Nearly every Brown student has seen the signs - plain white rectangles marked with a red star and an arrow pointing toward the Russian Sub Museum. But surprisingly few students have ever taken the stroll across the Point Street Bridge, past the massive Narragansett Power building and alongside intimidating water storage cylinders to arrive at the elusive sub museum.
Located at Collier Point Park, off Allens Avenue, the museum's major attraction is Juliett 484, a 300-foot-long diesel-powered nuclear cruise missile and Cold War veteran that also "starred in" the Harrison Ford film "K-19."
The museum is open year-round, and for those who'd rather not face the inclement weather, the sub museum's Web site now includes a virtual tour of the Juliett 484. The spookiest time of year to visit the museum - and the time most students visit - is around Halloween, when the submarine is transformed into a haunted house.
Vaughn Edelson '07 visited the haunted submarine this past Halloween and said that although the decorations were cheesy, "the Russian sub haunted house is excellent for people who are easily scared, especially by people in costumes who jump out at you from dark places."
The submarine currently belongs to the USS Saratoga Foundation, which provides the support for keeping the supercarrier's history alive as part of larger Rhode Island naval history. According to the USS Saratoga Foundation Museum Web site, the foundation acquired the submarine to support its long-term vision to display the two ships - former Cold War adversaries that were both decommissioned in 1994 - side by side as a Cold War museum and monument to a peaceful relationship between Russia and the United States.
