Currently, Allen Community College houses 282 students in seven different housing complexes that have a maximum capacity of 312 students. They can choose from living in an apartment or suite-style residence halls.

Some students have thought of replacing Horton Hall with a new residence hall. Fact is, college officials also have been pondering student housing.

Horton was built with the campus in 1969 and Winter Hall followed closely behind. They have traditionally housed many of the first-time freshmen at Allen. Both halls have started to get some years of “wear and tear” on them.

The addition of another residence hall would add the benefits of getting to house more students if it was bigger than Horton.

Allen President John Masterson said, “We are in the front end of the planning stages of what we might want to do and how to do it, because at some point you either have to go back in and remodel and rebuild, or you have to build to replace.”

Although the college plans to build a new activities center first, the dorm situation still stands as something in need.

Masterson said, “If everything falls in place, it would be very possible to have a new activity center in the next year and half or so, and then after that project gets going, we can shift our ideas to the residence halls. So even if we were to be going fast tract, it would be around four to five years before we would actually have a new dormitory to be opening.”

Building a new residence hall also challenges the budget. Knowing where the college stands after building a new activity center is very important.

“For a college our size, we must plan very carefully to make the financial part of that work,” Masterson noted.

Ideas that came to mind would be building a larger residence hall that could take over the housing of both Winter and Horton halls. Another idea would be to renovate one or both, keeping costs and the budget in mind, the president said.