued referring to the bar and restaurant as the Cove. 

The Gambier Grill closed on Feb. 21, 2016, when Kenyon decided not to renew its lease. A 2016 Campus Report described the decision to demolish the bar as part of “a long-term vision to enhance student residential life and promote the small-scale charm of Gambier.” In its place, the College opened late-night restaurant and bar service at Peirce Pub. Like many administrative decisions that impact student nightlife, this was not taken lightly by students. A 2016 Kenyon Thrill post reads: “[M]any students have stated their dissatisfaction with this idea, citing reasons such as poor location and the oddity of drinking in a college-owned dining hall. Many view the destruction of the Gambier Grill as another attempt by the administration to overly-control the student body, controlling their whereabouts and diminishing their late-night options.” 

Other students were also upset that the College demolished the most affordable on-campus drinking option. “The [Kenyon Inn] has an expensive bar, the [Village Inn], mid-range, while the Cove [has] the cheapest of the three. College students like to drink on the cheap, which makes the Cove an attractive option,” reads a 2016 Collegian opinion article. In the years that followed, businesses failed to replicate the raucous, boozy atmosphere that lent the Cove/Grill its success among the student body. “The Grill was where people went to go [to] mess things up,” said Village Inn bartender Alex Kinsman in a 2017 Collegian article. “They have a different respect for the VI.”

Alumni visits offer an intersection between Kenyon’s past and future, fostering a reciprocal network between students seeking to look forward and alumni looking back at a campus and culture that deeply impacted them. This campus and culture, though, is always in flux — a phenomenon that is embodied physically through the changing geography of Kenyon itself.