GPS City GuideProvidenceBrown University

Stop 34 of 36 · Providence audio walking tour

Brown University

College Hill · 1764 · Founded as a colonial college

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on Brown University — how it came to be, who it mattered to, and what to look for while you're standing in front of it.

Brown University occupies College Hill here in Providence, founded in 1764. This private Ivy League research university is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. One of nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution, Brown was the first American college to codify that admission and instruction were to be equal regardless of the religious affiliation of students.

As you listen, imagine a place that has been home to the oldest applied mathematics program in the country and the oldest engineering program in the Ivy League. It was also one of the early doctoral-granting institutions in the U.S., adding masters and doctoral studies in 1887. Walk the years forward with me: in 1969 the university adopted its Open Curriculum after student lobbying, eliminating mandatory general education distribution requirements, and in 1971 Pembroke College, its coordinate women’s institution, was fully merged into the university.

Today the university comprises the College, the Graduate School, Alpert Medical School, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health and the School of Professional... Notice the campus spreading out before you.

Where it is

Coordinates
41.826, -71.403
Area
College Hill
Era
1764 · Founded as a colonial college
Start the Providence tour →

Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.