Orwig Music Center

The Orwig Music Center occupies a building at 1 Young Orchard Avenue, which was built about 1850 for Byron Sprague, son of manufacturer Amasa Sprague. After the collapse of the Sprague business in 1873, the house passed into other hands and was eventually purchased by I. Gifford Ladd. At this time the stone-trimmed brick Italianate mansion was remodeled by architects Carrère and Hastings and given a French Renaissance exterior. Later the building was the Hope Hospital, was sold to Bryant College and named South Hall, and was acquired by Brown in 1969 with the purchase of the Bryant College campus. The music complex was named for Benton B. Orwig ’20 in consideration of a donation by his widow, Virginia Baldwin Orwig. The music library in the new wing built in 1988 was named for Mrs. Orwig, and was dedicated on two days in May 1988 at exercises featuring a performance by the Charleston String Quartet and an address by Joseph B. Kerman, professor of music at the University of California. When it opened, the new library contained 12,000 recordings, 10,000 scores, and 15,000 books and serials.