Alumnae Hall

Alumnae Hall on the Pembroke Campus was dedicated on October 11, 1927. Funds for the building had been raised through the efforts of the Alumnae Association which initiated its campaign at its annual meeting in June 1923, when it was announced that Stephen O. Metcalf would duplicate all gifts of students and alumnae. The campaign continued until 1926, when the $50,000 contributed by the students and the $150,000 contributed by the alumnae, together with Mr. Metcalf’s matching funds, were deemed sufficient to start the building. The cornerstone was laid on May 11, 1926. Andrews, Jones, Biscoe and Whitmore of Boston were the architects and Charles B. Maguire Company of Providence the contractor. The final cost of the building came to $425,000. It was informally opened in April 1927 to ease the overcrowding of Pembroke Hall. Alumnae Hall, built of brick with limestone trim, was designed to accommodate the social and religious activities of the Women’s College. Its main entrance is a balustraded stone terrace on the campus leading to an auditorium on the main floor. When the building was opened a large organ was installed, the gift of Mrs. C. Prescott Knight and Mrs. Webster Knight in memory of their sister-in-law, Edith Knight. A reception room with a large fireplace on the first floor was the gift of the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women. A dining room was located in the basement and the third floor was occupied by the headquarters of the college organizations and a sitting room for commuting students. When “The Gate,” a snack bar with a white picket fence, was opened in Alumnae Hall in 1947, Pembroke students, who were allowed in the Blue Room in Faunce House only when escorted by a Brown man, now had a place of their own, where Brown men were welcome, but only when accompanied by a Pembroker.