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On Sunday, September 27th, 1896, tragedy struck. A fire started in the engine room under the gymnasium wing of the Seminary and swept through the building. Fire departments from Holyoke and Northampton arrived too late. By Monday morning the building was in ruins. Undaunted, students and teaches continued classes the next day, and found living quarters in the village for the rest of the year. Announcements were made immediately of plans for rebuilding, with suggestions for a new chapel, a new gymnasium, and a series of cottage dormitories in the modern style. Contributions came flooding in with a significantly generous gift from Dr. D.K. Pearsons of Chicago. Land was bought: part of the Cook property, the Miller farm, Byron Smith's Farm and the Snow Farm. This extended the College's holdings south to Morgan street, increased the acreage on Prospect Hill, and provided land west across College street. The Olmstead Firm was again hired to design the layout of the new campus.

By the fall of 1897, as a result of intense building activity, four of the new dormitories were ready: Brigham, Safford, Porter, and Pearsons; another, Rockefeller, soon after. Four smaller cottages were acquired and also used as residences: North (the former Dwight House), South (Eastbrook property), West (Allen house) and Miller.

Building, and land acquisition, continued. In 1897, the cornerstone for Mary Lyon Hall was laid on the site of the former Seminary Building. 1898 saw the purchase of the Taylor Farm, south of Morgan Street; the Dunlap Farm, which surrounded Upper Lake, extended the College's property line north to Silver Street. In 1899, the Talcott Arboretum was built, and a new gymnasium - Blanchard Hall. Building went on with the construction of another dormitory, Mary Wilder Hall; North Hall, the original Dwight homestead, was moved, converted to an infirmary and renamed Everett, in order to provide the site for the new art building, Dwight Memorial. The College could now accommodate its 500 students.

For clearer sense of the campus following the reconstruction see the Olmstead Firm's Plan for 1900