Description
- Abstract:
- Dexter Asylum was built in 1828 "to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and to contribute to their comfort and relief" after Providence merchant Ebenezer Knight Dexter (1773-1824) died and left his farm to the city of Providence. Dexter’s will required that "a good permanent stone wall" was built around the asylum. Three feet thick and eight feet high, this massive wall took over eight years to build, stretched over 6,220 feet long, and contained over 94,000,000 pounds of stone. Brown University bought the property in 1957 at auction. Three of the Cumberlandite blocks used in the asylum’s wall can be seen today in the restored wall that surrounds the Brown Athletic Facility. Bring a magnet and try to locate the three rocks!
- Notes:
- Blocks of Cumberlandite in the wall surrounding Brown University’s Athletic Center, Brown University Library
- Digital object made available by: Brown University Library, John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts, Box A, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, U.S.A., (http://library.brown.edu/)
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
"Blocks of Cumberlandite in the wall surrounding Brown University’s Athletic Center"
(2025).
Shared Magma: An American and Swedish Collaboration on Sisterhood and Sister Ore.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:vqb5d986/
Relations
Collection:
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Shared Magma: An American and Swedish Collaboration on Sisterhood and Sister Ore
Iron Rock Hill in Cumberland, RI and the mountain of Taberg in Småland, Sweden are ancient formations of a rare eruptive rock with shared properties. Shared Magma celebrates the intersection of Late Proterozoic geology and a contemporary friendship between Swedish …...