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Monica Roth
Archaeology of College Hill
1 Oct 2013
Keeney Quadrangle
Keeney Quadrangle is the largest freshman dorm on campus; with the capacity to house
585 students, it provides a home for roughly one-third of every first-year class. It was built
under the reign of President Barnaby Conrad Keeney, and it was one of many of his projects to
better the school, although it was a controversial move. This legacy of revamping the school
continues through recent renovations to the dormitory.
Barnaby Keeney was born in Oregon in 1914, but moved to Colorado and Connecticut as
he grew up. Before obtaining a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard, he completed
undergrad at the University of North Carolina. He then went on to teach for a few years at
Harvard and serve with the 35th Infantry during World War II, where he was given multiple
awards. After studying in Europe for a year, he become assistant professor of medieval history
at Brown, and he soon worked his way into the role of Acting Dean of the College, before
becoming a full professor in 1951. He spent some time off working for the Central Intelligence
Agency, which he also did covertly during his presidency, but returned to his deanship and held
the job until he was chosen as the successor to President Henry Wriston in 1955.
In his new role, Keeney sought to expand Brown’s borders. He built the Rockefeller
Library, Barus-Holley, J. Walter Wilson Lab, Hunter Lab, the Computer Lab, and Meehan
Auditorium, and he also bought around 400 acres of additional land, although he was prepared to
build skyward if necessary. Although his predecessor, Wriston, built dorms for what would
become the hub of Greek Life on Brown’s campus, Keeney built dormitories for the remainder
of the students. In regards to his proposed West Quad, which would later be named Keeney
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Quad in his honor, he said the goal was to “provide a dignified and happy home for the
independents.” He was also responsible for dorms on Pembroke campus, namely Champlin and
Morriss Halls and Emery and Woolley Halls, along with a renovation that turned Hope College
into a dormitory. He wanted to broaden the school’s brand, and to make it as impressive of an
institution as he thought it could be. His success in building Brown was due to his ability to raise
money, and he convinced multiple benefactors to contribute to his projects. To him, Brown was
supposed to be a beacon of education, and he wanted to attract the best students. He said: “The
best way to solve the problem of great increases in college enrollment in the next decade is to
refuse admittance to the unqualified student.” He did increase enrollment by over a thousand
students, but he especially increased the size of the Graduate School, which is ironic considering
his name was bestowed to the lowest level undergraduate housing available, a freshman dorm.
After his presidency at Brown, the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson,
named him the first head of the National Endowment and Council on the Humanities. By
leaving Brown when he did, he managed to avoid the onslaught of student activism in the late
1960s and early 1970s. He continued to work for the government until he became the first
president of Claremont Graduate School in 1971. He retired in 1976, and died in 1980 in
Providence.
West Quad, which was later named after him, was designed by Thomas Mott Shaw and
built by the Gilbane Building Company. It was built between Benevolent, Brown, and Charles
Field Streets, and it sat on the edge of the University’s campus at that time. It took two years to
complete, beginning in 1955 and opening in 1957 with the capacity to house nearly 600 first year
students. Before construction could begin, however, first the university needed to demolish
homes in the community, which was already a touchy subject considering Wriston’s massive
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destruction to community homes only a few years prior. The community fought construction,
petitioning that the university keep two buildings and integrate them into the new building. This
was rejected, and the properties were destroyed, which led to the establishment of the Providence
Preservation Society, which strives to keep historical buildings in the city intact.
The quad takes the shape of a blocky number eight, or “an enclosed H,” and it contains
two courtyards flanked on all sides by student rooms. In its original construction, all of the
individual houses within Keeney could be accessed without ever needing to leave the building
and reenter it. The houses are made up of multiple floors, and since Keeney is built into a slope,
at the upper end of the hill the entrance is onto the second floor with only the first floor
underneath, but at the lower end the entrance is on the first floor with the basement level
underneath. These individual houses were named for faculty members: Everett, Bronson,
Jameson, Mead, Archibald, and Poland.
Everett is an homage to Walter Goodnow Everett, an instructor of Greek and Latin and
later Professor of Philosophy in 1894. Bronson was named for Walter Cochrane Bronson, who
served as an English professor from 1892 until his retirement in 1927. Jameson comes from
John Franklin Jameson, history professor from1888 to 1901, later leading the charge to create the
National Archives. Albert Davis Mead began as professor of comparative anatomy in 1900, but
finished his time as professor of biology in 1936. Raymond Clare Archibald was professor of
mathematics from 1911 until 1943. Poland is named for William Carey Poland, who served as
professor of classics and art, beginning as an instructor of Greek in 1870 and retiring as professor
of the history of art in 1915, at which point he served in various capacities at other schools. The
lounges also bear the names of Provost Samuel T. Arnold and Vice President Bruce Bigelow.
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Two years after his death, West Quad was renamed for the president in office during its creation,
Barnaby Keeney.
Keeney Quadrangle remained relatively the same until it was renovated before the class
of 2016 arrived for the first time on campus, and the final renovations were completed for the
class of 2017. The university made the decision to revamp Keeney by repainting rooms,
installing new carpets and lights, giving it a clean, hotel type feel. Elevators were also installed,
and although previous classes could freely pass between houses, the class of 2017 must be
careful which doors they enter so they can use their IDs to get to their rooms. These renovations
were part of a university goal to make freshman dorms look nicer and provide a homier feel for
incoming students. They also shifted sophomore dorms around, clustering them closer to the
center of campus, and strove to have juniors and seniors in suites and apartments.
President Barnaby Keeney had a vision of expanding Brown’s borders, and his namesake
dormitory contributes to this goal, having ushered in a new kind of residential life for Brown
students outside of the established Wriston Quad. This goal of keeping Brown a welcoming
place for each incoming class is demonstrated in the renovations put into the building in recent
years, and it will continue to be improved upon in the future.
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Images
Destroyed buildings before Keeney’s construction—From the Brown Daily Herald
Newly-renovated lounge—From the Brown Daily Herald
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Keeney now-Photos by Author
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Bibliography
Li, Sophia. "When Building Brown Meant Burning Bridges." Brown Daily
Herald[Providence, RI] 23 Oct. 2009: n. pag. Print.
Jordan-Detamore, Greg. "Campus Housing to Be Renovated, Transformed." Brown Daily
Herald [Providence, RI] 13 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Print.
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University, 1993. Web. 01 Oct. 2013.
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University Relations, Brown University, 1992. Print.