The Gavin Moore, C’93, Pavilion is a testament to the power of friendships and to the effect a particular friend had on those who knew him at Sewanee and beyond.
In his Sewanee fraternity, SAE, Gavin Moore, C’93, earned the nickname “the Flash,” in part, in the way these things happen, because he was not particularly speedy. During an intramural game, one of his fraternity brothers saw Gavin on the field and said, “there goes the Flash,” and the name stuck, no doubt in part because Gavin was a man of extraordinary good humor. When he died in 2017—too soon, by any measure—his friends, fraternity brothers, and family wanted to design a fitting memorial, and that is how the Gavin Moore Pavilion in Lost Cove came to be.
Accessible only by foot (a two-mile hike down the Potter Ridge Trail), the pavilion anchors a beautiful meadow just at the head of the cove as it begins to open up.
“Gavin wasn’t only my friend at Sewanee, he was my friend from Sewanee,” says Andrew McCalla, C’94. McCalla, along with Sara vonSchilling, C’92, organized the fundraiser, to which more than 140 people contributed to raise the approximately $35,000 needed to build the pavilion, with its magnificent stone fireplace and chimney. “When we hit $20,000 for the wooden part of the pavilion, we thought we were finished,” says McCalla. “Then we learned that the masonry part was another $15,000, almost as much again. But we were able to reach that goal through a lead gift from one of his fraternity brothers, Mack Brothers, C’87.”
Construction for the pavilion was led by the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, with all of the wood harvested and milled on the Domain by students. (To see a photo essay of the harvesting, click here: https://new.sewanee.edu/features/timber/) The building was built by a carpenter from Monteagle, and the stonemason was David Hamby of Sewanee. A note on the plans drawn up by Sewanee architect Patton Watkins, P’21, shows another name for the pavilion as the “Flash Pad,” and Watkins originally designed an opening in the front of the building shaped like a lightning bolt. Instead, Hamby carved a lightning bolt from stone, centering it above the mantle.
Moore’s wonderful friends, who made this tribute possible, penned a plaque displayed just over the mantle to the right and slightly below the lightning bolt: “Gavin was known for profound intelligence, long stories, and a leisurely manner. All too soon his generous heart could give no more and he was gone … in a flash.”
For information about memorial trees, benches and All Saints’ chair plaques, contact Andrea Johnston at this link.
To learn more about the pavilion or to reserve it, visit the page at this link.
