Wes­ley Ath­let­ics Relo­cates to ‘Lit­tle School’

Head Foot­ball Coach Mike Drass, Jane Richter, Hat­tye Mae Bid­dle and Pres­i­dent John­ston out­side the new Ath­let­ics House.

The Wes­ley Col­lege Ath­let­ics Depart­ment recently found a new home, as sev­eral offices were relo­cated to what was for­merly the Lit­tle School on North Queen Street in Dover. When the Lit­tle School moved in 2009 from its old loca­tion to a new build­ing on Mont Blanc Boule­vard in Dover, Wes­ley was able to acquire the for­mer site, con­ve­niently located adja­cent to Wes­ley West Field­house and one block away from Scott D. Miller Stadium.

The acqui­si­tion of much-needed office space has been an excit­ing devel­op­ment for the Col­lege and the Ath­let­ics Depart­ment specif­i­cally. It has pre­cip­i­tated repo­si­tion­ing of many team and coaches’ offices to con­sol­i­date the Depart­ment in one cen­tral area, mak­ing oper­a­tions more effi­cient as well as more con­ve­nient for prospec­tive stu­dents and families.

To fill what is now being called the Wes­ley Ath­let­ics House, the Department’s admin­is­tra­tive office, the sports infor­ma­tion office and track & field offices were moved from the ground floor of the DuPont Col­lege Cen­ter. The foot­ball offices were repo­si­tioned from the Foot­ball House on Gov­er­nors Avenue and the men’s soc­cer office, for­merly located in the Inter­na­tional House on State Street, also shifted to the newly acquired space. The women’s lacrosse office also found a new home in the Ath­let­ics House, free­ing up space for the base­ball office to move from the ground floor of the DuPont Col­lege Cen­ter to Wes­ley West. The office space vacated by Ath­let­ics has been reas­signed to the Nurs­ing Depart­ment, another cam­pus pro­gram happy to have some extra room.

The Lit­tle School is one of the old­est preschools in Delaware, hav­ing served over four gen­er­a­tions of chil­dren in the build­ing on North Queen Street. It was founded in 1954 by Hat­tye Mae Bid­dle, who then passed the reins to her hand­picked suc­ces­sor, Jane Richter, in 1975.When it came time for owner and oper­a­tor Richter to con­sider the future of the Dover preschool, she decided to join with two local Lit­tle School alumni and par­ents, along with the own­ers of the pop­u­lar Kids Cot­tage in Lewes, Delaware, to form a new part­ner­ship and build a beau­ti­ful new facil­ity in town— The Lit­tle School at Kids Cot­tage. The Lit­tle School’s admin­is­tra­tion was glad to see their for­mer home put to good use. The Wes­ley admin­is­tra­tion cer­tainly shares the sentiment.

“The Lit­tle School has been an icon in the com­mu­nity for gen­er­a­tions and Wes­ley Col­lege is very pleased to be the next gen­er­a­tion of care­tak­ers of this prop­erty,” Pres­i­dent Bill John­ston expressed. “The rep­u­ta­tion for care and inter­est in our youth, which began with Mrs. Bid­dle and Mrs. Richter, will con­tinue through the col­lege stu­dents served on this site.”