Salve Regina University

Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island

Salve Regina University (Website)

Campus Historic Preservation Plan (PDF) 5MB

Salve Regina University received its charter in 1934. Located on a sixty-acre campus, its buildings consist of seven contiguous nineteenth-century estates created for wealthy patrons by the most important architects of America's Gilded Age: Frank Furness; Richard Morris Hunt; McKim, Mead and White; Peabody and Stearns; and H.H. Richardson, among others. The university's stewardship of these important architectural monuments, beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the present, has resulted in their protection and preservation. Grant funds will be used to survey the conditions and needs of these sites in order to guide the university's ongoing efforts of historic preservation and thoughtful academic reuse.

Salve Regina University received a Getty grant in 2002 for $202,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose: Grant funds will be used to survey the conditions and needs of the university’s repurposed estate buildings and sites in order to guide the university's ongoing efforts of historic preservation and thoughtful academic reuse.

Historic Designation: Ochre Point--Cliffs Historic District (university included within the boundaries of this district, National Register of Historic Places); William Watts Sherman House (National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark).

Buildings and landscapes on the university’s 60-acre campus come from seven contiguous nineteenth-century estates created for wealthy patrons by the most important architects of America's Gilded Age: Frank Furness; Richard Morris Hunt; McKim, Mead and White; Peabody and Stearns; and H.H. Richardson, among others. The university's stewardship of these important architectural monuments, beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the present, has resulted in their protection and preservation.

Planning Process Used

• The consultants approached the collection of historic buildings as a whole; the buildings have in common origin as a vacation residence and current use for university activities
• Abstracted general principles of stewardship for historic sites, synthesizing those principles with NPS guidelines to create a campus-specific document
• Researched and organized data for easy retrieval during the current project or to assist with any future decision making; focused on historic photographs, specifications, and drawings
• Surveyed and mapped various elements of campus use, structures, and furnishings, e.g., pedestrian circulation, vehicular circulation, signage, ornamental gardens, historic sites…
• Established and documented the original condition--“cultural significance”—of each historic site on campus
• Researched the evolution of each historic site
• Assessed the current condition of each historic site
• Compared the original and current conditions to determine “what remains”
• Where current condition differed significantly from cultural significance, evaluated each site to determine “what can be retrieved”
• Investigated life expectancies and treatments for various building materials
• Composed recommendations for necessary site repairs
• Composed recommendations for adapting the sites, assigning each a university-related use
• Enumerated repair challenges for various buildings and materials
• Created or refined, as appropriate, a maintenance schedule for each site and/or material

Outcomes: Products

The project report is primarily a policy statement, without information about the underlying process or research tools created

• Variety of campus maps
• Tabulation of historic buildings
• General, campus-specific guidelines for considering and executing future projects involving historic sites,

Outcomes: Plans

Implement recommended criteria and process to more efficiently use capital resources

Outcomes: Policies and Practices

• Salve Regina has already established an academic preservation program and begun restoration of several historic buildings.
• Approached the collection of historic buildings as a whole
• Gather and organize information for project and future decision making
• Establish cultural significance of each historic site on campus, i.e. original condition
• Assess condition of each historic site, distinguishing between “what remains” and “what can be retrieved”
• Compose recommendations for repair
• Compose recommendations for the site’s potential use for academic purposes

Unique Features

• Discussion of adaptive reuse of residential structures
• Distinct section of analysis for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems
• Tabulation of historic systems featured in the university’s significant buildings
• Recognition that ongoing use of historic buildings may require modernization of systems
• Recommendation to compose an interdisciplinary Campus Heritage Plan Advisory Committee for oversight of future building projects
• Recommendation to appoint a Campus Curator, with appointment to the Campus Heritage Plan Advisory Committee, for oversight of future maintenance projects