McNeil Center gets a home

The University has received a $6 million gift to create a permanent facility and endowment for the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Donated by The Barra Foundation and and its chairman Robert McNeil Jr., the money was pledged to pay for the construction of the Center's new building -- which will be located on 34th Street near Walnut Street -- and cover the building's future operational costs. "The one problem that the Center has faced during all of its history is that it has not had a suitable, secure home," College of Arts and Sciences Dean and former Center Director Richard Beeman explained in a recent e-mail. While currently situated on 3619 Locust Walk, Beeman notes that the Center has been involved in a long-running game of musical buildings. "During my time as director of the Center, we had to move three times, with great inconvenience attending each move," Beeman wrote, adding "thus, Robert McNeil's very generous gift which will enable the Center to have its own building is, quite literally, a godsend." According to Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik, the Center may not have to wait long before its new location is ready. "I think [the proposal] will be in front of the [University Board of] Trustees sometime in April or May," Blaik said, explaining that after the completion of design and construction, the new facility should be available "next spring at the earliest," but "more likely by the summer." The McNeil Center focuses on the study of North American cultures in the Atlantic region prior to 1850. Originally founded in 1978 as the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, the Center adopted its current title after a 1998 endowment was created by McNeil. As current chairman of The Barra Foundation, he oversees program funding and support for historical, arts, humanities and educational organizations, mostly within the Philadelphia area. Although the Center is a Penn entity, it also exists as a consortium of 16 mid-Atlantic colleges, universities and libraries, including the American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Library Company of Philadelphia. In light of the Center's broad-reaching nature, current McNeil Director and History Professor Daniel Richter explains that the grant will serve scholars within and outside of the Penn community. "In terms of the University as a whole, we'll have a first class lecture room for speakers and programming," Richter noted, emphasizing that the grant and endowment "will really [allow the Center] to serve the broader community of scholars" in terms of research and study. According to Richter, the new facility will allow for a "more than doubling of the floor space" in which the Center plans to house a small research collection, as well as an increased number of program fellowship positions. In addition to serving those already in the field, Beeman noted that such a new facility and endowment "has established Penn's reputation as the place where exciting scholarship and teaching in early American history is happening." Through such renown, Beeman believes that the Center and University will continue to attract the best graduate students in the country to further their studies in the field of early American history. "Many choose Penn over other excellent places such as Harvard or Yale [universities] because of the existence of the McNeil Center."

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