Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.— Mississippi State is celebrating recent renovations to its Eugene Butler Guest House with a mid-March open house reception.

Free to all, the 1-5 p.m. event takes place Tuesday [March 14] at 45 Walker Road on the Starkville campus. The Butler Guest House is located beside Davis Wade Stadium, between Hull Hall and the MSU Police Station. Refreshments will be served.

Guests may schedule open-house tours, as well as reservations, by calling 662-325-4140 between 6 a.m. and midnight, Sunday-Saturday.

Ann Bailey, MSU director of housing and residence life, said the Butler Guest House’s centralized location makes it a convenient home-away-from-home for overnight visitors, especially during football season and other big-event weekends on campus.

To build on this advantage, the housing and residence life department’s staff has been working diligently to update and modernize the space, Bailey said.

“We visited a few of the other SEC institutions that have on-campus hotels and researched industry standards with comparable hotels in the Golden Triangle area,” Bailey said. “The results are outstanding, and we are proud of the progress that has been made with the Butler Guest House.”

Elizabeth Douglas, MSU housing and residence life accountant, and Lindsey Ketchum, physical plant administration project manager, have been overseeing the renovation project since July 2016.

Along with new furniture, window treatments, televisions and décor being added to bedrooms and common areas, the guest house’s bathrooms were upgraded with new walk-in showers, toilets and vanities.

“The hallways and foyer received fresh paint and new furniture, and the foyer now enables guests to come out of their rooms and work or visit at our café-style tables,” Douglas said, adding that patrons also can enjoy a light, complimentary breakfast provided by Aramark.

Douglas said she is confident that the newly renovated Butler Guest House will continue providing a hospitable atmosphere for generations of MSU visitors to enjoy.

“The Butler Guest House, a lot of times, serves as the first place people see when they are on campus for recruiting events, interviewing for a position, or guest speaking at an event,” Douglas said. “We want them to relax while staying with us and feel that warm Mississippi State University welcome when they step through our doors.”

Construction of the two-story, 10-room Butler Guest House was made possible with support from Eugene Butler, a 1913 MSU bachelor’s graduate who served on the board of the school’s development foundation.

A life-president of the Class of 1913 and its last-surviving member, Butler donated nearly $2 million to the university and received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 1979. For more biographical information, visit http://library.msstate.edu/FindingAid/MSS.389.html.

Learn more about the Butler Guest House at www.housing.msstate.edu/campus-guests/butler-guest-house, email butlerguesthouse@saffairs.msstate.edu or follow on Facebook @eugenebutlerguesthouse.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.