An Ithaca College alumna has purchased 2 Fountain Place, the residence in the City of Ithaca that served from 1938 to 2017 as the home to the college’s presidents. The sale of Fountain Place and the adjacent 2 Willets Place to Ashleigh and Ryan Zimmerman was completed on Tuesday, March 12.
Ashleigh is a 1999 Ithaca College graduate and Ryan is a 1997 Cornell University graduate, and the couple plan to turn the properties into an owner-occupied bed and breakfast.
The total purchase price was $1.7 million, and the college will be applying the proceeds towards the construction of a new on-campus presidential residence, which is currently in the design phase.
The college had announced in 2017 that IC presidents would no longer live at Fountain Place, and it was formally put up for sale in April of 2018.
The Zimmermans currently own child care and real estate businesses in central Pennsylvania. They were married in Ithaca in 2001, and have returned to the area frequently for homecomings, reunions, and various camps attended by their four children. They intend to put permanent roots down in Ithaca with the purchase of what they call their “dream house.”