The Haskell Center for Education and Public Programs

The state-of-the-art Wyatt R. and Susan N. Haskell Center for Education and Public Programs is located just across Third Street from the Folger Library building. Dedicated on February 25, 2000, the center houses a lively variety of Folger activities, including the Folger's K-12 education programs, administrative offices for the Folger Theatre, The O.B. Hardison Poetry Series, Folger Consort, and PEN/Faulkner programs, and the docents.

Among other amenities, it offers the Foulke Room, a large, window-filled room for seminars, meetings, and rehearsals; the well-equipped Cafritz Foundation Center for Distance Learning; and office and meeting space.

Architect Andrew Stevenson faced several challenges in fashioning this modern work space from a nineteenth-century office building that was once a funeral parlor. Among these difficulties was a basement less than six feet deep. As part of the project, the existing building was underpinned while a new bottom floor was excavated, creating a functional lower level that became one of four usable floors.