The Sun Seldom Sets On Harvard's Empire

Alas Count Rumford, the American traitor, Harvard knows and treats him well.

Because for nearly two centuries, the University has remembered the Revolutionary War spy by maintaining his grave, which is located outside Paris. And every year since the Count died in 1815, a Harvard official has sent Rumford's gravekeeper a $50 check to ensure that the ignominious American's tomb does not fall into disrepair.

Tending Rumford's burial plot does not signal a long-standing University policy of granting amnesty to past Benedict Arnolds'. Instead, Harvard agreed to maintain the traitor's grave in perpetuity after he bequeathed to them an endowed chair in the physical and mathematical sciences.

Rumford's resting place is just one of Harvard's many off-campus real estate holdings left to them by wealthy benefactors. Included among the School's 17 million-square-foot empire are a 16th century villa near Florence, Italy, a 19th century brick mansion in Washington, D.C., two 3000 acre forests, three summer houses in Maine, a backwoods boathouse in Connecticut and an observatory in Texas.

Most of Harvard's outside real estate holdings are used primarily for academic purposes, functioning as study centers for topics ranging from Renaissance art to radio astronomy. Scholars are able to indulge in the various institutions' vast resources--extensive libraries and art collections--provided they obtain an appointment.

University fellows and faculty gather and reside at these dwellings, where they are treated to intensive study combined with a sense of the highlife. Sumptuous home grown delicacies and brilliant vistas are among the fringe benefits of studying at such Harvard locales as the Italian estate, Villa I Tatti.

Closer to home, three vacation houses in Maine, catering on a first priority basis to faculty members and their immediate families, are owned and managed by Harvard Real Estate, Inc., the University's property holding company. In fact, all of Harvard's outside real estate possessions are owned and operated by the school's subsidiary firm.

"Nature lovers will enjoy walks along public paths around the island's perimeter and hiking through the acres of woodlands and grassy clearings that are part of the Harvard properties," reads a brochure advertising scenic Sutton Island that was recently circulated by Harvard Real Estate to faculty members. The island, "a place for quiet retreat and enjoyment of nature," is the site of Harvard's Kendall and Paine Houses.

A Harvard-owned forest in Western Massachusetts, which is currently used for research, functioned as a hiding place for valuable University art treasures when rumors persisted during World War II that German submarines lingered off the Boston coast.

Clearly, the Count Rumford grave is the University's least used and most unusual property holding. The Count, who was born Benjamin Thompson of Concord, New Hampshire, attended lectures on experimental philosophy at Harvard in the mid-18th century. After spying on America and defecting to England, Rumford conducted pioneering work in the caloric theory of heat. He later served the Bavarian government, receiving the title Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire.

As for acquiring graves, villas, and coastal retreats, Harvard does not actively seek such facilities due to the problems of management and finance, according to Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54. He says he does not foresee any new acquisitions of this type in the near future.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, The Center for Hellenic Studies and Villa I Tatti--the University's three academic buildings outside Cambridge--were donated to the University by wealthy benefactors and operate largely off of multi-million dollar endowments.

"We are fortunate in having three institutions quiet strong in quality, but there always is a serious risk that a project located either hundreds or thousands of miles away would not achieve the high standards of the University," he says.

Harvard's most elaborate property is the 16th century Italian estate, Villa I Tatti. Surrounded by two lines of grand cypress trees, carefully manicured hedges and impressive fountains, the Center for Renaissance Studies offers scholars a place to indulge in their studies and the Italian way of life.

Bequeathed to Harvard in 1959 by noted art scholar and authenticator Bernard Berenson, the villa houses more than 80,000 books and pamphlets and 150,000 photographs, while also providing a launching point for forays into Florence's vast art collections. Visiting fellows, full-time resident scholars and students with appointments are provided access to the facility's resources.

In addition to providing a unique opportunity for post-doctoral study, Villa I Tatti grows much of its own food, including wine, fruit and olive oil, according to Edward L. Goldberg, an assistant professor of Fine Arts and a former I Tatti fellow. A delicious rissoto with wild mushrooms, often served for lunch, is the specialty of the house, he says.

The villa's social calendar is tame in comparison to Bernard Berenson's time, when I Tatti was the focus of the literati set, says Agnes Mongan, the former director of the Fogg Art Museum and curator of prints emeritus.

"B.B. was about five feet tall and weighed 98 pounds. He always had people around the villa, and you dressed every night for dinner. Specialists, older and younger, many in fields different from your own, made for electrifying conversation that spread your vision," she says.

Mongan, who also serves on the academic and financial committees that oversee I Tatti's operations, said that Berenson left the villa to Harvard because of its longevity, rather than give it to the National Gallery of Art, which was only 28 years old in 1959.

The university continues to carry out Berenson's mission of providing opportunities for scholars in any subject a Renaissance man might study, but focuses mainly on the humanities.

Maintaining I Tatti is a costly venture. Income from its approximately $10 million endowment covered less than half of the center's $1.2 million operating budget during the 1985-'86 fiscal year. Trying to make up the additional cost, coupled with compensating for the falling price of the U.S. dollar against the Italian lira, has forced the University to begin seeking outside grants and donations.

The success of past I Tatti fundraising efforts suggests that the center will raise sufficient revenue to keep the villa functioning, according to Mongan. Recent grants have enabled officials to renovate a former farmhouse adjacent to the main structure for additional library space.

Students interested in visiting Villa I Tatti can receive a guided tour or peruse its resources, provided they make an appointment. The estate not open to the general public. The center's mailing address is Via de Vincigliata 26, in Florence, Italy.

Across the Atlantic Ocean sits another Harvard structure almost equally as resplendent as Villa Tatti. Adjacent to the Danish Embassy in Georgetown, nestled among 16 acres of formal gardens, Japanese cherry trees and pebble covered paths, is a 19th-century brick mansion, which houses the Dumbarton Oaks Research Center and Library.

Donate to Harvard University in 1940 by Robert and Mildred Bliss, the estate includes three libraries containing over 130,000 volumes, including a library of rare landscape architectural source books, a research center, as well as fine collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art.

The house has served as the site of several international conferences, including a meeting that established the principles later incorporated into the charter of the United Nations. It was also the inspiration for composer Igor Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.

About 30 international scholars study and reside at Dumbarton Oaks each year, where they concentrate in one of three fields: Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian culture or Landscape Architecture. Students completing doctoral or post-doctoral research receive about $9000 for their work.

"The center has proved itself very useful to both young and old scholars in providing a setting for their work, but more importantly, it has provided a community of peers for discussion and progress," says Angeliki E. Laiou, the Dumbarton Oaks professor of Byzantine History. "Most of the best Byzantianists in America have spent some time at Dumbarton Oaks."

One of the structure's highlights is an eight-room marble and teak wood paneled wing designed by the world reknowned architect Philip Johnson. Pre-Columbian jade, pottery and gold objects in the Bliss' collection are displayed there and open to public viewing. A vast assemblage of Byzantine coins, sculptures and ivories are showcased in another part of the house.

The estate also boasts one of the United States finest gardens, complete with 11 pools, nine fountains, blooming beds of flowers, a miniature Roman amphitheatre and shady arbor covered walks admist gurgling creeks and solid poplars.

Revenue from an endowment of almost $60 million covers the cost of running the structure's various facilities.

But even if Harvard owns this building, your student ID will not allow you immediate access into the center's research facilities. Library privileges are available only by special arrangement with the center's director, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies Robert W. Thompson. However, the collections are open year round to the public (2-5pm every day except Monday), as are the gardens (2-6pm). the center is located at 1703 32nd Street, NW in Washington, DC.

On an adjacent hill to Dumbarton Oaks sits a spartan, classical one-story structure known as The Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies. The institution was founded in 1961 with a grant from the Old Dominion Foundation to provide a locus for studies in the Classical Greek tradition, reversing what was then seen as a general movement away from the study of the Classics.

Built on land obtained through the 1956 bequest of Trustun Beale, the center has a library containing 44,000 volumes ad it entirely supported by revenue from the nearly $10 million endowment. The center is directed by an administrative staff of senior fellows drawn from universities throughout the world. These scholars select eight junior fellows who live and study on the grounds for one year, receiving a stipend of up to $11,000.

The sylvan setting, cut by a small creek and shady pathways, creates a feeling of retreat and community at the center, says Rose Mary Sheldon, secretary to the director. Visitors are discourages, but determined Harvard sightseers can look around if special arrangements are made with the director's office. "It's just a think tank," says Sheldon. "We try to maintain a quiet atmosphere."

Elaborate gardens are not Harvard's only means of offering scholars a bucolic setting. The University owns two 3000 acre forests, which are utilized for experimentation in forest development.

Research and class field trips are conducted in the Petersham, Massachusetts' forest, which was given to Harvard in 1908 by James W. Brooks. Nearly 30 people staff the facility, which features a 22,570 volume library. "The forest is unique in that it is the only place in the country that has a good set of land use record keeping over time," says forest economist Ernest M. Gould, Jr..

The Western Massachusetts forest served a very different purpose during World War II. Frightened by reports of German submarines hiding along the Boston coast, the University transferred many of its most valuable art works to the forest where they remained safely hidden in brick buildings until the end of the war.

The University's other forest, called Black Rock Forest, is located in Cornwall, New York. It was originally Ernest G. Stillman's private research area, before the scientist donated the 3800 acre woodland in 1949.

Harvard officials and enviromentalists clashed over a proposed sale of Black Rock three years ago. The University planned to retain the facility's approximately $2.5 million endowment, while offering up the area to a consortium of private research institutions The sale, however, has not received the approval of the Attorney General's office and is still under consideration by the State of New York.

The University owns two observatories for the purpose of monitoring the stars and extraterrestial life. The George R. Agassiz Station is located in Fort Davis, Texas and the Oakbridge Observatory is in Harvard, Massachusetts, The Smithsonian Institution operates the latter facility, which contains a 61-inch optical reflector telescope.

Although endowments support the two observatories, the majority of its annual costs are met mostly through federal grants, says James Corness, publications manager for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Curious visitors are welcome to inspect the grounds of Oakbridge and Agassiz, and tours of the facilities may be arranged in advance.

Not all of the University's real estate holdings outside of Cambridge are academically oriented. In fact, some are designed specifically as an escape from the pressures of scholarship.

Harvard Real Estate, Inc. (HRE) presently maintains three retreats in Maine that are available to faculty members and their immediate family. The Howells Memorial House, located on Kittery Point overlooking Portsmouth Harbor, comes complete with "a private tennis court, an ocean view dotted with lighthouses, sailboats, and lobster pots, and easy access to swimming, shopping and other recreational activities of the southern Maine coast," according to the HRE brochure.

Harvard also maintains two residences, Kendall and Paine Houses, on scenic Sutton Island. The houses, which have undergone extensive renovations in the past few years, are frequently filled in the summertime, according to Sally H. Zeckhauser, president of HRE.

"The houses sound wonderful," says Assistant Professor of Psychology Paul B. Andreassen, who plans to use one of them for a week this summer if he can still get a reservation. University students, however, are not allowed to use the vacation retreats.

But students, especially the men's crew teams, can utilize the Red Top training camp, which is located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Built in the 1880's, Red Top is the site of the annual Harvard-Yale crew race on the Thames River in the Connecticut backwoods.

The crew uses the site now only during the two weeks after exams to prepare for the race, which remains the oldest intercollegiate athletic event in the nation. A small endowment covers the camp's small maintenance costs, while major repair work has been funded by alumni of Harvard crew, according to men's head Coach Harry L. Parker.