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.