The Lexington High School administration recently posted a new Airbnb listing: the hole in the auditorium ceiling—or as they like to call it, “The Cave.”
Following the ceiling’s collapse in late January, administrators reportedly scrambled to find a short-term fix. Due to budget freezes and the approaching construction of the new high school, repairs were out of the question. Instead, the most logical solution was to repurpose the space to contribute to the Lexington community. Thanks to secondhand furniture donations from the student body and efforts from the Mural Crew to paint The Cave’s interior, the hollow ceiling space has been transformed into a rentable room that has already housed over 50 students since its listing.
“It’s my new go-to study spot—it’s so ‘holesome’ in there,” Chris P. Creme, a sophomore at LHS, said. “Though the price is a bit steep.”
Several students expressed similar concerns about The Cave’s high rental rates. The price is 100 dollars per hour for each student, which led many to question where the money was going.
“They said it’s to help reduce the cost of the new school, but I’m not too sure,” Penelope (Penny) Pincher, a Lexington taxpayer, said.
Despite its costliness, The Cave remains in high demand. Since establishing its marketing catchphrase (“cave it—no CRAVE it”), students have held events from afternoon coffee chats to evening watch parties, and perhaps most excitingly: overnight sleepovers.
“For a while, I thought I was hearing voices in the walls at night. Well, the culprits turned out to be my worst nightmare anyway—students,” Sponge Bob, the LHS head custodian, said.
Overnight stays have been temporarily prohibited following the disappearance of Duncan D’Naut, a student at LHS and a sleepover participant, who was found two days later when he fell through a ceiling tile in the main hallway.
“It’s really easy to get lost up there. I saw things in that labyrinth that I can’t even put into words,” D’Naut said.
The overnight option for The Cave is expected to reopen in late March at a discounted price. Arrangements to open another rentable space in the hole left by D’Naut are still underway.
News of D’Naut’s downfall from The Cave has also sparked a new student-led movement centered around breaking barriers and carving one’s own path. During its most recent event, “D’Naut Walk in the Halls,” students sprinted through the LHS hallways, testing their limits by attempting high-jumps to knock down loose ceiling tiles.
“Once you break through that mental ceiling, everything seems possible,” D’Naut remarked.
Continuing to stand as a beacon of hope, The Cave paints LHS’s gradual deterioration in a new light. As the first ever naturally-excavated study space, the lodging speaks to an emerging era of sustainable practices, turning over a new leaf from the school’s previous plans of demolition.
“I see no reason for the school to be rebuilt,” Rob de Builder, a freshman at LHS, said. “Between losing The Cave in the new school and keeping the old school, I’d choose the latter.”
