Allen Steinheim Museum

About Allen Steinheim Museum

The Allen Steinheim Museum is a historic building and former museum located on the campus of Alfred University at Alfred in Allegany County, New York. It is a crenellated stone structure built from 1876 to 1880 to house the "mineral, geological, natural, and man-made curiosities" of Alfred University's second president Jonathan Allen. The building was originally started by Professor Ida Kenyon, who wished to make a private residence that resembled the castles of her native Germany.

The building is constructed of over 8,000 rock specimens that were combined to form the walls of the structure and 700 samples of local and foreign wood to combine the internal framework. When operating in the 1930s, it was considered the second oldest college museum in the United States. The Federal Writers Project described the museum as exhibiting a unique collection of "rare shells, mounted birds and animals, Indian artifacts and pioneer agricultural implements, early American pottery, Steigel and Sandwich glass, and the finest workmanship in the ceramic arts". The building ceased being used as a museum in the early 1950s, was used as classroom space, and then fell into disrepair.

After a 1995 renovation and a 1997 dedication, the Steinheim, which is German for "stone house," has since housed the Robert R. McComsey Career Development Center.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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  1. Allen Steinheim Museum, Alfred01AlfredBenjamin D. Esham (bdesham) · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Nearby museums

Make a day of it. 4 more museums are within a mile of Allen Steinheim Museum; the closest, Schein–Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, is practically next door.