Professor Terry Tullis moved into Professor Jack Hermance’s room in 1970 when he joined the geology Department, the third office on the right when entering RI Hall from the main green. He told me that he and his wife at the time Jan Tullis, whose office was the second on the right, wanted to set up an experimental lab, and for that reason the building was “a disaster for [them]” because “it was not a modern building”. Terry described the building “with a certain charm to it” that made it “homey”, but it caused “frustrations” as it was not designed for the level of technology they required. In 1982, he felt “glad enough to move out”.

To accommodate one of these pieces of technology Terry oversaw some alterations to his lab area, which was on the first floor next to his office in the NE corner of the original 1840 building. In 1978/9 a slot was cut in the floor of Terry’s lab, running N-S, to allow a cinderblock wall to be built. He recalls that it extended down through the basement to the ground supporting the building, although we could not pinpoint exactly where it would have been in the basement- whether it was in the cupboard space of 001, or if 001 was reduced to accommodate the wall- but Terry was sure it remained after they moved out. The cinderblock wall was needed to support a 10,000lb piece of machinery that Terry showed me in his lab in the Geo-Chem building. He recalls that when they moved out the machinery had to be dismantled and transported in pieces. A forklift removed the components from the first floor window on the north side, and almost dropped one 3,000lb piece that caused the forklift to crash into the window ledge.

Terry remembers that when they cut through the floor of his lab they came across charred timbers, and he guessed that there must have been a fire at some point in the building’s history. It is likely this was related to the fire that occurred between 1905-7 and is recorded in the newspaper article from the University Archives. (When gutting the building these charred timbers were encountered, according Nick Winton, co-founder of the company responsible for the rennovation).

The basement that Terry remembers was primarily lab space, although the bathrooms were in the same location that they were last Spring. The corridor layout was also more or less the same, with storage cabinets lining it. The area where the Writing Fellow’s Centre was located was the lab of Dick Yund who came to Brown in 1960. According to Terry this area was full of dirt and had to be excavated. The space on the south side of the basement was Bruno Giletti’s lab. He recalls there was also other machinery down there.

On the second floor, across from 201, was the lab of Malcom Rutherford. Terry remembers a false ceiling being installed above this lab to block off the balcony/mezzanine area. He described the floor sloping so much on the south side of the second floor that a 4” block was needed for the desks. Terry remembers 201 being known as 201, and during his time in the building the balcony still ran around the room. He told me that this was where “students had watched the cadavers being dissected”. During Geology’s time several grad students had their office space on the balcony, and this lack of space was part of the reason they moved, according to Terry. Along the east end of the 1874 extension were the offices of Michael Chinney, Mike Randall, and Dave Harkrider, although Terry could not say for sure whether all three were there simultaneously, or whether there were only two offices and one professor replaced another.

The attic space above the spiral staircase forms part of Terry’s memories about the building, with “a lead lined cadaver box” standing out in the contents of the space. When asked he said that he remembered being able to see through to the east area of attic space, much as I encountered the space when I was up there last Spring. He said that the department “might have stashed some of their equipment there”.

Talking about the history of the Geology department, he was not sure when Geology had moved into the building, but knew about Charlie “Brickyard” Brown who “was ‘’’the’’’ geology department in those days”. Alonzo “Lon” Quinn also stood out in his mind as being “’’’the’’’ guy from the ‘40s or ‘50s”, and who was still around when Terry joined the department in 1970.

With regard to the exterior, he described it as always seeming “a little bit ratty”. The fire escape and the transformer on the north side were already there when he started in 1970, and he guessed that the latter was probably installed around 1960. I asked about the west door, as its role in changing the orientation of the building is a striking example of the changing uses of a building. Terry said that during his time in the building you were able to enter the building through that door. Going back into the building post-1982, it struck him that the building had “a more open feeling when [they] were there”, and that the university had actually put some money into the building.

Memories from the Department of Geological Sciences

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