I have never understood the connection between Robinson Hall and Brown’s department
of economics. Upon entering the building for the first time to collect my introductory economics
homework, I was actually concerned that I was in the wrong place. Economics, to me, is
uninspiring. The building of Robinson Hall is just the opposite.
This makes sense, as Robinson Hall was not originally intended to house the department
of economics. It was designed by Walker & Gould in 1878 as the ‘New Library’ after the first
library at Brown, Manning Hall, became overcrowded.1 The land, on the corner of Waterman
and Prospect Streets, was bequeathed by John Carter Brown upon his death in 1874, and he gave
$50,000 for a library to be built on the site. This, plus an earlier gift of $20,000, went toward the
building, with the remaining balance of $25,588 being paid by John Carter Brown’s widow.2
From the get go this building was intended to be a library. This explains the feeling of disconnect
between the economics office space and the interesting layout and decoration of the building. It
is a library, and it was funded and built as one.
The structure and the decoration of Robinson Hall, though now combined, seem to have
been devised separately, though they both promote scholarship.3 That is to say that the structure
serves its own purpose, and then has been adorned with the decoration to some degree. In this
sense, I think it is fair to speak of them separately.
From afar, it is the angularity of Robinson Hall that makes it so intriguing. While the
decoration certainly enhances its irregular shape, the layout of the building “represented the most
sophisticated mid-nineteenth-century thinking about library organization.”4 Manning Hall had
1
(Woodward 2003)
Martha Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana, (Providence: Brown University Library,
1993)http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=R0190.
3 William H. Jordy, Ronald J. Onorato, and William McKenzie Woodward, Buildings of Rhode Island, (Oxford
University Press, 2004)http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-PR115.1, 102-103
4 (Woodward 2003)
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been overflowing with books since the 1840s, and librarians at Brown had been advocating for,
and thinking about, a new library since then. 4 Charles C. Jewett, in the late 1840s, was the first
of these librarians to propose a building with a central tall octagonal reading room with three
surrounding wings for three story stacks of books.5 Jewett is by no means the creator of this plan,
as the panoptic concept, as it is known, was formulated late in the eighteenth century for prisons
and hospitals because it allows supervision of all areas from the central core of the building. This
makes sense for hospitals and prisons, but from a current perspective it seems a little strange for
a library. It is difficult to imagine a librarian at Brown today hiding books away from students,
but, in general, part of the role of a librarian at the time when Robinson Hall was built was to
protect the books from the harm students could inflict. 5 This explains the use of this plan at
various other libraries, including Princeton’s Chancellor Green Library, Paris’s Bibliothèque
Royale, and Williams College’s Lawrence Library. 4 Though supervision to a certain degree was
likely one aspect of the librarians’ want of a panoptic plan (Reuben Guild was the librarian at the
forefront at the actual time of construction 4) , the books were not kept hidden away, and the
radiating stacks were “meant to stimulate the student with the spectacle of the books.” 5 This
made Robinson Hall something of a progressive library for its day, 5 and the idea that librarians
at Brown in the later half of the nineteenth century were already moving away from the norm to
enhance students’ learning is comforting as a student today. How nice of them to allow access to
books and reading tables, and to provide light and ventilation through an upper circle of light!5
Upon closer inspection of Robinson Hall’s exterior, the decoration begins to show itself,
and I personally found myself scouring every nook and cranny of the façade for small details.
The style of the building is referred to as a number of types of ‘gothics’, revolving around
William H. Jordy, Ronald J. Onorato, and William McKenzie Woodward, Buildings of Rhode Island, (Oxford
University Press, 2004)http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-PR115.1, 102-103
5
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Victorian Gothic, Ruskinian Gothic, and Venetian Gothic. While it is unclear if the architects
themselves had chosen a particular style to follow, all three styles are related to one another and
refer to the same type of ‘look’.6 Ruskinian Gothic stems from the works of John Ruskin, who
promoted using a mix of materials in different colors, keeping with their natural tones.7 This is
easily seen on the façade of Robinson Hall, as there is pressed brick from Danvers, in
Massachusetts, granite from Tingley’s Stone Yard that was on South Main Street, 8 as well as
other neutral colored stones and even some metal and wood. 7 According to William H. Jordy, a
former professor of art history at Brown, this was representative of the Ruskinian tradition of
honesty and colorism. 7 Fitting in with that aspect of Ruskinian belief is the focus on natural
forms for decoration. 7 There are many leaf and flower-like forms to be found on and in the
building, and the exterior houses many plant and animal relief carvings by James C. Brierly,8
most of which seem to be representative of differing flora and fauna. I had a lot of fun noting the
different animals in particular; there would be a bird above one arched window, and a snake
above another, all of the windows being topped with plants or animals. These forms, as well as
the mixture of natural materials, “celebrated the the diversity of nature’s abundance.”9 Closer to
the entrance, the forms of animals are more apparent, with griffins, a rabbit, a wolf, two
mountain lions, and an owl holding a book. If an owl with a book does not scream ‘library’, I’m
not sure what would, and the rest of the natural decoration also seems to impress a sense of
"Stop 19. Old Post Office and Customs House," From the Cincinnati Arch to the Illinois Basin: Geological Field
Excursions Along the Ohio River Valley. Volume 12 of Geological Society of America Field guide, ed. Anton H.
Maria, Ronald C. Counts (Geological Society of America, 2008), 98.
7 (Overby December 1961)
8 Martha Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana, (Providence: Brown University Library,
1993)http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=R0190.
9 William H. Jordy, Ronald J. Onorato, and William McKenzie Woodward, Buildings of Rhode Island, (Oxford
University Press, 2004)http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-PR115.1, 102-103
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knowledge into the building. Robinson Hall even used to have ivy growing on it,10 another
natural aspect, and an unintentional sign of intelligence.
Taken all at once, the building itself is not incredibly impressive, as there is too much
detail jammed into the façade. 10 Jordy notes that the “‘gathering’ quality of the building would
have seemed an appropriate manifestation of the ‘gathering' quality of a library to the mind of the
1870’s.” 10 The exterior’s most dramatic aspect is the entrance, as the porch is mirrored above in
the large stained glass windows. 10 This brings the visitor into perhaps the most monumental
feature of the building, the main lobby. 10 The interior is multicolored, like the exterior, and the
open space leads up to the windows at the very top, allowing a view of all the floors at once.
The exterior of the building is largely the same now as it was when it was first made,
though the basement entrance must be newer. It was closed during World War II, and when it
reopened it 1946 it had eight classrooms and twenty offices in place of the book stacks, as well
as a new name created for the president who presided over its construction, Ezekiel Gilman
Robinson.11 It was again renovated in 1989 and 1990, and the paint found on the iron of the
balconies is the original color scheme.12 While the lobby and balconies are still very beautiful,
the paint is chipping, and the rest of the building seems slightly dingy and closed off. It must
have been difficult to transform this building, considering it was made with such a specific
function, into office spaces, while still trying to retain as much of its previous grandeur as
possible. There are walls of closed doors in spaces that would have exposed stacks of books to
students as well as an awkward classroom arranged around the large, beautiful stained glass
window. It saddens me a bit that more effort was not put into transforming the space in a way
10
(Overby December 1961)
Martha Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana, (Providence: Brown University Library,
1993)http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=R0190.
12 (Woodward 2003)
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more harmonious with the original features. Martha Mitchell describes the original inscriptions,
which no longer have a place in Robinson Hall:
“The four inscriptions were, first, the commemoration of the donor John Carter Brown,
noting in Latin his dates of birth and death and his bequest of the building; second, the
dates of the beginning and completion of the building; third, that the University was
founded in 1764 and received its name in 1804 from Nicholas Brown; and fourth, an
extract form the Book of Proverbs. The inscriptions and the grandeur that was the New
Library are gone, and the marble bust of John Carter Brown that graced the entrance has
been retired with a broken nose.”13
The removal of the inscriptions and the bust is representative of the building being stripped of its
original purpose and prestige. It is now a beautiful shell that still elicits a feeling of marvel, but it
is not celebrated in the same way it seems to have once been, and some of its meaning as a
monument is gone. The photos of the building that hang on its interior walls seem to be placed
there out of obligation, and I’ve never noticed anyone looking at them.
Works Cited
Jordy, William H., Ronald J. Onorato, and William McKenzie Woodward. Buildings of Rhode
Island. Oxford University Press, 2004. http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01PR115.1.
Mitchell, Martha. Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence: Brown University Library, 1993.
Martha Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana, (Providence: Brown University Library,
1993)http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=R0190.
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http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/
search.php?serial=R0190.
Overby, Osmund R. National Park Service, "Historic American Buildings Survey: Robinson Hall
(Formerly Brown Library) HABS No, RI-185." Last modified December 1961.
http://
lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ri/ri0100/ri0161/data/ri0161data.pdf.
Stop 19. Old Post Office and Customs House. From the Cincinnati Arch to the Illinois Basin:
Geological Field Excursions Along the Ohio River Valley. Volume 12 of Geological
Society of America Field guide. Edited by Anton H. Maria, Ronald C. Counts. Geological
Society of America, 2008.
Woodward, Wm McKenzie, ed. PPS/AlAri Guide to Providence Architecture. Providence:
Providence Preservation Society, 2003. s.v. "Robinson Hall."
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