Brown University Closes Museum
By Laryssa Wirstiuk | Online Only | Oct. 9, 2008
Some Rhode Islanders fear that Brown University will move Native American artifacts from its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, built in the early 1920s in Bristol, R.I., to a new site in Providence, R.I.
"It's a real loss to the town," says Jim Farley, president of neighboring Mount Hope Farm. "The Haffenreffer is a wonderful facility with a lot of history."
Located 17 miles from Providence, the Haffenreffer Museum closed at the end of August due to fire-code and environmental violations. One of three structures on the 400-acre Haffenreffer estate that overlooks Mount Hope Bay, the museum building will face an uncertain fate when its owner, Brown, empties it of more than 150,000 ethnographic and archaeological artifacts.
"This is a historically important and ecologically sensitive property," says Brown University Provost David Kertzer. Brown, which inherited the estate from the Haffenreffer family in 1955, believes that the millions needed to correct the violations would be better spent relocating the museum's collection. "The museum building would no longer be a museum. We haven't discussed what should happen to the structures."
In addition to the museum, the two other Bristol structures include a barn, which the local fire marshal deemed unsafe for public use, and a special-events facility, which has been updated to comply with fire code. That building will continue to serve as a venue for weddings and banquets.
Originally known as the King Philip Museum, the museum is now named for Rudolf Haffenreffer, an industrialist and philanthropist who purchased the land in 1912 and later developed it. When Haffenreffer became president and managing director of Utah-Apex Mining Company in 1917, the position sparked his interest in geology and anthropology. On his land he found Wampanoag Indian arrowheads and a hollowed-out stone structure known as King Philip's Chair, once a lookout site during King Philip's War, a conflict between Native American inhabitants and English colonists. Haffenreffer built a museum to house the artifacts for public exhibition.
"Even if the buildings were updated, the artifacts would still be miles from campus," says Shepard Krech, director of the Haffenreffer. "We have to simultaneously decide what to do with the artifacts and what to do with the buildings."
Regardless, the university will still utilize the land. The estate is an important research site for both faculty and students, Provost Kertzer says. Some Indian tribes still use the location for naming ceremonies and as a meeting ground for settling intertribal disputes.
"We are gathering information to present to the governing board," Kertzer says. The Brown Corporation will meet in October for a preliminary discussion. "We haven't started to talk about the fate of the buildings."
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