The historic Washburn Observatory was rededicated Friday after two years of extensive renovations that prepared it to house the Letters and Sciences Honors Program while maintaining its historic significance and charm.
Because the building is technically a historic landmark, official state protection codes prevented any alteration of the building’s external appearance, according to Jim Lattis, director of University of Wisconsin Space Place.
Home to the Institute for Research in the Humanities since 1958, the majority of the renovations were aimed at upgrading the basement of the building to prepare it to house the honors program for UW’s Letters and Sciences.
Originally built in 1881, the observatory housed one of the first research programs on campus, according to Lattis, who added it was home to some of the most important astronomical research of the time.
“We now have a world-class astronomy program here at UW, and the work done in the early years at the Observatory is why that was able to develop,” Lattis said.
Although little significant astronomical research currently goes on at the observatory, the antique telescope it houses offers a rare opportunity for students and the general public to view the heavens with their naked eye.
“The telescope itself is optically very fine,” Lattis said. “Telescopes in that time were designed to specifically look into space with the eye, instead of the various light measuring instruments that are currently used.”
When it was initially built, the only stipulation for the telescope was that it be larger than the one at Harvard University, according to UW spokesperson Kiera Wiatrak.
Viewing the heavens through this telescope is an important astrological experience, according to Lattis, who said that a viewer is going to get image quality that is rarely available anywhere else.
It is also important for students on campus to recognize the historical significance of the observatory as in many ways it began the great research tradition at UW that has since become a world-premiere research institution, Wiatrak said.
Wiatrak added it is important to preserve the historicity of buildings like the observatory because in the age of iPods and the Internet, it is easy to get lost in new technologies.
“If you don’t remember where you came from, the future won’t hold much significance,” Wiatrak said.
The observatory was one of the first buildings on campus funded entirely by private donors, the most significant of whom was governor of Wisconsin Cadwallader Washburn, Lattis said.
The renovation project was funded by a $1.5 million donation from the Nancy Woodson Spire Foundation, a $500,000 gift from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation and another $500,000 in gifts from other college sources, according to Wiatrak.
Other than use by introductory astronomy classes and now housing the Letters and Sciences Honors Program, the Washburn Observatory is also open to students and the general public every first and third Wednesdays of the month, weather permitting.
