Winthrop Drainage Odor Closes Dining Hall

A drainage problem that has tortured Winthrop House residents with a pungent odor for weeks came to a head yesterday, closing the dining hall for dinnertime repairs and displacing students during the last few days of exam period.

A sign on the dining hall door said it was “temporarily closed due to drain repair” and redirected students to Lowell House.

The typically locked gate between Lowell and Winthrop Houses was open last night to accommodate the flow of students.

Three vans from the Drain Doctor sewer and drain cleaning service were parked outside Winthrop at 6:15 p.m. yesterday as the dining hall sat empty.

House tutors said that in recent weeks, a sewage-like smell had begun to emanate from the dining hall’s beverage area.

Tutor Irene L. Garcia said that while the smell fluctuated in intensity, it never completely went away.

Eventually, said tutor Jimmy Davis, the odor could be smelled from across the dining hall.

“You would hold your breath while you were getting drinks,” he said.

Winthrop resident Tono Aguilar ’06 compared the smell to that of a “dead whale.” Other students likened the odor to dead rodents.

Senior Tutor Jim von der Heydt declined to comment by e-mail last night about the specific drain problem and when the dining hall would reopen.

Last Sunday, von der Heydt wrote in a post to the House open list that the smell resulted from a backup in the juice machine’s drainage hose. But on Wednesday, Winthrop resident Moshe Shai Davis ’06 reported having smelled the odor in the basement as well.