Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

Lobby (12' 6" x 23')

Walls and Wall Covering: Three walls are original brickwork covered with metal lath and plaster. The west wall is entirely of new bricks (handmade in 1928 to match original samples) and is plastered on metal lath.

Doors and Trim: The east doorway, a large, arched opening, was verified by the original brickwork, which required little repair. The door was shown on the Bodleian copperplate and was clearly evident in the daguerreotype of 1856. The Portland stone doorsill replaced a Victorian granite one; although there was no definite evidence that the original sill was stone, its juxtaposition to the stone entrance platform would indicate such a feature. Fragments of the original Portland stone platform were found on the site. From the width of the doorway, it was obvious that the front door was double-valve. Each valve has eight panels, arranged with two square panels at the top and alternating sets of square Page 38 and rectangular panels below. The design of the doors' vertical divisions was deduced from the exterior paneled spandrel seen in the daguerreotype. The horizontal panel divisions are typically Georgian, with the long panels almost equal and the length of the top and intermediate panels being about the diagonal of the square of the height. The panel mold is similar to an example at the Brush-Everard House, but the reproduction bevel is flatter than the original. The interior architrave resembles one at Bacon's Castle, Surry County. Plastering covers the original splayed jambs and head of the doorway. The west doorway matches that on the east.⁴⁵

The sizes and locations of the north and south doors were determined by markings in the original brickwork of the side walls. It is thought that these doors were placed at the rear corners of the room to afford space for the main staircase, which was located in the center hall of the First Building. The double, three-panel doors and the paneled jambs were copied from the hall doorway at Kenmore in Fredericksburg. The trim is typical of colonial architraves in general spirit; though it is not based on a specific example it bears similarity to an architrave at the Moody House.

Woodwork:

Wainscot: A paneled dado, about three feet high, covers the lower part of the wall. The chair rail was copied from a feature in Ormeley Lodge, Ham, Surry, England. The design for the baseboard was taken from Shirley, Charles City County. The panel mold resembles an original profile in the Brush-Everard House, but it has a steeper bevel than typically found in eighteenth-century Virginia work.

Cornice: The wood cornice was based on an original cornice at Tazewell Hall, formerly in Williamsburg, now located in Newport News.

Color: The woodwork is painted gray.

Light Fixture: One reproduction lantern is suspended from the center of the ceiling called the "Governor's Palace lantern", (#Kl2892) it is among the fixtures reproduced by Colonial Williamsburg in the Craft House series.

General Notes: Four marble memorial tablets, dedicated to the College's Revolutionary, Civil War, First and Second World War dead are located on the north and south walls.

MAIN STAIR HALL^Passage (14' x 25')

Walls and Wall Covering: The east wall is original, covered with metal lath and plaster. The south wall is a twelve-inch terra cotta partition and the north and west walls are furred terra cotta.

Doors: The south door is similar to the door directly opposite in the north wall, which opens off the Lobby.

Windows: The two windows over the stairway are in original locations. The panel arrangement of the jamb woodwork follows precedent from the Wythe House (interior) shutters. The segmental arches above the window heads are typical colonial details. The keyblock is a modification of one at Toddsbury, Gloucester County. The south window is partially hidden behind wainscoting and its lower portion lights the area beneath the stairs. ^[closet?]

Woodwork:

Wainscot: A three-foot high paneled wainscot surrounds the Page 40 room and continues up the stairway. The dado cap matches the stair handrail, which was designed after a handrail at Chelsea Hospital, London. Precedent for carrying over the handrail section as a chair rail profile originated at Ormeley Lodge, Ham, England. The baseboard was copied from Shirley, Charles City County.

Cornice: Precedent for the cornice came from Tazewell Hall.

Stair: The plan, but not the exact distribution of treads, was shown on Jefferson's plan. His drawing was considerably out of scale in regard to the east/west dimension of the building, so the number of treads shown in the east and west flights was inaccurate. Jefferson's indication of the treads running north and south and the occurrence of two landings were copied in the restoration. The general character of the U-shaped, closed string stairway was inspired by a Chelsea Hospital stair, incorporating the two landings shown on Jefferson's plan. The risers are painted ^{what color?} and the treads are waxed. The nosings were copied from Rosewell, Gloucester County. The newel design, with its applied panel and cap, was derived from the Carter-Saunders House. The first three newels extend to the floor, as exemplified at the Wythe House. The handrail was based on a feature at Chelsea Hospital, London, but its detail was modified from a handrail at Rutland Lodge, Petersham, England. The handrail and newel posts are American walnut. The balusters are based on the contemporaneous balusters in the west gallery of Bruton Parish Church. The presence of turned balusters is documented by College records. The Board of Visitors authorized on March 26, 1716 that "Mathw Allen be paid for ... the turning of the Page 41 Bannisters fifteen pounds."⁴⁶ The string board is a copy of one at Castle Bromwick, Warwickshire, England. The triangular space under the first and second runs is finished with paneling. A similar treatment, also omitting the chair rail from the upper edge, occurs at the Wythe House.

Color: The paint color is gray.

Light Fixtures: Three brass, double-arm (electrified) sconces were placed in the stair hall in 1968. Though reproductions, they were copied from eighteenth-century sconces owned by Colonial Williamsburg.

PIAZZA (14' x 72')

The design of the Piazza was determined by the remaining complete arches and adjacent full intermediate piers at either end of the main building's west elevation. The north arch is shown on the Bodleian copperplate and a general view of the Piazza appears on the Mary F. Southall drawing (ca.l856). Five open arches are ranged across the west side of the Piazza. Originally "the Parade"⁴⁷ extended the whole length of the building, but its north and south ends were partitioned off in 1928 to enclose the new stair halls. It is clear that the Piazza had no doors, other than the east lobby door, in the eighteenth century.

Floor: The floor is laid with 12" x 12" x 2" brick tile, some sections of which remained from the original paving. A college account with John Saunders, Williamsburg carpenter, in 1766, concerns PIAZZA, NORTHWEST VIEW (THE LANTERNS ARE OBSOLETE) THE WREN BUILDING - WEST ELEVATION
MARY F. SOUTHALL DRAWING ca. 1856 Page 42 "14 foot of Scantling for floor in Piaza" and "25 foot of Plank for Do."⁴⁸ This entry suggests that the Piazza had a wood floor at the time.

Walls and Wall Covering: The interior of the Piazza was found plastered in 1928 and so was replastered and painted with facsimile whitewash during restoration. Some doubt shadows the authenticity of this treatment, for tooled joints were found in the original brickwork.

Doors: The Piazza doors are identical to the east doorway (see "Lobby").

Windows: Two windows pierce the east wall near the north end of the Piazza, lighting the Grammar School Room. These windows, the only ones in the Piazza, were shown on Jefferson's plan. They were restored to match original eighteen-light, first floor windows on the east front of the building. The height and width of the apertures were established from original rubbed brick arches and jambs remaining in the east elevation brickwork. The sash dimensions, consistent with colonial glass sizes, were determined from the size of the original openings and the evidence on the 1859 daguerreotype. The sash detail was copied from original sash at the Golden Ball and the architrave was modified from trim at Vauter's Church, Essex County. The wash brick under the sill duplicates the treatment of the Brafferton windows. The windows are counter-balanced, rather than double-hung as was customary in the eighteenth-century, in concession to modern convenience.

Color: The wood trim in the Piazza is painted tan to match all exterior woodwork.

Light Fixtures: Five colonial style lanterns are hung by chains from the ceiling. They are reproductions from the Craft House series, known as "Watchman's Lanterns" (#Kl2921).

General Notes: Four Marble tablets are fixed to the east wall. The two rectangular ones flanking the doorway outline the College priorities and commemorate the alumni prominent in the American Union. A large oval plaque to the south concerns the history of the College. The fourth, a rectangular tablet, memorializes the Frenchmen who died here ^{in VA?} in the Revolution.

SOUTH STAIR HALL ^PASSAGE (14' x 30')

Walls and Wall Covering: The south wall is original brick-work overlaid with gunite, terra cotta and plaster. The north brick wall, which did not exist in the eighteenth century, is covered with metal lath and plaster. The east and west walls are furred terra cotta partitions replacing original walls that were removed in an 1856 library expansion.

Closet: In 1928 a closet was introduced beneath the stair to serve as a sacristy for the Chapel. The lower part of the south window on the stair landing lights the area. The closet has a cupboard, built on traditional colonial lines, for the storage of vestments, sacred vessels and the like.

Doors: The north and east doors are similar to the doors in the Lobby. The location and size of the south door was deduced from markings in the original brickwork. The type doorway, with a high transom (fifteen lights), was indicated by the character of the opening; its design is similar to the President's House entrance door. Page 44 The eight-panel door arrangement recalls the design of the east doors and relates to a paneled door at Stratford. For the west door see notes on the Chapel.

Windows: One window, like those described in the Piazza, is located on the stair landing.

Woodwork:

Wainscot: A paneled wainscot encircles the room and trims the inner wall along the stairway. In character its paneling relates to the Lobby wainscot.

Cornice: Like the cornice in the Lobby, this one was derived from Tazewell Hall.

Stairs: The nature of the U-shaped, closed string stair has innumerable counterparts in colonial Virginian architecture. The stringer is reminiscent of a comparable detail in the Carter-Saunders House. The risers and treads are typical features; the risers are painted ^{[what color?]} and the treads are waxed. The handrail, supported by plain American walnut newel posts, resembles one at Ormeley Lodge, Ham, Surry, England. The balusters have no particular prototype, but similar examples exist at the Moody House and Captain Orr's Dwelling.

Color: The woodwork is painted gray.

Light Fixtures: Five reproduction sconces were placed in the stair hall in 1968. They match the fixtures installed in the Main Stair Hall.

NORTH STAIR HALL ^PASSAGE:

All notes on the South Stair Hall apply to this room, except for the treatment of the space beneath the stairs. Instead of a closet (sacristy), the basement stairway is located in that position. The unornamented character of the stair treatment is consistent with the simplicity of colonial service stairs. The stairwell is sheathed with beaded, random-width planks, as found in an outbuilding at Mount Sterling, Charles City County. The board-and-batten door is like the attic doors at Bacon's Castle, Surry County, though of heavier construction.

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL ROOM (24' x 32' 3")

The Grammar School was unquestionably conducted in the room north of the entrance lobby. Its position was the same in both the First and Second Buildings and remained unchanged from 1700-1779. In 1779 the original use of the room was discontinued with the abolition of the Grammar School from the curriculum. Jefferson's plan verifies the room's size and location around 1772 and documentary references from earlier periods substantiate his allocation.

The Grammar School was a preparatory school for young boys between the approximate ages of twelve to sixteen years. It offered the classical education pre-requisite to entrance into the College. The Charter specified that the instructors in the Grammar School were to be the Master, an Usher (Assistant to the Grammar-Master) and a Writing Master. The Writing Master had a separate classroom, THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL ROOM (ROOM #103) - NORTHWEST VIEW THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL ROOM (ROOM #103) - SOUTHWEST VIEW Page 46 floor main shown on Jefferson's plan as the first floor room south of the main stair hall. The Writing Room could not have been located there until 1733, when the President's House was finished and James Blair moved from his apartment south of the entrance lobby to his new home. There were usually thirty to forty students in the Grammar School, though enrollment increased in the 1760s. The increment required the hiring of a second usher. Before the Brafferton was built (1724), the Indian boys were taught alongside the grammar students in the Grammar School Room. In 1716, upon the request of Christopher Smith, Indian Master, a partition was erected in the schoolroom to separate the Indians from the English children.

The Grammar School Room was the largest classroom in the College. Its width was about the same as that of the Great Hall and Chapel; in length, it was approximately half the size of those two rooms. There were four windows in the east wall and two windows on the west side overlooking the Piazza. The fireplace was located at the center of the north end. The door from the entrance hall, a large "folding" or double door, was in the southwest corner. (In the First Building there was another door "next to the North end."⁴⁹ Also, before the fire of 1795, a General Map of the World hung at the south end of the schoolroom). Beneath the high windows a wainscot probably encircled the room, as was the case in many contemporary English schools. The abundance of lumber and craftsmen available in colonial Virginia increases the probability that the room was paneled in some way. From the College Accounts and records of repairs, it is evident that the Grammar School Room was plastered. The plastering would have HEAD MASTER'S DESK
ETON COLLEGE - UPPER SCHOOL ROOM
(BUILT 1694 - ATTRIBUTED TO WREN) ASSISTANT'S DESK
ETON COLLEGE - UPPER SCHOOL ROOM Page 47 extended above the wainscot and over the ceiling.

The room was undoubtedly furnished from the onset with forms (long benches) for the students and desks for the master and ushers. This was the practice in English schools of the period, so there is no reason to suppose that the Wren Building was not furnished in the customary manner. The presence of forms in the Grammar School Room is not documented until 1766-67, but the longevity of scholastic furniture makes it entirely credible that the forms repaired in the 1760s by John Saunders, a local carpenter, were the same ones installed ca. 1716. Though the references do not disclose the specific appearance of the furniture, they do reveal some details.

The benches and desks may have originally been imported from England, but they were more likely fashioned in Virginia from English designs. Hardwoods, such as oak and walnut, were available here for crafting heavy and durable furnishings.

When the Grammar School Room was restored in 1928-1931, it was finished with only the fundamental architectural features. The details were based on eighteenth-century models, but as the room was to serve as a modern classroom, no attempt was made to complete the restoration with traditional eighteenth-century classroom appointments. During the recent restoration the low wainscot was replaced with new woodwork and the door architraves were changed to match the paneling. Forms and desks were fitted along three walls and the fireplace was rebuilt. A doorway in the northeast corner was obliterated. The general character of the room was based on the Upper School Room at Eton and the Writing-School Room at Christ's Hospital, London, both designed by Wren and built ca. 1694. The School Room at Harrow, built between 1595 and 1611, was also a source of reference.

Walls and Wall Covering: The south and east walls are original brickwork, plastered on metal lath. The west wall is furred terra cotta simulating the brick wall destroyed in the fire of 1869. The north wall is also a terra cotta partition dating from 1928. ^{[N: Orig Prob fell in 1859: it was the chimney wall]}

Doors: The south door was located from markings in the original brickwork and from Jefferson's plan. The northwest closet door was installed as a practicality. As noted above the northeast door to the Moral Philosophy Room was deleted in 1968, in accordance with evidence Page 49 on Jefferson's plan. The interior door trim matches the paneling installed in 1967-68.

Windows: The windows were located from original markings (east wall only) and from indications on Jefferson's floor plan. The plastered jambs were based on two old plastered arch heads found in the first floor room south of the main stair hall. Splayed plaster jambs conform with building techniques of the period; precedent exists at the Moody House. The sash details are explained under "Piazza."

Closet: The northwest closet was created arbitrarily in 1928 by partitioning off half of the closet in the Moral Philosophy Room. That closet was authenticated by Jefferson's plan.

Woodwork:

Cornice: The cornice, enlarged in scale, is similar to the ball cornice at Marshall Lodge.

Wainscot: The wainscot installed in 1967 extends from the floor to the bottom of the window stools, a distance of approximately six feet. The panel arrangement consists of vertical rectangular panels of varying sizes. Above the master's desk a section (1' 3" high) with three square panels extends between the windows. Precedent for the paneling was taken from the Upper School Room at Eton. The arrangement of the paneling over the fireplace was copied from the Choir House, Salisbury, Wilts, England.

Furniture: The master's desk, against the west wall, and the two usher's desks on the east side of the room were patterned after desks in the Upper School Room at Eton. The student forms (benches) were copied from ones in the Upper School at Eton (especially precedent for Page 50 the supports or legs), the Writing-School Room at Christ's Hospital and the School Room at Harrow. Prototypes of ^for the student desks exist ^{are original examples} at Christ's Hospital and the Lower School Room at Eton.

Color: All woodwork is painted dark brown.

Fireplace: The fireplace laid in the 1928-1931 restoration was rebuilt in 1967. Its revised appearance is more in keeping with typical colonial models, as revealed by research findings since 1931. The width of the hearth was reduced by the removal of two bricks from each end. The fireplace opening was altered to a breadth of 4'9". The splayed jambs were replaced with a rounded fireback, laid in English bond. A new Italian marble (Bettogli vein, hone finish) fireplace surround was installed.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY ROOM (20' x 24')

The northeast corner room adjoining the Grammar School Room, was denoted "Philosophy" on Jefferson's plan in 1772. The use of the room was probably of long-standing and the Professor of Moral Philosophy may have lectured there as early as the 1720s or before. It was still being used as the "Philosophical Lecture Room" in 1829. During the eighteenth century an average of 20 to 30 students attended the Philosophy School, under the professorship of two men (the Natural Philosophy or Mathematics Room was in the first floor southeast corner of the east block). Four years of study were required for a bachelor's degree and seven years' work qualified a student for the degree of Master of Arts in the Philosophy School. From thence, a scholar proceeded to the Divinity School, if so inclined.

PLAN
PHILOSOPHY RM 104

FLOOR PLAN
THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY ROOM
(ROOM 104)

Other than its location and size, and the placement of windows, doors and the fireplace, little is known of the original appearance of the Moral Philosophy Room. From time to time the room was plastered and whitewashed by local carpenters or bricklayers. Perhaps a portion of the small collection of philosophical apparatus owned by the College prior to Dr. William Small's extensive purchases in 1767 was kept here. The room would have been finished as a typical English classroom; the details restored in 1967 were designed on the same precedent used in the Grammar School Room.

Walls and Wall Covering: The east and north walls are original brickwork, furred with terra cotta and plastered over wire mesh. The west and south walls were built of terra cotta in 1928 on the basis of historical evidence.

Doors: The west door from the Piazza and the southwest closet door were located from Jefferson's plan. The southeast door connecting with the Grammar School Room until 1967, was added in 1928 to facilitate circulation. The design of the six-panel door arrangement was copied from doors at Mount Vernon. All doorways were given new trim in 1967 to coincide with the revised interior paneling.

Windows: The room's four windows were spaced according to Jefferson's plan and original markings in the brickwork. The east window on the north side, blocked up at an undetermined eighteenth-century date, was re-opened in the restoration. The southeast window was relegated to the passageway (now a closet) sealed off from the room in 1928.

Closets: Jefferson's plan showed one closet on the west NORTH ELEVATION - THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY ROOM (ROOM 104) Page 52 side of the fireplace. In restoration the space was divided into two closets (one for the Grammar School Room). The area east of the fireplace was converted to a closet in 1967, replacing the connective between the adjacent classrooms. It now accommodates heat and air conditioning ducts.

Woodwork: The cornice, wainscot and mantel treatment are identical in design and precedent to corresponding features in the Grammar School Room.

Furniture: A platform (5'6" x 6' 0") was built against the west wall in 1967 as a low dais for the master's desk and chair. The Curator provided the antique desk and chair situated on the platform. Four students' desks and forms were arranged in rows perpendicular to the north wall. Their design duplicates the desks and forms in the Grammar School Room.

Color: The woodwork is painted gray.

Fireplace: The fireplace was rebuilt in 1967 in the same manner as the fireplace backing it, in the Grammar School Room.

THE GREAT HALL (25' 6" X 59'):

The Great Hall occupied two stories and the entire floor area of the northwest wing. Its ceiling height was equal to its width. The floor level of the Great Hall was originally two feet lower than the floor of the east block, requiring steps between the two portions of the building. The position and dimensions of the Great Hall were alike in the First and Second Buildings. A full basement (where the kitchen was situated) was below the room and there was one story above it. In the Second Building the exterior walls were the same height as the east GREAT HALL
CHELSEA HOSPITAL, LONDON GREAT HALL
WEST END Page 53 range. The Great Hall was divided into two floors in 1836. During the eighteenth century the room was variantly termed the "Great Hall" "public hall", "great roome", or simply "hall".

The north wing was designed to hold the dining hall or refectory. Meals called "commons", were served to the President, masters, college officials and students in the Great Hall until 1779, when the college was reorganized and boarding ceased in the Wren Building. Before the southwest wing was built (1728-1732), the Hall served as an improvised Chapel. Public examinations of students in every school of the college were conducted there until ca. 1780.

The room accommodated approximately 100 people for meals. It was undoubtedly furnished with long tables and benches made in Virginia of local hardwoods. Hugh Jones recommended a seating arrangement that called for eight tables, four higher and four lower, assigned according to rank.⁵¹ Cabinets may have stood against the walls for storage of the college plate and dinnerware, though these may have been kept in the kitchen. (Eighteenth-century pewter plates engraved with the College cypher were found under the floor of the Chapel in the 1800s.) The hall was lighted by candles, as repeated charges to "The Table" for candles appear in the Bursar's accounts. Portraits of College benefactors were customarily hung in the dining halls of contemporary English schools, so that may have been the case here. In the fire of 1705, a portrait of "the Douk of Milan that hung next to the dore that opens into the Piazza"⁵² was lost. A Latin oration was pronounced from "the rostrum"⁵³ in the Great Hall in 1775.

Originally the Great Hall had a gallery across its west end, with a "back pair of stairs"⁵⁴ leading to the upper floor. This feature was not reinstated in restoration because of discrepancies in the evidence of its existence. The east end of the room was not restored according to Jefferson's plan for reasons explained on Pages 17 and 35. In restoration the floor level was made even with the floors in the east block. Sash glass was ordered for the College Hall in 1716. One of the "Round Windws in Hall"⁵⁵ was repaired by a local carpenter in February, 1767. The doors were frequently worked on during the last half of the eighteenth century. On March 25, 1790 Humphrey Harwood, a Williamsburg bricklayer, charged to William and Mary the following items:

The restored architectural character of the room resembles the work of Sir Christopher Wren. Significant precedent was derived from Chelsea Hospital; besides the alleged relationship between the two buildings and the documented authorship of Chelsea Hospital by Wren, both structures have great halls of similar form. The eighteenth-century emphasis upon the correspondence between the Great Hall and Chapel influenced the installation of a high wainscot. The recorded 11'6"-height of the Chapel paneling was duplicated in the Great Hall. (See Page 27).

Walls and Wall Covering: All three exterior walls are Page 55 original, plastered terra cotta furring. The precarious condition of the east^west wall in 1928 necessitated its removal; terra cotta tile was substituted for original brickwork on either side of the new chimney.

^{p[illegible] p. 2 archaeo report says west wall adjacent ends of its side was rebuilt}

Cornice: The coved plaster cornice is implied by literary references to a curved ceiling in the Great Hall. It resembles closely a cove cornice in the great hall of Chelsea Hospital.

Doors: Two double-valve doors afford entrance to the room; one is located at the southeast corner, the other is in the center of the west wall.

Southeast door: The opening was established by original masonry in situ , but was rebuilt because of its deteriorated condition. (As noted earlier in the text, this door originally opened into a winding staircase. Another doorway at the northeast corner balanced this entrance, but was not replaced because of exigencies already explained.) The eight-panel doors match those in the first floor lobby. Here they are hung to recess, when open, into pockets in the jamb paneling. A similar door treatment originates in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, South Carolina.

West Door: The doorway was established exactly by markings in the eighteenth-century brickwork and the wide door opening shown on Jefferson's plan. The sill was found considerably below the floor line; in the absence of any verification of the original resolution of this condition, its restoration is hypothetical and not based on any specific precedent. The original brickwork showed only that the door reveal was square and not splayed (as the window jambs were). Because the door GREAT HALL - WEST ENTRANCE - EXTERIOR, RESTORED Page 56 head approached the wainscot cap so closely, an arched pediment was introduced to strengthen the design. The pilasters, cap, base, architrave and curved pediment are free renderings of the Doric order, adapted to suit the proportions of the doorway. The overhead arched panel segment exactly follows the design of the Wren Building's east entrance. The doors, however, have six panels.

West Stairway: The stairway descending to the west entrance is a conjectural restoration satisfying the conditions encountered. The handrail is similar to examples in "The Barons" Regitate, Surry, England (except for the lower "beak" molding, which is found in Lincoln's Inn, London). The baluster prototype exists in Hampton Court Palace. The floor of the entrance, below the wood steps, is cleft-surface slate.

Windows: Five tall, arched windows are spaced along the north and south side walls. The west wall has three round, or "bull's eye" windows; the larger one is directly above the west doorway near the cornice, two smaller round windows interrupt the paneling on either side of the end door. Each window is authenticated by markings in the original brickwork. The round windows do not appear on Jefferson's plan. The unpainted sash are finished with a natural stain.

Circle Headed Windows: These windows have splayed plaster jambs, restored according to indications in the original brickwork. Fragments of eighteenth-century plaster were found on the masonry. The sash design is based on windows in Bruton Parish Church.

Round Windows: The jambs of these three windows are round, not splayed, as shown by the nature of the brickwork. Plastered jambs were indicated by scraps of eighteenth-century plaster discovered in situ . The architraves around the small windows were copied from second floor Page 57 window trim in the Moody House and the sash profiles match others in the Wren Building. The sash of the large round window was copied from the east window in Bruton Parish Church.

Woodwork: The paneling is a simplified version of the woodwork in Chelsea Hospital's great hall, with minor details eclectically garnered from other seventeenth and eighteenth-century buildings. The woodwork has a rubbed, stained and waxed natural finish. Only the moldings above and below the cove cornice are painted trim; the off-white tone matches the plastering.

Baseboard: Though somewhat larger in scale, the baseboard profile is similar to an original detail in the Carter-Saunders House.

Wainscot: The panel arrangement was copied from Chelsea Hospital, but the panel mold was modified from the front door trim at the Wythe House. Wainscoting entirely encircles the room and covers the wall surfaces from floor to window sills.

Chair Rail: Precedent for this feature was taken from the Records Office, Chauncery Lane, London, with a minute variation of the lower member from a cyma recta to a cyma reversa, as found in the Brush-Everard and Carter-Saunders houses.

Wainscot Cap: The profile of this molding was duplicated from Chelsea Hospital. Concealed, indirect lighting was mounted behind the wainscot, cap in 1967, its purpose to enhance the effect of natural candlelight in the room.

Chimney Breast: The east end of the room is dominated by the chimney breast, which rises the full height of the room and is encased within paneling. The width and projection of the chimney breast was Page 58 accurately measured from the original foundations. The disposition of the panels is characteristic of colonial Woodwork. A combination of raised and sunk panels is common in eighteenth-century Church redoses in Virginia, as at Bruton Parish Church. The sunk panel mold is related to the profile of the wainscot panels; the raised panel mold approximates a detail at Hampton Court Palace. An example of the long horizontal panel is found in the parlor of the Peyton Randolph House.

Cornice: The room cove is considered a cornice over the chimney breast. The projecting segment of the cove surmounts a plain frieze and a simple architrave based on a detail at Sweet Hall, King William County.

Mantel Shelf: This detail was modeled from a mantel shelf in the Benchers' Reading Room, Middle Temple, London.

Furniture: The architects in 1928-1931 supplied four long tables, with six benches apiece, for the Great Hall. A fifth table, somewhat smaller than the others and accompanied with individual seats, was provided by the curator in 1968.

Fireplace: The large east fireplace was restored to the size indicated by the foundation brickwork and to the general character of eighteenth-century prototypes. The jambs are gauged brick (as in the Peyton Randolph House), laid in English bond that typifies fireplace treatment of the early 1700s. The use of gauged brick is a refinement that enhances a smooth relationship between the brickwork and marble embellishment. The square jambs were built because fireplaces of comparable size Page 59 and formality were fashioned that way in colonial times. The rough, common bond fireback is consistent with eighteenth-century precedent; the brick was usually concealed behind a cast iron fireback. A grate was originally utilized in the Great Hall fireplace. (in both the First and Second Buildings). The underfire is soapstone; unfortunately, research subsequent to 1931 has revealed that Portland stone was usually laid in pretentious Virginia fireplaces. The hearth is of marble tile, alternating squares of Monte Azura and old style Italian marble. A similar eighteenth-century ^{mantel and/or} hearth was transferred from Chiswell House to Wetherburn's Tavern in the nineteenth century ^{1900-Morecock (?)}; because of its unauthentic location, the hearth was deleted from the latter building during recent restoration. The marble bolection molding around the Great Hall fireplace resembles a surround at Hampton Court Palace. The material is Ashburton marble, imported from England to match original fragments discovered on the site. In transit the restoration stone was broken, which accounts for its imperfection. ^{See Raleigh Tav. Arch't report - Apollo Rm.}

Lighting Fixtures: Eight brass, single-arm sconces were mounted on the wainscot in 1968. Especially cast at the James Geddy foundry for use in the Great Hall, the fixtures were reproduced from eighteenth century sconces in Colonial Williamsburg's antique collection. Each new sconce was stamped with an "IG" mark of identification, like^{used by} James Geddy, Jr's eighteenth-century mark.

CHAPEL (25' 6" x 59')

The construction of the third and final part of the Wren Building was begun in 1729. Henry Cary undertook the building of the Chapel wing. (He also built the Brafferton and, probably, the President's House.) CHAPEL - EAST END
(BEFORE 1967-68 RESTORATION) CHAPEL - WEST END (BEFORE 1967-68 RESTORATION) Page 60 A brick, laid upside down and incised with the initials and date "R.K. 1729"⁵⁷, remains at the south corner of the exterior west wall. The southwest wing was completed in 1732; President Blair formally opened the Chapel on June 28th with a sermon and an appropriate ceremony.

The Chapel was primarily intended for daily worship services within the College and for augmenting the education of the divinity students. Compulsory attendance was mandatory at the services conducted each day at 7:00 A.M. in the winter (6:00 A.M. in the summer) and 5:00 P.M. in the evenings year round. Transfer Day was usually celebrated in the Chapel and Commencement exercises were also observed there. Some disputations and orations were presented in the Chapel and occasionally it was the scene of funerals. The Chapel had a seating capacity for approximately 100 persons.

Eighteenth-century references emphatically state that the Chapel was a replica of the Great Hall. Only the interior religious appointments of the Chapel materially differentiated the two wings. The size of the Chapel was based on the form of the northwest wing, rather than the standard size of local parish churches. Many of its features, such as the brick construction, the five arched windows, the west gallery, the main west entrance, the east altar, the side entrances near the altar and the pews and pulpit, were comparable however, to the arrangements of local churches. The floor plan was consistent with collegiate chapel architecture in England and the conventional Virginia Church plan. The proportions of the Chapel and Great Hall constituted a double cube shape, which was commended in well-ordered Palladianism Page 61 as an ideal form.

Many of the interior Chapel details are specifically recorded in eighteenth-century records. The Chapel had an altar, communion rail pulpit, reading desk and forms or pews. The memorandum sent to the Duke of Beaufort by Lord Botetourt's executors in 1771 mentions the width of the aisle, the location of "two principal Pews" and of the pulpit, the height of the wainscot and of the wall from the ceiling to the wainscot (See Pages 26-27).⁵⁸ Joshua Kendall, a local carpenter was paid in 1770 for "Taking up the Pew in Colledge and Floor and making good Do"⁵⁹ while preparing Lord Botetourt's vault. The College paid a certain Bowler for "new covering the Chappel Forms"⁶⁰ in 1740. In recounting the alterations to the Wren Building during renovations in the 1850s, it was noted in the Faculty Minutes that "The cieling was formerly vaulted."⁶¹ By the mid-nineteenth century, a number of memorial tablets lined the Chapel walls. At least one dated from the eighteenth century. The Virginia Gazette reported on April 20, 1739 that:

A beautiful Monument, of curious Workmanship, in Marble, was lately erected in the Chapel of the College of William and Mary to the Memory of Sir John Randolph , Knight, who was interred there...⁶²

The newspaper account goes on to record the inscription verbatim .

The Chapel was equipped with all the appointments for "Divine Service" in the Anglican Church and the instruction of divinity students. Among the sacred articles owned by the College were a gilt sacrament cup and patten, in a red leather case, and a large folio Bible (in four volumes) bequeathed by Lady Gooch in 1773.⁶³

Floor: The Chapel floor is about three feet lower than the floors in the east range, though the east altar is level with the rest of the building. Evidence for the floor condition was the location of joist holes in the north and south walls. (The original floor was even with the exterior water table.) The Chapel floor is largely pine, but the center aisle is laid with Buckingham County slate. The original existence of a masonry aisle is confirmed by the disposition and nature of intermediary foundation walls under the Chapel. Further study since 1931 has proved that domestic slate was not used in Virginia as early as 1732, but that flagstones, such as Blue Shropshire, Purbeck, and Portland stone, were imported from England ^{were common}. The accurate ten-foot width of the aisle was recorded in the Duke of Beaufort letter.

Walls and Wall Covering: The three exterior walls are original brickwork, covered with steel lath and plaster above the wainscot. The east wall is new, rebuilt of terra cotta on either side of the brick chimney. (The chimney, concealed within the east wall behind the reredos, was indicated by original foundations and illustrations of the Second Building. It serves a fireplace in the third floor room above the Chapel.) The exact height of the Chapel walls, twenty-four feet (interior measurement), was noted in the Duke of Beaufort letter. The restored ceiling, because of structural necessities, is almost three feet higher than the original dimension.

Cornice: The plaster cove cornice is identical to that in the Great Hall.

Doors: The large double doorway at the west end of the room repeats the design of eight-panel, double-valve doors elsewhere in the Page 63 building. Because of the gallery, the doorway is not surmounted with a paneled arch. Two smaller doors of identical design are situated at the northeast and southeast corners. The sacristy door was arbitrarily added in restoration. (A door did exist in that location in the mid-nineteenth century, but whether that doorway was original is uncertain.) Both doors fit into paneled jamb pockets when open, just as the east door in the Great Hall. Inconclusive evidence of two south entrance doors was found in the brickwork during restoration; because of ambiguity they were not replaced. It is highly improbable that the doors were finished in the eighteenth century.

Windows: The five arched windows in each side wall and the three round west windows duplicate the Great Hall windows. "Sashes and Glasses"⁶⁴ for the Chapel were mentioned in 1728 by James Hughes, who applied unsuccessfully for the job of undertaker to the construction.

Woodwork: The woodwork and window sash have a natural finish as in the Great Hall.

Baseboard: The profile of the baseboard molding was copied from Molins Reigate, Surry, England.

Wainscot: The 11' 6" height of the paneled wainscot was explicitly recorded in the letter to the Duke of Beaufort. The restored paneling closely resembles the woodwork in the Chelsea Hospital Chapel. Slight modification of the panel arrangements was necessary to suit the dimensions of the Wren Chapel. The panel mold is similar to one in Hampton Court Palace.

CHRIST CHURCH
NEWGATE STREET, LONDON (Note Gallery)

PHOTOGRAPH - CHAPEL
CHELSEA HOSPITAL, LONDON

CHAPEL
TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY, ENGLAND

Chair Rail: Except under the balcony where it was modified to mitre into the pew caps, the chair rail profile matches an original one in the Carter-Saunders House.

Wainscot Cap: This detail was modified from a molding on the reredos at Bruton Parish Church.

Gallery: The balcony across the west end is a feature typically found in English collegiate chapels and eighteenth-century Virginia churches. Its original presence in the Wren Chapel is firmly documented and its location is authenticated by markings in the west, north and south brick walls. The form in plan, the arrangement of columns, and the paneling, for the restored balcony were inspired by a gallery in Chelsea Hospital Chapel. There are four pews in the gallery, set on graduated levels.

The Gallery Front is supported by four classically proportioned Corinthian columns and surmounted by a full entablature, influenced by a detail in St. Mary-at-Hill, London. Above the entablature is a beaded base and a continuation of the wainscot's upper panel course and cap mold. The paneling of the gallery front is broken by short pilasters mounted over the two outer columns. Each pilaster is ornamented with a carved drop echoing the eighteenth-century style of Grinling Gibbons. ^{whose carvings ornamented some of the bldgs}

A brass guard rail , supported by flirted brass Ionic collonettes, follows the contour of the gallery front. A damask curtain is hung from the guard rail. The design of the guard rail is similar to the gallery treatment at Christ Church (Old North) in Boston.

^{see: Christ Church, Newgate St., London.}

The gallery clock and Georgian ^antique coat of arms above it, are typical of the period and have no specific precedent.

The cornice under the gallery is an elaborated form of the wainscot cap, with a full bed mold and dentil band. The latter moldings constitute the upper members of a complete cornice that overlies the gallery beam. In most eighteenth-century Virginia churches the gallery soffit is flush with the lower edge of the gallery beam.

Gallery stair: The south stair to the gallery was copied from Bruton Parish Church, but embellished to complement the Chapel woodwork. The turnings of the balusters are lighter than those in Bruton Church giving a vastly different effect. The closed string is reminiscent of a stairway at Castle Bromwick, Warwickshire, England. The handrail is based on an example at Ditchley, Northumberland County.

Reredos: The east reredos resembles the one in Chelsea Hospital Chapel, except that pilasters were substituted for columns. Narrow panels, similar to details in Abington and Bruton Parish Church were introduced between the pilasters. The base (or dado) of the reredos is similar in plan and distribution of panels to that in Chelsea Hospital. The base mold and panel mold match wainscot details. The dado cap is a modification of a molding on the Bruton Church reredos. The center panel is surrounded by a roll molding inspired by an example in Hampton Court Palace. Classical precedent, derived from sources that would have been available to Sir Christopher Wren, substantiated the designs of pilaster capitals, architrave and cornice. The reredos material is walnut. Page 66 Precedent for the combination of Pine and walnut paneling is found at Christ Church, Lancaster County.

The Sanctuary Rail is typical of English Georgian work. The posts, which at the gate are halved to swing with the gate, are similar to those in Chelsea Hospital. The profile of cap and rail is from 44 Great Dormond Street, London. The base has the same profile of the wainscot baseboard. The balusters were copied from Hampton Court Palace.

Chancel Rail: The base and cap match comparable features on the Sanctuary rail. The design of the posts was derived from Hampton Court Palace. The balusters are another variation of stair balusters in Bruton Parish Church.

Pews: The original presence of pews in the College Chapel is well documented. The restored forms or stalls are arranged as was customary in English collegiate chapels, facing the center aisle. The seating arrangement is the same in the nave of Bruton Parish Church. The design of the pews was modified from Trinity College Chapel at Oxford. The cap is adapted from the Carter-Saunders House stair rail; and the panel mold is from Christ Church, Lancaster County. The placement of seats against the front of the pews is derived from an arrangement at Wadham College, Oxford. The pews in the ante-chapel (west end) are Virginia types, transformed from box pews to "slip" pews. The cap, which also forms the chair rail, was copied from Christ Church, Lancaster County. Precedent for the curved corner of the pew by the Page 67 stair was taken from the same source. The kneeler rails under the gallery are typical of the period and do not recall a particular precedent. The balusters are similar to those in the St. George Tucker and Moody houses. The handrail is a variant of a rail at Ditchley, Northumberland County. The addition of kneelers in front of the side pews in the Chapel diminished the original width of the aisle, but the inclusion of the kneelers was deemed consistent with eighteenth-century practice.

Pulpit: The occurrence of a pulpit in the College Chapel is documented in the Duke of Beaufort letter. Though the reference stated that the pulpit was situated "at the bottom of the Isle", the usual pulpit placement in eighteenth century chapels and churches was to the right side of the reredos within the sanctuary. The semi-hexagonal pulpit, made in 1968, is not an exact copy of any antique example. Its final design was simplified ^assimilated? from numerous seventeenth and eighteenth-century English and early American pulpit shapes. The panel arrangement reiterates the wainscoting in the Chapel.

Lighting Fixture: A large, multiple branch, brass chandelier was hung in the Chapel in 1968. Part of Colonial Williamsburg's antique collection, the chandelier is English or Dutch and dates from ca. 17001-1720.

General Notes: Six marble memorial plaques are mounted above the wainscot on the east, north and south walls. The tablets, of Italian Page 68 marble, were installed in the 1928-1931 restoration. They are dedicated to Sir John Randolph, Commissary James Blair, Commissary William Dawson, Professor George Wythe, Bishop James Madison, and President Benjamin Ewell.

Beneath the Chapel are five eighteenth-century brick vaults. Because of their deteriorated condition, they were restored in 1928-1931. ^{[A new concrete crypt added E/W under center aisle]}

^{The Long} Corridor (14' x 76')

Originally the corridor, or "long hall", had the same dimensions of the Piazza below it and extended fully across the west side of the min building. The stair halls at either end were deducted in 1928-1931.

Walls and Wall Covering: The west wall is partially original; its central area brickwork was destroyed sometime after 1856. The three interior walls are new terra cotta, plastered.

Doors: The north and south double doors have a six-panel design like other interior doors in the building. An eight-panel door, similar to the Lobby and Piazza doors, but having only one valve, opens onto the west pavilion balcony. Opposite, in the center of the east wall, a pair of double doors separates the corridor from the ^east passage. The doorway matches those in the north and south end walls.

Windows: The north jamb of the north window is original. Four windows, treated like all other twenty-light second story windows in the east block, are ranged on either side of the central west doorway. The window placement was dictated by the Mary F. Southall drawing (ca. 1856) [deleted]

Woodwork: All woodwork matches that in the north and south stairhalls. A panel strip, however, is mounted over each double door.

Color: The woodwork is painted gray.

Light Fixtures: Four reproduction lanterns, the "Brush-Everard House" variety (#K11751) in the Craft House series, were hung here in 1968.

Lobby (12' x 24'): Historical allusions substantiate the eighteenth-century location of this hallway outside the Blue Room. The architectural treatment of the passage reiterates details in the first floor lobby. One lantern, the same type used in the Corridor, was put here in 1968. The gray color of the woodwork matches samples elsewhere in the building.

Convocation (Blue) Room (24' 3" x 32' 4")

The location of the Blue Room, at the north end of the second floor Lobby (Passage), is certain. In both the First and Second Buildings, it was directly over and nearly the same size as the Grammar School Room. After the fire of 1859, its dimensions were diminished.

The Royal Charter in 1693 explicitly directed the President, Masters and Professors to "appoint some convenient Place or Council Chamber within the said College"⁶⁵ for conferences of the Rector, Visitors and Governors. The faculty also used the Convocation Room for meetings. The body of Visitors and Governors was comprised of no more than twenty men (usually eighteen) and the number of masters and professors was far fewer. The first "General Meeting... in the Convocation Roome"⁶⁶ EAST ELEVATION (PARTIAL) SHOWING PANEL ARRANGEMENT
BLUE ROOM Page 70 of the Second Building was held on March 26, 1716. In that session the Visitors ordered furniture for the room from Micajah and Richard Perry, London merchants:

• 2 Doz: handsome leather chairs for the Convocation Roome.
• 1 pr of and Irons, Fire shovel and Tongs and Fender.
• 1 p. of Green broad cloath.
• 1 Ingine for Quenching Fire.
• 2 Doz: leather Bucketts with the Colledge Cypher thereon.⁶⁷

The room was probably furnished as well with a large table, around which the leather chairs were arranged. A cupboard or cabinet was also necessary for storing the college records and minutes, the seal in its "Tinn Box", and the Charter in its box.⁶⁸ Portraits and prints may have decorated the walls.

In the early eighteenth century the room was referred to as either the "Convocation Room" or the "Council Chamber". The first documented mention of its name, "the Blue Room", dates from 1797, though the term could have been familiar long before then.⁶⁹

Most of the descriptive information about the room has been gleaned from nineteenth-century records. In 1830 recalcitrant students damaged the Blue Room and left "all the panes of glass in this department eighty in number broken to pieces..."⁷⁰ (This reference irrefutably clarified the location of the Convocation Room; no other room on the second floor could have had exactly eighty window panes.) A student reminiscing on his graduation in 1855 wrote that "This room was panelled in blue, in the same style and color as was the 'Apollo Hall' in the old Raleigh Tavern..."⁷¹ In 1859, after completion of the Third Building, a professor wrote in retrospect: "The 'Blue Room' was on the second floor Page 71 and was part of the present Lecture-room on the north of the Central Hall. The wainscot extended from floor to ceiling and was of a blue color."⁷²

Walls and Wall Covering: Only the east wall is original masonry; the three interior walls were altered or removed in nineteenth-century fires and renovations. The north, south and west walls are terra cotta partitions. All wall surfaces are fully paneled.

Doors: Two doorways, near the east and west corners, penetrate the south wall. Restoration of the southeast entrance is conjectural. The doors are single-valve, with six raised panels, and identical to the door into the Moral Philosophy Room. The architraves resemble door trim at the Moody House and the paneled jambs are similar to door treatment at the Wythe House. Projecting overhead panels connect the doorways to the cornice, as at Brooks Bank, Essex County.

Windows: Four windows, located by original markings in the brickwork and pictorial records, are symmetrically spaced across the east wall. Each window has twenty panes, four lights wide and five lights high. The second floor windows in the east block are wider (by one light) than those on the first floor. The condition is unusual for eighteenth century architecture, which usually exhibits a reversed diminution in window sizes, for vertical emphasis on the exterior. All evidence, however, confirms the authenticity of wider second story window sash in the Wren Building. The restored sash details are uniform throughout the structure Page 72 (see "Piazza" for precedent). Like the door architraves, the window trim is similar to features at the Moody House. The paneled jambs were copied from the Wythe House.

Woodwork: The design of the full-length paneling, with vertical rectangular panels above the chair rail and horizontal raised panels below, is typically eighteenth-century. The panel arrangement on the east wall was dependent upon the window spacing; consequently, on the west side of the room the relation of panels to windows was maintained with wide panels (for hanging portraits) centered opposite the east openings. Similar considerations influenced the panel design on the south wall where the two doorways occurred. The spaces on either side of the chimney breast (north wall) were paneled to recall the alternating system on the west wall.

Baseboard: The molded base was designed from an example at New Inn, London.

Chair Rail: The chair rail matches the profile of one at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Clapton, London.

Cornice: Precedent for the cornice exists at the Tayloe House. The cornice breaks on the east and west walls were based on examples at the Miles Brewton House, Charleston, South Carolina, though the keys over the windows are similar to details at Toddsbury. (Here the incidental pulvinated frieze found at Toddsbury was omitted.)

Overmantel: The paneled overmantel was styled after a mantel treatment at Wilton in Richmond.

Color: The blue color on the woodwork is the only documented paint color in the building.

Fireplace: The fireplace brickwork was rebuilt in 1967 (see "Grammar School Room"), though the size of the hearth was unaltered. The white Italian marble fireplace surround and the marble hearth are similar to examples at Carter's Grove and Wilton.

Lighting Fixtures: Seven double-arm, brass candle sconces were cast at the James Geddy foundry in 1968 for use in the Blue Room. Though reproductions, the sconces were precisely patterned from eighteenth-century antiques owned by Colonial Williamsburg. They bear the maker's mark, "IG."

Common Room (19' l0" x 24' 4")

The eighteenth-century location of the Common Room is unrecorded. On the basis of known facts about the interior arrangement, the northeast corner room on the second floor seems the most logical possibility. That room would have been especially suitable since it adjoined the Blue Room, formal convocation room for the President, professors, masters and college dignitaries.

The Common Room was set aside as an informal meeting room, or parlor, for the teachers and administrators at William and Mary. The gentlemen most likely retired there after dinner and at other times during the day for relaxation, conversation and refreshments (such as tea, wine, punch and liquors.) One eighteenth-century reference implies that the professors and masters (when not attending in the Great Hall) could also take their meals in the Common Room. It was a gathering place at times of official meetings and college ceremonies. Students TYPICAL SECOND FLOOR CLASS ROOM
ELEVATIONS SHOW ROOM #204
COMMON ROOM Page 74 were required to convene in the Common Room for 9:00 P.M. roll calls in 1766. On occasion, boys were summoned to appear in the Common Room to answer charges of misbehavior and unruliness. The first mention of the Common Room was made in 1747 by the Reverend William Dawson, second President of the College, in a letter to Mr. Fothergill at Oxford. He wrote that on Transfer Day, "In the Common Room, we chearfully drank prosperity to Col... [illegible], and your Health, in particular."⁷³

The colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and all other English schools traditionally had spacious common rooms. They were more elaborately appointed with woodwork, decor and comfortable furnishings than the lesser pretensions of William and Mary could have afforded in colonial times. The room is somewhat smaller than the Moral Philosophy Room directly underneath it; the disposition of windows doors and the fireplace, however, are the same in both rooms.

Walls and Wall Covering: The north and east walls are original, furred with terra cotta and plastered over metal lath. The two inner walls are terra cotta, plastered.

Doors: A door in the southwest corner leads from the stair hall. Two closet doors flank the fireplace in the south wall. It is conceivable that, in the eighteenth century, a doorway in the south wall opened into the Convocation (Blue) Room. The arrangement of eight panels on each door echoes the design of the east and west first floor lobby doors. The doors in the Common Room, however, are lower and narrower than those on the first floor. The door trim and paneled jambs follow original doorway design at the Wythe House.

Closets: The two south closets are conjectural restorations.

Windows: Placement of the five window openings was based on signs in the original brickwork and on window locations in the Moral Philosophy Room. There are three windows, equally spaced, in the north wall and two windows on the east side of the room. The southeast window is hidden in the closet. Each window has twenty lights. Sash details are uniform throughout the building (see "Piazza" for precedent), though the distribution of panes in the second floor windows is unlike that on the first floor. The architraves were copied from interior window trim at the Rolfe House, Surry County.

Woodwork:

Baseboard: The molded baseboard was modeled on one at New Inn London.

Cornice: The cornice was copied from the Tayloe House.

Wainscot: A three-foot high dado, with long, horizontal rectangular panels, encircles the room. A smaller vertical, rectangular panel occurs at the outer side of each closet door. The panel mold was derived from the Brush-Everard House.

Mantel: The mantel treatment was modified from precedent at the Semple House.

Color: The trim is painted dark red, the same tone used on the window sash at the James Geddy House. ^{[precedent: Bruton Parish east sash]}

Fireplace: The fireplace opening and hearth were relaid in 1967. See "Grammar School Room" for details.

ILLUSTRATION - Design for Floorcloth in Common Room (#204)
Drawing by E. Leroy Phillips (1968)
A Floorcloth Not Installed

Arguments for:

• 1.Hugh Jones was a scholar and a clergyman (a representative of the Church of England); it must be assumed that he was a reliable authority and not given to loose statements.
• 2.Jones knew and worked with the Reverend James Blair, the first President of the College (1693-1743) and the man chiefly instrumental in its foundation; it is logical that Jones drew his information firsthand from Blair, who presumably knew more about the College than anyone else.
• Page 80
• 3.The Present State of Virginia was published in 1724; it was probably written while Wren was still alive (d. 1723); it seems unlikely that Jones would have taken liberties with the prominence of Wren's name, either while he was alive or shortly after his death.
• 4.Jones' reference was to the First Building ("first modelled") and, from the appearance of Franz Ludwig Michel's drawing (made ca. 1702 and the only known pictorial record of the First Building), it was probably more Wrennish than the Second Building.
• 5.Characteristics of First Building, though adapted by the Virginia gentlemen, which resemble Wren's style: ---
• 6.The Office of works in London was responsible for the design of official English buildings; King William and Queen Mary established the College in Virginia under their royal patronage.
• 7.The College was a Royal Foundation; Wren, as Surveyor of the King's works, was the logical architect. If not by his own hand, then it probably emerged under his influence and approval.
• 8.Queen Mary and the Archbishop of Canterbury were intimately involved in planning the College; the Queen was in close touch with Wren at the time, in the construction of English public buildings. ^Colleges
• 9.Blair's connections with high officials in the court and clergy (especially while he was in England soliciting support for the College) would suggest that the range of his associations, of influential command, could have secured Wren as architect for the College edifice.
• 10.Blair's entrance to high ecclesiastical circles; Wren Page 81 had shortly before designed a cathedral for the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose diocese included Virginia and who was appointed first Chancellor of William and Mary. ^{[He was 2nd Chancellor - Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was first]}
• 11.Thomas Hadley, the overseer, along with carpenters, bricklayers, laborers and other workmen, was sent from England to guide the erection of the College; from this it could be inferred that the design, too, came from England, if not from Wren himself, perhaps emanating from the office of Public Works.
• 12.Besides Jones' statement of adaptations made to the design by Virginians, Blair charged Governor Nicholson with making several unnecessary changes of his own invention, saying that, in result, the building was "shamefully spoilt". It may be that Wren's design was so changed that, it was rendered virtually unrecognizable as his handiwork.
• 13.The validity of Jones' qualification, that the design was altered and adapted, seems reasonable. An example of the result when Wren's designs were executed by bands -untutored in his style is apparent in Sir John Moore's school at Appleby, Leicestershire (1693), coeval with the Wren Building. Thomas Woodstock, one of Wren's favorite carpenters; was in charge of the work but died while engaged in it and the project was completed by Sir William Wilson, a Midland mason. The building and the original plans still exist; no immediate similarity between them is apparent.
• Page 82
• 14.The Wren Building was described by Colonial Williamsburg architects in 1941 as "typical of the middle English Renaissance." In form it is medieval, with architectural details "up to date of the period in which it was built". Wren was the prominent modern architect of his day in London, but he nonetheless conformed to the traditional collegiate design in many of his university and scholastic commissions.
• 15.Authorities contend that Wren did use the quadrangle plan, despite his oft-quoted derision (see Page 84); it was the conventional collegiate form.
• 16.During a trip to England in 1929, Dr. J.A.C. Chandler, President of the College, and C.M. Robinson, College Architect, talked with English experts who noted Wren's tendency to erect quadrangles. CMR noted the similarity between the bond of brickwork in many of Wren's structures and that of the College building (an inconclusive point). ^{[means nothing]}
• 17.Prentice Duell, egyptologist and archaeologist for the Wren Building restoration project, after leaving Williamsburg, spent some time in London; studying Chelsea Hospital carefully, he became convinced that Wren was the unmistakable author of both, so alike "in feeling and design" they were. Wren did design and build Chelsea Hospital; the cornerstone was laid in 1682.
• 18.According to Marcus Whiffen, author of The Public Buildings of Williamsburg (1958), the evident unsuitability of the design for the colonial conditions in Virginia (especially in respect to building materials) strongly implies that the plans issued from England.
• 19.See item 17 in "Arguments Against", Page 84. There is conclusive archaeological and historical evidence that the entrance lobby Page 83 was substantially changed in the Second Building. In the First Building, the entrance was on the basement level, with access to the first (main) floor via a central interior stairway.
• 20.^{N.B. - Geo. London (landscape) connection.}

ARGUMENTS AGAINST:

• 1.Hugh Jones wrote two decades after the Wren Building was constructed; could he not have been Mistaken?
• 2.James Blair seems to have been a man of sometimes questionable verity, or rather expediency; he was the most likely source for Jones' information.
• 3.Jones returned to England in 1721; he probably attended Wren's funeral (d.1723) or, if not, was witness to the aura of prominence that surrounded the architect. Jones perhaps fell prey to enthusiasm and was moved to laxity in accuracy.
• 4.Jones and Wren were both mathematicians, which might have influenced Jones' point of view.
• 5.Jones' book was intentionally slanted to "sell" Virginia.
• 6.Jones noted that the Second Building was "not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital", for which Wren supplied the drawings. Comparison of the two reveals similarities in design. It was conceivably through Governor Spotswood's "contrivances" that the Second Building was given Wrennish characteristics and from this circumstance that the tradition (or the idea in Jones' case) arose.
• 7.The prevailing eighteenth-century attitude toward attributions was rather casual. Jones was more likely expressing a value judgement than a statement of fact.
• 8.Absolutely no sign existed that Thomas Hadley had and Page 84 connection with Wren or the Office of Public Works; if otherwise, the fact would strengthen the credibility of Jones' statement.
• 9.Theodorick Bland's Survey Map of Williamsburg (1699) and related documents specify an intended quadrangular plan of the Wren Building. Wren's comment on quadrangular was derogatory when asked to design one for Trinity College, Oxford in 1665. He insisted it should be a "a lame one, somewhat like a three-legged table." Wren did design "light" court quadrangles; often these were completions of older plans; i.e., the plan was atypical of Wren.
• 10.Clearly, even if the Office or Works did send the design to Williamsburg, it was altered before being executed.
• 11.The relative unimportance of a proposed building in the New World in the seventeenth century, to the English consciousness; would such a building warrant a design by England's foremost architect or even issuance from the Office of Public Works?
• 12.Considering Wren's importance, would not his only plan in British America have aroused trumpeting more loudly and widely -- at the time? His authorship would have meant a feather for William and Mary even in the seventeenth century.
• 13.The fact that Robert Beverly, who wrote The History and Present State of Virginia in 1705 (revised in 1722), as close as he was, both temporally and geographically, to the construction of the First and Second Buildings, made no allusion to Wren as the initial architect seems to sufficiently preclude Jones' attribution.
• Page 85
• 14.The total absence of any corroborative evidence makes Jones' assertion insubstantial.
• 15.Michel's drawing (ca. 1702) shows faceted stone or rusticated stucco on the basement story and a frieze (these are possible interpretations; as there was little stone in Virginia anyway, its use would have been virtually impossible). Sir John Summerson defines the painting of rustication an "Artisian Mannerism" that developed as an Italian technique. This sort of fabrication would have been offensive to Wren and his English Baroque style.
• 16.A strong resemblance relates the First Wren Building to Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland (1628-1650). It is perhaps significant that James Blair, a Scot, was educated nearby at Marischal College.
• 17.English authorities saw no indication that the College building exemplified Wren's work; they especially criticized the entrance hall as being inconsistent.
• 18.Dr. J.A.C. Chandler (President of William and Mary) and C. M. Robinson (College Architect) during a trip to England examined the Wren drawings at Oxford and saw "nothing here remotely resembling the College of William and Mary." They talked with several English experts who perceived no intrinsic basis for Wren's Attribution.
• 19.False attributions to Wren are legendary and prolific.
• 20.Marcus Whiffen, in studying the Wren Building, found nothing consequential to suggest characteristics of Wren's style.
• 21.The question of Wren authorship will continue enigmatic, Page 86 unless infallible documentary evidence is found. In any event, the Wren attribution clearly pertains to the First College Building and available records indicate a substantial disparity between the original design of the exterior (though not the floor plan) and its executed appearance in both the First and Second Buildings.

Oliver Lodge, an English architect who was Carnegie Visiting Professor of William and Mary in 1946, expressed his opinion on the subject:

Of course, authorship is of minor importance besides quality... If the Wren Building were proved to be by Webb or Hawksmoor, it would remain just as dignified and beautiful as it stands today. Beauty is its own justification, and name is weakness, almost a superstition.⁷⁷

Lodge's sound conclusion warrants expansion. If the Wren Building were proved to be by an obscure designer or a layman unknown to modern scholarship, whether English or American, its venerable beauty would not be diminished or dimmed.

^{[See: Also Dearstyne Arch'l Report: Wren Bldg. (1951), II (?) Appendix, 106-109.
AND. CSS files
Statement by Wren Society (see: H.M. Cobria for ref.)]}

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Jones' statement can be interpreted in a number of ways - and it is the interp. which is crucial. By "modelled by Sir Chr. Wren" he could well have meant, as did the restoration architects in renaming the restored bldg, designed in the manner & spirit of Wren, i.e. copied after Wren design - designed in the stylistic idiom of the great archi.