Cogut Institute for the Humanities

A “Social Centre”: Building the University-College

The acquisition of the ivy-covered mansion at 13 Brown Street was integral to the development of the university-college campus as a compound space of education, work, residence, and community.

Ever since Brown determined to define itself as both a leading teaching college and a national research university, the University’s presidents have been faced with the task of creating infrastructure for transformation and community. “The great problem before our universities and colleges to-day,” President William H.P. Faunce summarized for the Corporation in 1923, “is to devise methods for preserving and promoting those personal contacts which are the chief source of intellectual and spiritual growth.” The acquisition of the Alfred M. Coats estate, which first served the University as its Faculty Club and a residence for single male faculty members and then as a home for Health Services, was part of an answer to this challenge.

A “Social Centre”: Faculty Club and Residence (1923–1938)

The renovation of the ivy-covered mansion at 13 Brown Street was one component in a three-part plan intended to attract and retain faculty members, to provide them “with the means of personal growth,” and to offer them “broader avenues of national service” (President’s Report, 1922, 6). Alongside the reconfiguration of sabbatical time to one semester at full salary and the provision of research funds to enable participation in scholarly societies and meetings, the establishment of a faculty club and residence on campus was intended to enrich academic life with a space for everyday sociability and special occasions.

“At the present time,” Faunce wrote, “our Faculty have not one room on the campus in which to meet one another, or to entertain a friend, or to offer any hospitality to a guest of the University. Our younger teachers especially have little chance for that mutual acquaintance which is the prerequisite of intellectual understanding and cooperation. The deficiency will no longer exist” (President’s Report, 1922, 8). Other institutions of higher education like Williams College, Yale University, Columbia University, and Dartmouth College had already equipped themselves with their own clubs. 

Brown’s Faculty Club opened to great fanfare in March of 1923, with “more than 200 alumni, many members of the Corporation and board of trustees, and practically all of the faculty” in attendance at the inaugural housewarming. The furnishing of the club was funded through a faculty subscription to the amount of $3,500, and photos of the new space were published in the Providence Journal (March 18, 1923). 

The Faculty Club, located at 13 Brown Street, has exercised a remarkable influence on our University life. Whenever we are reproached for investing money in buildings rather than in men, we may well recall the part the Faculty Club has played in the development of personality and the making of men.

Brown University President William H.P. Faunce Annual Report to the Corporation (1926)
 
Black and white photograph of Andrews House, seen from Brown street, with ivy covering the first two floors of the building

The club utilized the first floor to host social and public functions, as had previous residents Alfred M. Coats and R. Livingston Beeckman back in the building’s days as a private home. The “large ballroom,” with walls of “white and gold” and “panels of light blue and cream-colored velvet velour,” was only lightly furnished “for the holding of meetings and for such social purposes as the organization may desire.” The large hallway retained its white-marble finish and “immense pier mirrors set in the wall” (the latter plastered over c. 1938). To the right of the Brown Street entrance was a lounge; to the left, the club’s library; and further back, “a spacious dining room.” The library and dining room were “exquisitely finished throughout in brown oak.” The basement featured a “commodious room" where billiards could "afford relaxation” (Providence Journal, March 18, 1923). A kitchen was equipped and staffed, expanding from breakfasts to full dining-room service with three meals a day (President’s Report, 1923 and 1926). 

The building proved a versatile hub for the University’s social life. The society pages of Providence newspapers attest to a variety of events held onsite: talks, dinners, musical events, seasonal or costumed parties, meetings of the Corporation, and the president’s annual reception for graduating students and their families at the close of Commencement Week. The wives and daughters of faculty members convened separately on several occasions for lectures, tea parties, and amateur theater performances.

The Faculty Club, President Faunce reported enthusiastically to the Corporation in 1926, “has exercised a remarkable influence on our University life. [...] It has served as a social center, where our teachers can find games, music, informal lectures, and that rarest of all delights — conversation. It has enabled us to entertain artists, explorers, scientists, poets, reformers, and manufacturers on equal terms. It has furnished the stage for regular meetings of the Corporation and the Faculty, and for that irregular and unplanned ‘meeting of minds’ which means friction and fire. [...] Whenever we are reproached for investing money in buildings rather than in men, we may well recall the part the Faculty Club has played in the development of personality and the making of men.”

The space did, however, remain structured by inequalities, including gender. If one of the celebrated functions of 13 Brown Street was to grant “the Ladies of the Faculty” the use of a meeting place apt to support their formation of “a happy social group,” their presence was restricted to the first floor (President’s Report, 1926). Despite the growth of the Women’s College, Brown remained deeply divided along gender lines in the 1920s, declining to admit one of its first non-male students, Mary Wooley, as a trustee (Widmer, p. 134 and 167).

The “extensive renovations” made to convert the two upper floors into a boarding house for faculty and staff — particularly the much-touted conversion of the heating system from hot-air furnaces to a steam system to provide more reliable heat to “all parts of the house in the coldest and most trying periods of this capricious climate” — benefitted single men only (Providence Journal, March 18, 1923). More than a dozen members of the faculty and staff lived there at any point in time, including theater scholar Benjamin Williams Brown (a descendant of Roger Williams); forest pathologist James Franklin Collins; historian of the 19th-century Habsburg empire Arthur J. May; classicist John William Spaeth, dean of the faculty at Wesleyan University from 1949 to 1963; James Aiken Work, a medieval literature specialist also known for his edition of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy; and Lawrence C. Wroth, a historian of printing in the American colonial period and librarian of the John Carter Library (“Officers”, 1924 and 1927).

In the 1930s, the continued growth of the student population prompted a significant reorganization of campus spaces. The Faculty Club moved to its current location, former home of textile manufacturer Zachariah Allen (1795–1882), while the apartments were relocated to George Street (“Faculty Club,” Encyclopedia Brunoniana). This freed up 13 Brown Street to become the home of Health Services.

Dedication of Andrews House for the Health and Wellness of the Student Body

As Brown University expanded, the need to provide care for students became more pressing, both to support individual wellness and to address public health. Brown’s first infirmary opened in 1923, the same year as the Faculty Club. The first dedicated site of the newly formed Division of University Health, on Manning Street, featured only seven beds and two offices for doctors and quickly proved inadequate (“Infirmary," Encyclopedia Brunoniana).

In September 1931, Charles Henry Hare (1863–1947) gifted $300,000 (approximately $6 to 7 million today) in securities for the purpose of erecting a college infirmary. Hare, an 1885 graduate from Brown, was himself a doctor, on staff in several major hospitals in Boston and Massachusetts and an instructor in gynecology at Harvard and Tufts Medical Schools. Brown University touted the gift, which was reported in The New York Times as early as 1932, but administrators, mindful of an adverse financial market and the possible obligation to disburse annuities from 1937 on, wrestled with the best way of putting the gift to immediate use.

A series of smaller endowment and current-use gifts made it possible for President Henry H. Wriston to establish a Building Committee for the College Infirmary on December 17, 1937. Dean Samuel T. Arnold chaired the project. In 1938, the loosening of the annuity obligation by Charles Henry Hare in 1938 made additional funds available. The funding was insufficient to commission a new building or make radical structural changes to 13 Brown Street, but it was enough to give the mansion a new purpose. 

Elisha Benjamin Andrews, as president of Brown University from 1889 to 1898, had been a crucial figure in the development of Brown and its campus to, in his own words, “the estate of a true University” equipped for research as well as teaching. Hare, in his 1931 gift, had recommended that the infirmary be called Andrews House “in memory of the late [President] Andrews.” As it happened, Andrews Field, which had previously honored the charismatic University leader, had been decommissioned in 1925, and President Wriston supported the commemoration of Andrews’ presidency as a turning point in the history of the University when “the ideal of scholarship, which must dominate a modern university, [had come] to fruition” (Mitchell, “Andrews, Elisha Benjamin”; “Report of the Building Committee,” 1939).

“ Under Andrews, Brown ceased to be a small New England college and embraced the idea of a university. With him the ideal of scholarship, which must dominate a modern university, came to fruition. Graduate work was put on a solid basis. ”

Brown University President Henry M. Wriston Speech (November 2, 1947)

The new infirmary was opened at the beginning of January 1939 with 50 hospital beds distributed in rooms of two to five patients based on the type of illness. On the first floor, the ballroom — still “without doubt one of the most beautiful rooms on [the] campus” — was converted into a “large and beautiful waiting-room” broadly accessible to all. The main doctor’s offices — for first aid, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry — were distributed around the first floor. On the second floor, the dental office, “as modern and up-to-date as any room could be,” had been richly provided with “splendid [...] equipment” (Report of the Building Committee, June 26, 1939).

From the beginning, Andrews House was envisioned as an instrument in the epidemiological monitoring of campus life, its third floor “easily adapt[able] for emergency needs” ([Memorandum], c. 1939). In such circumstances, the smaller rooms in particular would be used “to isolate students under observation” (New York Times, 1939) in conjunction with potential recommendations to the University leadership about restrictions on dances, social gatherings, athletic contents, performance arts rehearsals, and classes (“Memorandum,” 1941).

The Division of Health Services and the College wrestled with questions of scale and scope. What kind of care should the University offer and for how long? What responsibility did the University have with regard to the hospital bills of athletics students? One associate dean of the College asked, “Are we responsible for the usual medical care of students who remain on campus during vacations?” (“Illness,” 1953). The answers were complex and sometimes tentative. The University deferred any hospital charges to students, but also affirmed universal care “regardless of the financial situation,” providing for “special arrangements” (“Illness,” 1947) and also assumed responsibility for the injuries of athletic team members (“Hospitalization,” 1952). But a 1951 memo limited in-patient infirmary care to “a period not extending two weeks each semester” (“Medical Care of Students”).

From the 1980s on, the Division of Health Services reconfigured Andrews House repeatedly to keep pace with student needs. In-patient care facilities were reduced to create more exam rooms for out-patient care on the second floor, and a portion of the third floor was reserved for the mental health program. By the early 1990s, space had to be found to establish a pharmacy, and new exam rooms were established on the third floor. On the ground floor, large rooms were segmented into multiple offices to accommodate administrative needs, with the historical decorative fixtures and wood panels preserved — but mostly hidden from sight — under new plaster partitions.

With 50,000 student visits annually, Brown announced plans to build a new site in 2018 that could integrate health and wellness services and pair them with an interest-based residence hall. Brown broke ground soon thereafter and advanced the construction project as Andrews House fulfilled one last medical function as a COVID-19 testing site for the campus in 2020–2021. The University dedicated Sternlicht Commons and Brown University Health and Wellness Center in fall 2021, marking the 100th anniversary of its acquisition of 13 Brown Street and initiating another reconception of its use as a space of learning, research, and community for the Cogut Institute for the Humanities.

Read the History of Andrews House Before 1923

University Archives (Selected)

  • “Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University.” Bulletin of Brown University 19, no. 4 (October 1922). 
  • “Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University.” Bulletin of Brown University 20, no. 4 (October 1923). 
  • “Officers of Administration and Instruction.” The Catalogue of Brown University, 1924–1925 (Providence: Brown University: 1924), 12–23. 
  • “Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University.” Bulletin of Brown University 23, no. 6 (November, 1926).
  • “Officers of Administration and Instruction.” The Catalogue of Brown University, 1927–1928 (Providence: Brown University: 1927), 12–25. 
  • Adams, James P. “Memorandum.” January 13, 1939. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-1) Box I.1., Folder 10.
  • “Report of the Building Committee of Andrews House,” June 26, 1939. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-1), Box I.1., Folder 10.
  • [Memorandum], c.1939. John Hay Library Topic Files, “Andrews House,” 1-W Topic.
  • "Andrews House" (1939). Images of Brown. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
  • Office of the Vice President. “Memorandum to Dean Arnold, Dean Morris, Dean Richardson, and Dean Bigelow,” January 20, 1941. Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-1), Box I.1., Folder 10.
  • “The Medical Care of Students by The Division of University Health.” No date. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (​​OF-1CA-2) Box I.1., Folder 11.
  • “Hospitalization for Brown Students.” Inter-Office Memorandum from Dean Samuel T. Arnold, October 23, 1947. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-4) Box II.1, Folder 3.
  • “Freshman Medical Examinations.” Letter from Emery R. Walker, Jr. to Dr. Arnold, September 10, 1952. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-5) Box III.2, Folder 12.
  • “Hospitalization of Students.” Inter-Office Memorandum from Mr. Mackesey to Mr. Arnold, March 19, 1952. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-5) Box III.2, Folder 12.
  • “Illness During Vacations.” Inter-Office Memorandum from K. Roald Bergethon, Associate Dean of the College, to Mr. Keeney, January 2, 1953. John Hay Library, Brown University Dean of the College files (OF-1CA-5) Box III.2, Folder 12.

Press Cited

  • “Brown Faculty Club to Open on ‘Visiting Day’,” Providence Journal, February 28, 1923, 5.
  • “Brown’s New Faculty Club Has Luxurious Home,” Providence Sunday Journal, March 18, 1923, fifth section, p. 3. 
  • “$300,000 INFIRMARY IS GIVEN TO BROWN; Gift by Unnamed Alumnus Is Memorial to Dr. Andrews, Former President. YEAR'S GIFTS $1,000,000 University Confers Six Honorary Degrees and 370 Bachelor Degrees to Men and Women.” New York Times, June 21, 1932, section Business Opportunities, p. 18. 
  • “50-Bed Infirmary Opened at Brown.” New York Times, Jan. 8, 1939.
  • “Dr. Lawrence C. Wroth, Editor and Brown U. Librarian, Dies.” New York Times, December 26, 1970, p. 20. 
  • “Dr. John Spaeth Jr. of Wesleyan Dead.” New York Times, May 21, 1973, p. 36.
  • Kimball, Jill. “Sternlicht Commons and Brown University Health & Wellness Center Dedicated in Weekend Events.” News from Brown, October 23, 2021.
  • Hyde-Keller, O’rya. “Brown Plans New Center, Residence Hall to Integrate Health and Wellness Programs.” News from Brown, December 20, 2018. 
  • Onderdonk, Sarah. “‘Lovely, gracious building’: Tracing the History of Andrews House.” The Brown Daily Herald, January 30, 2023.

Secondary Sources

  • Bronson, Walter C., The History of Brown University, 1764–1914. Providence: Brown University, 1914.
  • Mitchell, Martha. “Andrews, Elisha Benjamin.” Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence: Brown University, 1993. 
  • Mitchell, Martha. “Andrews House.” Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence: Brown University, 1993. 
  • Mitchell, Martha. “Andrews Field.” Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence: Brown University, 1993. 
  • Mitchell, Martha. “Faculty Club.” Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence: Brown University, 1993. 
  • Widmer, Ted. Brown: The History of An Idea. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2015.