Faced with community opposition, the University has abandoned its initial proposals to remove or lower the historic stone wall surrounding the Aldrich-Dexter Field near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. Though early drawings for the new $45 million, 65,000-square foot Nelson Fitness Center called for its removal, the wall will remain intact, said Steve Maiorisi, vice president of facilities management.
Removing or lowering the wall for "aesthetic interests" were options the architects were considering, Maiorisi said. But there had been "no official decision made" that the wall, built in 1835, would come down, he said.
This past spring, representatives of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, a New York-based firm overseeing the fitness center's construction, presented their designs at a community meeting, Maiorisi said. The sketches depicted the wall being lowered, and in some areas, removed.
On seeing the drawings, many community members expressed concerns about the wall's removal, citing its historical significance, according to Peter Mackie '59.
Mackie, a sports archivist at the John Hay Library who attended the meeting, said University officials gave him two reasons for making changes to the wall: to make the new building more visible from Hope Street and to "reduce the physical barriers" between the athletic facilities and the main campus.
Calling the arguments "specious," Mackie said residents and members of local neighborhood associations continued discussing the issue after the meeting.
In May, David Brussat, a member of the Providence Journal's editorial board, wrote a piece opposing alterations to the wall. In the editorial, Brussat also discussed the wall's history, its importance to the community and the implications of tearing it down or lowering it.
Running along Hope and Angell streets and Stimson, Arlington and Lloyd avenues, the wall encompasses 39 acres of the former Neck Farm, which Ebenezer Knight Dexter, a local businessman, left to the city of Providence in 1824. In his will, Dexter requested that the land be used as a "poor farm for indigent freemen" according to the University's Web site.
The will also asked that a "good permanent stone wall of at least three feet thick at the bottom and at least eight feet high" surround the property, Brussat wrote in his Journal editorial.
Dexter's wishes were honored for more than a century. The property existed - enclosed by the stone wall - as a farm until the 1940s, when the University expressed interest in purchasing it to build an athletic facility. After nearly a decade of legal proceedings, during which the local Superior Court examined Dexter's initial requests, the University obtained the land for $1,000,777 in 1957. The city's profits from the sale were allocated to helping the poor, according to the University's Web site.
Today the land includes several playing fields, the Meehan Auditorium, the OMAC and the Pizzitola Sports Center.
Ed Bishop '54, who lives on Waterman Street, said he has been "within half a mile" of the wall for 50 years.
"It's a historical relic," Bishop said. "Anyone who's been around long enough" understands the significance of the Dexter property.
The wall "didn't need to come down just so Mr. Nelson's building could be viewed," he added, referring to the donor, Jonathan Nelson '77 P'07.
