Editor’s note
Interlochen Public Radio staff are employed by Interlochen Arts Group, a subsidiary of Interlochen Center for the Arts. Our newsroom operates with editorial independence, meaning no senior Interlochen officials had any part in writing, editing or reviewing this story prior to publication.
Interlochen Center for the Arts says it will tear down a lodge donated by and once named after Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender and disgraced financier whose crimes have been tied to powerful people around the world.
Epstein attended summer camp at Interlochen in the summer of 1967 and was a donor to the organization from 1990 to 2003. A lodge was built in his name on the shores of Green Lake, used to house donors and – on occasion – Epstein himself.
After Interlochen learned of Epstein’s first criminal conviction in 2009, it investigated his activities on campus and found no evidence he committed crimes at Interlochen.
At that time, the organization also removed recognition of him from its northern Michigan campus, including pulling his name off what was called “The Epstein Lodge,” renaming it “Green Lake Lodge.”
“Green Lake Lodge has, over time, come to carry associations that are not reflective of who we are as an institution or the values we strive to uphold,” read a statement from Interlochen Center for the Arts. “After careful consideration, the Board determined that removing this structure in a safe and timely manner is the right step for Interlochen at this time.”
Officials at Interlochen say the demolition will move ahead soon, but did not give a more specific timeline. Interlochen President Trey Devey was not made available for an interview, with the school citing busy end-of-year activities.
After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Interlochen said it conducted a second internal review of his activities on campus and again found no evidence of crime committed at Interlochen.
Reporting from NPR and documents held by the U.S. Department of Justice show Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell met alone with one student at the lodge — something the woman, now grown, views as “the beginning of ‘grooming behavior.’”
Interlochen says it has a policy of not allowing unsupervised visits between donors and students.
It is the recent release of those Justice Department files related to Epstein’s crimes that’s put renewed attention on Interlochen’s connections to him. State lawmakers in Michigan have announced plans to investigate his activities at Interlochen.
Interlochen Center for the Arts says it has cooperated with investigators and that it will "respond to other elected officials and oversight bodies as they see appropriate," according to Up North Live.
The school is also awaiting the results of an independent, external review of historical abuse allegations against faculty who were at Interlochen in the 1960s and 70s.
