Arnold Laboratory

Arnold Laboratory was built in 1915 at a cost of $80,000 furnished by the bequest of Dr. Oliver H. Arnold 1865. Friends and alumni contributed about $30,000 for furnishing the building. The laboratory on Waterman Street on the north side of Lincoln Field replaced three houses, two of which were removed to Manning Street and the third demolished. Clarke and Howe were the architects of the building. Some time earlier Dr. Arnold had surprised President Faunce with a visit to his office to offer a biological laboratory. Arnold had been unknown to the University community as he pursued his medical career, tending to his patients in rural Rhode Island. He had visited in Vienna, Berlin, London, and Glasgow from 1883 to 1885, while his wife studied Semitic languages with famous German professors. In addition to the funds for the laboratory, he also left his University $10,000 for a fellowship in biology and $10,000 for a fellowship in mathematics or archaeology at the Women’s College. Arnold Lab provided quarters for four Brown professors and one woman instructor for the Women’s College biology class. A few years later a penthouse was added to the building. In 1938 the first floor auditorium became the Biological Sciences Library, and three modern laboratories for beginning classes were installed on the first floor. The building now houses administrative offices of the Medical School, and in the basement the Herbarium.