Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

THE WREN BUILDING, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, AS RESTORED BY THE ARCHITECTS PERRY, SHAW AND HEPBURN FOR THE WILLIAMSBURG HOLDING CORPORATION, 1928-31.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE WREN BUILDING OF THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY

A treatment of the building which covers the main facts in its life history, and, especially, the events which had a bearing on its architecture. The material used in this chronologically-arranged presentation of the architectural history of the Wren Building was derived from various sources, but chiefly from Dr. Earl G. Swem's Some Notes on the Four Forms of the Oldest Building of the College, William and Mary Quarterly, October, 1928, and from the extensive collection of references to the College which has been assembled by the Colonial Williamsburg Department of Research. The latter material was placed at the disposal of the writer by Mrs. Rutherfoord Goodwin, whose kind assistance to him in his search for items relating to the architecture of the building and in reading and suggesting changes to the manuscript is gratefully acknowledged.

[drawing]

"Then he looked through the falling rain at the deserted archway of the old brick building. For the first time those grim walls, which had been thrice overthrown and had arisen thrice from their ashes, impressed him with the triumphant service they had rendered in the culture of his kind. He saw it as it was — a sacred skeleton, an honourable decay. The long line of illustrious hands that had procured its ancient charter seemed to wave a ghostly benediction over its ancient learning. Clergy and burgesses, council and governor, planters of Virginia and bishops of London had stood by its birth. It was the fruit of the union of the old world and the new, and it had waxed strong upon the milk of its mother ere it turned rebel. Later, to its younger country, it had sent forth its sons as statemen who gave glory to its name. And through all its history it had overcome calamity and defied assault. Thrice it had fallen and thrice it had rearisen."Ellen Glasgow The Voice of the People

DETAIL OF BRITISH HOWITZER, CAPTURED AT YORKTOWN. TWO OF THESE GUNS FLANK THE EAST ENTRANCE TO THE BUILDING. THE CIPHER OR MONOGRAM, "G²R," IS THAT OF KING GEORGE II.

STATUE OF LORD BOTETOURT MADE BY RICHARD HAYWARD OF LONDON IN 1773 AND PHOTOGRAPHED DURING THE TIME IT STOOD BEFORE THE CENTRAL BUILDING OF THE EASTERN STATE HOSPITAL. IT WAS MOVED HERE FROM THE COLLEGE GROUNDS FOR SAFEKEEPING DURING THE CIVIL WAR. AFTER THE CONFLICT IT WAS RETURNED TO ITS CUSTOMARY LOCATION. THE DORIC PORTICO AND PEDIMENT ARE THOSE OF THE REVAMPED ORIGINAL HOSPITAL BUILDING WHICH BURNED IN 1885.

Note: Original or copy negatives of the photographs listed below, unless otherwise noted, are in the General Files of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.

1689
STEPS TOWARD THE FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGE

Dr. James Blair appointed commissary by the Bishop of London. This made him head of the Virginia clergy.

1690
STEPS TOWARD THE FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGE

At a convention of the clergy at Jamestown, Dr. Blair submitted a paper entitled "Severall Propositions to be humbly P'sented to the Consideration of the next Generall Assembly, for the better incouragement of Learning By the founding a Colledge in this Country..." This paper urged the Assembly to ask their Majesties for a charter for a college and suggested possible sources of revenue to support it. The project was endorsed by the clergy and Governor Francis Nicholson.

1691

At a meeting of the assembly in April Dr. Blair was elected agent for the college and was ordered to visit England for a charter and endowment. He set sail in June, 1691, arriving in London September 1. He interested John Tillotson., Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Compton, Bishop of London, and other church dignitaries in the project. Through the intermediation of Dr. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, he was enabled to present his plan to Queen Mary, who promised her support, Dr. Tillotson arranged a meeting with King William, and Blair also presented his plan to him.

1693
A CHARTER GRANTED
PROVISIONS OF THE COLLEGE CHARTER

After lengthy negotiation a charter for "The College of William and Mary in Virginia" was signed February 8, 1693. The charter 2 provided that custody of the college property should, at first, be vested in eighteen visitors (trustees), appointed by the General Assembly. These had the power of electing their successors. After the establishment of the college was complete the visitors were to convey the property to the president and masters or professors. The visitors were to appoint all the professors and govern the institution according to statutes which they, the visitors, were to draw up. They were to elect annually a rector to preside at their meetings and every seven yeare a chancellor. The college was to consist of a president, six masters and a hundred scholars, more or less. Dr. Blair, whom the Assembly had already elected president for life, was also made the first rector of the board of visitors and governors.

1693
LOCATION OF THE COLLEGE

The location of the college, as first proposed, was a broad plateau just above Yorktown but the General Assembly in October, 1693, substituted for this another site, declaring Middle Plantation the "most convenient and proper" location, and ordered that the college be "erected and built as neare the church now standing in Middle Plantation old ffields as convenience will permitt." Soon after, on December 20 of the same year, the visitors purchased from Colonel Thomas Ballard 330 acres of land west of Bruton Church and reaching back to Archer's Hope swamp.

1694
BOUNDARY STONES ARE SET UP

The next year boundary stones, bearing upon them the royal monogram and the date, 1694, were set up. The work of erecting the main college building, 3 which we shall henceforth refer to by its present title, the "Wren Building," began under the supervision of a committee of the visitors.

Thomas Hadley, brought from England by Dr. Blair, became the "surveyor" of the building — that is, he was in charge of its construction. Colonel Daniel Parke furnished the bricks, which were made on the site.

1695

August 8 appointed as the day for starting the laying of the foundations of the Wren Building.

1697
CONSTRUCTION OF THE WREN BUILDING

The following statement made by Dr. Blair on December 27, 1697, at a conference at Lambeth, near London, indicates the progress made up to that time in the construction of the building: "So that, my Lord, with much ado we have got the roof on but half of the Building, the other half we have not meddled with, and how we shall finish what we have built I cannot tell."

By "half of the Building" Blair meant, not half of the building as it now stands, with its main portion and two west wings, but rather half of the building as it was originally conceived. A letter, written on April 22, 1697, by the visitors of the college to Governor Sir Edmund Andros, gives us some idea of the original scheme for the building. The letter, in part, reads as follows: 4

… wee doe humbly certify to y^r Excly that we have carried on the building of two sides of the designed square of the Colledge (wch was all wee judged wee had money to goe through with) and have brought up the Walls of the Said building to the roof wch hope in a short time will be finished …

"THE DESIGNED SQUARE OF THE COLLEDGE"

That by "the designed Square of the Colledge" a rectangular structure with a court or quadrangle in the center was intended must be accepted as fact since Theodorick Bland on his survey map of Williamsburg made in 1699 shows the Wren Building as just such a structure. Bland indicates the parts of the building which were completed at the time he drew the map (the main east portion and the north wing) in full lines and the remainder which was projected but not yet built in "prickt" (dotted) lines.

PART OF SURVEY MAP OF WILLIAMSBURG MADE BY THEODORICK BLAND IN 1699, SHOWING WREN BUILDING. ACCORDING TO BLAND, "THE BLACK LINES REPRESENT THE BUILDING ALREADY ERECTED, THE PRICKT LINES THAT PART WHICH IS TO BE BUILT."

The finished part and the part still to be built form a squarish building with an open court at the center. This 5 plan of Bland's, by the way, is the only plan drawing yet discovered of the building in its first state i.e., before the fire of 1705.

BEVERLY'S REFERENCES TO QUADRANGLE

Robert Beverley's statement concerning the college in his History of Virginia, 1705, Book IV, p. 32, is further proof of the nature of the original design of the structure:

The Building is to consist of a Quadrangle, two sides of which, are yet only carryed up. In this part are already finished all conveniences of Cooking, Brewing, Baking, &c. and convenient Rooms for the Reception of the President, and Masters, with many more Scholars than are as yet come to it; in this part are also the Hall, and School-Room.

In the 1722 edition of his work, (pp. 231, 232), Beverley writes:

The College was intended to be an intire Square, when finished; two sides of this were finished in the latter end of Governor Nicholson's time, and the Masters and Scholars, with the necessary House-keepers, and Servants were settled in it, and so continued till the first Year of Governor Nott's time, in which it happen'd to be burnt (no Body knows how) down to the Ground, and very little saved that was in it, the Fire breaking out about ten o'Clock at Night, in a publick Time. In this Condition it lay, till the Arrival of Colonel Spotswood their present Governor, in whose time it was raised again the same Bigness as before, and settled.

1696/7?
PROGRESS WORK AND DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED

The following quotation, from a letter of James Blair, gives further details of the progress of the construction of the Wren Building:

Virginia 21st January [1696/7?] As to the Coll. the early Winter took us before there was a shingle layd upon it; so that That is dealyd till the spring. The main Timbers are up; but the Roof could not be finished, because 6 the Chimneys which are to go up through it, are not yet carryed up for want of Bricks, & by reason of the unseasonableness of the Weather, to lay them if we had them. Mr. Hadley^(A) has been out of the Service of the Coll. about two months ago. The Work is like to meet with a full stop for want of money; for the building hath allready exhausted what money we had either in Mr. Perrys &c. ^(B) their hands; or in Col. Birds:^(C) and its very uncertain how the subscriptions of this Country will come in: most people shifting the payment, & shew plainly that they intend not to pay, unless the Law compel them.

1699
ACTIVITIES STARTED AT COLLEGE, INDICATING COMPLETION OF BUILDING

A May Day celebration was held at the college as well as commencement, so that students probably moved into it the year previous. A part of the building must have been completed, or nearly so, at this time.

1700

GOVERNMENT OCCUPIES BUILDING; JAMES BLAIR'S COMPLAINT AGAINST NICHOLSON

The visitors of the college on April 2, offered the Governor and Council the use of rooms in the building in which to meet until the Capitol was built. The Council, accordingly, met in the Wren Building for the first time on October 17. To judge by the following "Affidavit of James Blair, Clerk, concerning Govr. Nicholson's mal-Administration …May lst 1704…" the hot-tempered but capable and energetic governor practically took over the building:

…I have heard him [Nicholson] swear that he would seize the College for the King's Use & he crowded into it, the Secretary's Office, the Clerk of the Council's Office, the Clerk of the House of Burgesses' Office & all their Lodgings, with himself & all the Committees, & had all his public Treats in their Hall to the great Disturbance of the College Business. As to the Finishing Part of the College, he did so excessively hurry it on for those several Uses, that partly by the Plank & 6a Timber being green & unseasoned & partly by employing a great Number of unskillful Workmen to comply with his Haste, it was shamefully spoilt,… (William Stevens Perry, Papers Relating to the History of the Church in Virginia, A.D. 1650-1776, p. 134., as reprinted in Rutherfoord Goodwin's A Brief & True Report Covering Williamsburg in Virginia).

THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED NICHOLSON!

Governor Nicholson was not one to tread reverently or speak quietly in a cloistered hall of learning:

…But before this Depo^t could make an End of Speaking, the Governour flew out into such a Passion against the Commiss^rs of the Navy calling them all the basest Names that the Tongue of Man could express, & with such a Noise, that the People downe in the lower Roomes caime running up Stairs, & likewise Cap^tDove, Roffey & Midleton, who lay in a Roane some Distance, came running out of their Beds in their Shirts, the latter with out his wooden Leg holding himselfe by the Wall beleiveing that y^e Colledge had been on Fire a game as it had been two Nights before, but upon Enquirey of the Ocasion, could but admire at the Folly & Passion of the Governour, saying Bedlam was the fittest Place for such a Man… (Public Record Office, London, C. O. 5/1314. Photostatic copy in Department of Research and Record, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.)

NEWLY BUILT COLLEGE DRAWS STUDENTS AND ATTRACTS ATTENTION

The establishment of a college in what was still, relatively, at least, a wilderness, apparently filled a need and it was, furthermore, an event worthy of attention even in far-off England, as this notice in the London Post Boy of March 19 and 21, 1700, testifies:

Some letters from Virginia tell us, that the University which had been lately founded there by the Government of that Province, is so crowded with Students, that they begin to think of enlarging the College, for it seems divers from Pensilvania, Maryland and Carolina, send their sons thither to be educated.

1702
MICHEL'S SKETCH, EARLIEST ELEVATION DRAWING OF BUILDING

Francis Louis Michel, a traveller from Bern, Switzerland visited the college in 1702. Michel wrote an interesting account of his sojourn in Williamsburg and made the earliest existing elevation drawing of the Wren Building (p. 8). This rather crude sketch of the west front of the building shows it as having three stories. As inexpert as the sketch is it is difficult to believe that Michel, who, to judge by his writing, was intelligent, could have made the error of adding a third story to a two-story structure. We have no documentary information as to how many floors the original building had, so that we are justified in assuming that it was actually a three-story edifice.

THE SITE FOR THE FIRST WREN BUILDING WAS CHOSEN IN 1693 AND THE LAND PURCHASED FROM COLONEL THOMAS BALLARD. IN THE FOLLOWING YEAR BOUNDARY STONES BEARING THE ROYAL MONOGRAM AND THE DATE, 1694, WERE SET UP TO MARK THE LIMITS OF THE COLLEGE TRACT. TWO OF THE STONES WERE DISCOVERED BY LYON G. TYLER IN THE WOODS WEST OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS. AT THE TIME, 1907, THAT TYLER WROTE HIS BOOK, WILLIAMSBURG, THE OLD COLONIAL CAPITOL, ONE OF THEM STOOD BESIDE THE EAST ENTRANCE STEPS OF THE BUILDING. THE TWO STONES, ONE OF WHICH IS PICTURED ABOVE, ARE NOW IN THE BASEMENT OF THE LIBRARY, WHERE THEY WERE PLACED TO PROTECT THEM AGAINST FURTHER WEATHERING AND, NO DOUBT, THE ATTENTIONS OF STUDENTS. (IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT IN MAKING THIS PHOTOGRAPH, THE LETTERS WERE OUTLINED IN CHALK.)

1705
FIRST FIRE

October 29. The Wren Building burned, as our quotation from Beverley has already revealed.

1708/9
DECISION OF TRUSTEES TO REBUILD ON OLD WALLS

March 21. Queen Anne gave the visitors and governors of the college £500 towards the rebuilding of the Wren Building.

A question which over the course of the years has concerned persons interested in the building history of the Wren Building is whether or not in the reconstruction of the building after the fire of 1705, the structure was placed on the old foundations. We know that at the time of the rebuilding, there was considerable debate as to whether the building should be rebuilt on the old walls or moved to another site.

1709

In his diary, William Byrd II, a trustee of the college, relates that he and Edmund Jenings, President of the Council and acting governor of the Colony, went on August 4, 1709, to a meeting where this question was considered. He notes that

From hence [Jenings' house] we went to the school house where we at last determined to build the college on the old walls and appointed workmen to view them and [compute] the charge (Entry for August 4, 1709, in The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, p. 67).

[I] then went to the meeting of the College where after some debate the majority were for building on the old wall; I was against this and was for a new one for several reasons (Ibid., p. 82).

Byrd's statements indicate clearly enough that the trustees intended to re-use the old walls in reconstructing the building. 9 Archaeological evidence to support the contention that this was actually done was discovered 150 years later. Robert S. Morrison, a professor at the college, referred to this in a paper which he read to the faculty on November 22, 1859. The following is an excerpt from the paper:

On the thirteenth of October, 1859…lectures were resumed in the renewed College edifice. The fire that occurred on the eighth of February previous did not seriously injure the walls and consequently they were not taken down. These walls denuded by the late fire exhibited evidences not to be mistaken of having before withstood a general conflagration. The only destructive fire except the late one known to the history of the College occurred in the year seventeen hundred and five. The impression therefore that the site of the College building was changed after the fire of 1705 must be erroneous.^*

1709
TRUSTEES LET CONTRACT FOR RESTORATION OF BUILDING

On October 31, 1709, William Byrd made the following entry in his diary:

The committee met to receive proposals for the building the College and Mr. Tullitt undertook it for £2,000 provided he might wood off the College land and all assistants from England to came at the College's risk.(p. 99)

1710
ANOTHER GIFT FROM QUEEN ANNE

Queen Anne allowed the visitors and governors of the college £500 more towards the rebuilding of the Wren Building, since the £500 she had given in 1708/9 had been expended.

1713
MORE MONEY NEEDED

On March 13, Governor Spotswood informed the Bishop of London that the building was partially rebuilt but that more money was needed to complete it.

1716
REBUILDING, EXCEPT FOR THE CHAPEL, COMPLETED

By this date the reconstruction was nearly but not quite 10 finished, according to a statement relating to it made by Governor Alexander Spotswood in a letter of June, 1716, to a Mr. Fountain, a professor-to-be at the college:

It is fitt to tell you that this Colledge was first founded by King Wm. and Queen Mary, and was to consist of a President and Six Masters or Professors, but as it was necessary to employ great part of the Revenues in erecting a suitable building for ye reception of those Masters, so it was scarce finished when, by an unfortunate Accident, the whole Fabrick was reduced to Ashes, and by this unhappy Event it has never, 'till now, arrived to any greater perfection than a Grammar School, but now that the building is well nigh compleated again, those under whose Care it is, have resolved to prosecute the Original design of its foundation; And I'm glad to be instrumental in the hon'r you will have of being the first Professor of University Learning there.

1724

HUGH JONES' DESCRIPTION OF THE SECOND BUILDING

The Reverend Hugh Jones, an Englishmen who had been professor of mathematics at the college and chaplain to the House of Burgesses, in his history, The Present State of Virginia, p. 26, describes the reconstructed, second Wren Building in the following terms: The Front which looks due East is double, and is 136 Foot long. It is a lofty Pile of Brick Building adorn'd with a Cupola. At the North End runs back a large Wing, which is a handsome Hall, answerable to which the Chapel is to be built; and there is a spacious Piazza on the West Side, from one Wing to the other. It is approached by a good Walk, and a grand Entrance by Steps, with good Courts and Gardens about it, with a good House and Apartments for the Indian Master and his Scholars, and Out-Houses; and a large Pasture enclosed like a Park with about 150 Acres of Land adjoining, for occasional Uses.

THE SECOND FORM OF THE WREN BUILDING

The original Wren Building was destroyed by fire in 1705 and its rebuilding was began in 1709, in 1716 Governor Spotswood wrote that "the building is well nigh compleated again…" but the Chapel still remained to be reconstructed. It was not until 1732 that the latter was finally opened. The building, in this second form, continued in use for over a century and a quarter, when, on February 8, 1859, it was once more ravaged by fire.

[[print is reversed] daguerreotype taken in early 1850's]

[reproduction of Watercolor by Thomas Charles Millington]

The upper illustration, from a daguerreotype taken, probably, in the early 1850s, is the only photograph we have of the second state of the building. The lower picture shows the second Wren Building, with the Brafferton (left) and the President's House. The reproduction is from a water color drawing made by Thomas Charles Millington, son of Dr. John Millington, the famous scientist, who taught at the College during the 1840s.

THE BUILDING LIKENED TO CHELSEA HOSPITAL

The Building is beautiful and commodious, being first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren, adapted to the Nature of the Country by the Gentlemen there; and since it was burnt down, it has been rebuilt, and nicely contrived, altered and adorned by the ingenious Direction of Governor Spotswood; and is not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital.

It is upon the authority of this early statement by Hugh Jones that the design of the building has been attributed to the great English renaissance architect, Sir Christopher Wren, and that it has been given the name of "Wren Building." On the page following the reader will find a reproduction of a drawing of Chelsea Hospital, a major work by Wren, so that he may judge for himself of the justice of Jones' likening of the Wren Building to this. The validity of Jones' statement about the authorship of the design of the structure has been questioned from time to time. In the Addendum, pp. 109-11, is a resume of the chief arguments in a debate concerning this question.

1724
HUGH JONES' DESCRIPTION OF CONDITIONS AT THE COLLEGE

Hugh Jones, having taught at the college, was well-acquainted with its condition in the early twenties of the seventeenth century sad writes at some length about this in his The Present State of Virginia. In an Appendix, pp. 83-94, he makes proposals for the better regulation and administration of the institution. A glimpse into the state of affairs there, as set forth by Jones (pp. 83, 84), may be of interest 13 CHELSEA HOSPITAL, LONDON, shown in the above drawing, was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren during the period of his greatest activity (the corner stone was laid in 1682). The facades are simpler in their detailing than those of most buildings designed by "their Majesties' great Surveyor General." It is to this building that Hugh Jones referred when, in his The Present State of Virginia, printed in 1724, he said that the main building of the college was "not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital." In the general character of their detailing, at least, the two buildings are, indeed, not dissimilar. Jones, without question, was speaking of the second building, which was completed about the time he wrote. The first building, doubtless, which Michel's sketch (p. 8) shows to have been, like Chelsea Hospital, a three-story structure, with a basement and dormer floor, must have borne a still greater resemblance to the latter.
A letter written in August, 1937 by Prentice Duell, archaeologist who worked on the restoration of the Wren Building, to Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin, contains additional testimony to the similarity of the two buildings: "During the past year I lived in London for some months, with Chelsea Hospital just around the corner. I went through the building thoroughly and it is so reminiscent of the Wren Building in feeling and design, both as to exterior and interior, that I believe it is most probable that the same architect did both buildings…"(The drawing reproduced above appeared originally in Maitland's History of London. It was reprinted in 1923 in Sir Christopher Wren/A.D. 1632-1722, and the present copy was made from this.) 14

This College, Phoenix-like, as the City of London, revived and improved out of its own Ruins. But though it has found such unexpected Success, and has proved of very great Service already; yet is it far short of such Perfection, as it might easily attain to by the united Power of the Persons concerned about this important Foundation.

For it is now a College without a Chapel, without a Scholarship, and without a statute.

There is a Library without Books, comparatively speaking, and a President without a fix'd Salary till of late; A Burgess^* without certainty of Electors; and in fine, there have been Disputes and Differences about these and the like Affairs of the College hitherto without end.

1723

BUILDING OF THE BRAFFERTON

Since the Brafferton and the Presidents House are so closely associated with the Wren Building, a few outstanding facts about them will be given from time to time. The Brafferton was built, apparently, in 1723, for the numerals, "1723," are carved in a brick of the wall near the south doorway and this has been accepted by many as representing the date of the laying of the foundation of the building. In his history, Hugh Jones notes the following:

The Indians who are upon Mr. Boyle's^** Foundation have now a handsome Apartment for themselves and their Master, built near the College...

DRAWING OF THE WREN BUILDING IN THE COLLEGE PORTRAIT OF THE REV. JAMES BLAIR. Portrait of Blair, ascribed to Charles Bridges, the English portraitist. If the attribution is correct, the portrait would have been painted between 1735 and 1740, the period Bridges worked in this country. In any event it must have been executed before Blair's death on April 18, 1743. This picture was mentioned by Professor Morrison in a paper of 1859 (p. 62). It was rescued, evidently, from the fires of 1859 and 1862 and since that time has remained in possession of the college. It now hangs in the Blue Room. Below: Enlargement of the representation of the second building which the artist placed beside Blair's right shoulder.

A comparison of this with the frontispiece shows how closely the east front as rendered resembles the building as it was depicted in the painting. The part of the structure shown at the left is, by the way, the south end, not a break in the east side, as it appears to be. This painting of the east facade is important since it is approximately of the age of the Bodleian Plate picture of the same front, which was made about 1740. the instance of Thomas Thorns, head Arts Department of the College, infra-red photograph was made of the left corner of the painting which was to contain a scarcely visible picture of a bird. The photograph brought out details not heretofore discernible and it was possible to identify this bird as a Phoenix rising from the flames—a most fitting symbol of the Wren Building.

Jones was referring, unquestionably, to the Brafferton, and since his book appeared in 1724 the building must have been built a year or so before that.

CHAPEL DID NOT EXIST IN FIRST BUILDING

The first Wren Building, as we have seen, fell considerably short of realising the original plan for a square building enclosing an open central court, since only the main (east) part and the north wing were completed before the fire of 1705.

1728
GOOCH STATES THAT CHAPEL WILL BE STARTED

In the case of the second building the main part and the north wing were again the first to be built. As we have learned from Hugh Jones, the Chapel wing still remained to be erected in 1724. Judging by a statement of Governor William Gooch in a letter of February 14, 1728, to a Lord ____,however, it was not long before the building of the Chapel was begun-

A Young Gentleman bred at Oxford I think, son to Mr. Robinson one of the Council here, is by the Governors of the Colledge appointed Professor of Philosophy, and directed to wait on your Lordship for your Approbation. We are going to build the Chappel as fast as we can, and from your Enquiry into the state of things there, your Lordship may in time know more.

1728

BIDS FOR ERECTION OF CHAPEL ADVERTISED FOR

Gooch, apparently, was as good as his word, for a few weeks later, March 26, 1728, as is evident from a letter of that date written by a James Hughes to the visitors of the college, bids for the construction of the Chapel were being advertised for:

I understand by the advertisement… at the Capitol… that a Chappell is to be Erected to the said Colledge in form of the Hall and well ffitted for the use of a Chappell workman like all which Building I will doe for Eight hundred Ninety Eight pounds Curr^t money Except the Sashes and Glasses in the Body of the Building…

HENRY CARY, JR., BUILDER OF THE CHAPEL

It appears that James Hughes was an unsuccessful bidder for the job for we know that the Chapel was built by Henry Cary, Jr.^* It is, of course, possible that Hughes worked as contractor under Cary. The latter had already been "undertaker" for the Brafferton and a few years later was to build the President's House. In erecting these structures he was following in the footsteps of his father, Henry Cary, who, a distinguished builder in his day (he died in 1720),had not only superintended the construction of the first Capitol and the Governor's Palace but had also carried out the reconstruction of the Wren Building after the fire of 1705.

1729
ACCOMMODATIONS OF COLLEGE AT THIS PERIOD

According to a statement written on February 27, 1729, the Wren Building at this time accommodated the following:

…a hall, and convenient apartments for the schools, and for the lodging of the President, masters, and scholars and… a convenient chamber set apart for a Library, besides all other offices necessary for the said College…

1729
CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHAPEL WELL ADVANCED

The actual building of the Chapel must have been started not too long after the bids were advertised for since James Blair informed the Bishop of London in 1729 that it was well on its way toward completion by September of that year, when the letter was written: 17

I acquainted your Lo(rdshi)p in my last that we laid the foundation of the chappel. That work has since carried on with that expedition that the walls are now finished and we are going to set on the roof, so that I make no doubt it will be all inclose before winter.

MEMORANDUM GIVES FURTHER DATA ABOUT CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS

The following passage, apparently, was also written in 1729, somewhat later than Blair's letter. It is from an old, undated document designated as "Memorandum For His Excellency," which was found in a collection of papers known as the "Nicholson papers." It could conceivably have been written for Francis Nicholson, who remained a trustee of the college to the end of his days, but if this was the case, its date would have had to be earlier than 1729, for Nicholson died in London on March 5, 1728.

The Colledge is left in the Condition it was two or three years agoe. The front Intirely Finisht but that p^t or wing of the building that is designd for the Chapell &^ca is not done otherways then the Brickwork window Frames & roof & some part Plaistered — There is one M^rs Stith that lives in the Colledge. She has the manage^mt of the Childrens necessarys As linnen Bedding &^ca & orders their Victualls — There is one master only his name is Fry, & lately come over & one Usher The present Master in the Colledge is a very Young man but a good Schollar he teaches the boys Gramar & Writting &^ca there is no more then 22 or twenty three Schollars in all. And no Indians at all — In the whole the Colledg is in all Respects in a very declineing condition And if the designe of its rebuilding had not been beter then the present aplication it might have Still lay in Ruins & Virginia never the less Improv^d either in Cultivating of Releigion or Arts — M^r. Blaire is President there and to Intitle him to his Sallary has resided in the Colledge ab^t two Years…

BRICK IN WEST WALL BEARS DATE OF CONSTRUCTION

Although further evidence that the Chapel was under construction in 1729 is scarcely needed, we have this in tangible 18 form in the existing structure, itself. A brick with the initials, "RK,"^* and the date, "1729," incised in its lies imbedded, upside down, at about eye level (from the porch platform) in the south corner of the west exterior wall. The fact, that this is undoubtedly an old brick in an INITIALS AND DATE INCISED IN BRICK AT SOUTH CORNER OF WEST WALL OF CHAPEL. THE BRICK, WITHOUT MUCH QUESTION, IS AN OLD ONE LAID UP IN THE WALL AT THE TIME (1729) THE LATTER WAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. (THE LETTERS AND NUMERALS HAVE BEEN LINED IN WITH CHALK TO MAKE THEM STAND OUT MORE CLEARLY IN THE PHOTOGRAPH.) undisturbed part of the original wall, together with the circumstance that it is upside down, is excellent evidence that it was built into the wall as the latter was being laid up. Though initials have been carved at other points in the 19 walls of the Wren Building by students and others at various periods, it is highly unlikely that anyone would have gone to the length of carving these initials upside down and "faking" a date, simply to perpetrate a hoax.

1732
OPENING OF THE CHAPEL

As the following letter from the Reverend William Dawson, who was to succeed James Blair as president of the college in 1743, to the Bishop of London reveals, the Chapel was finally finished in 1732. The second Wren Building had now acquired a form which it was to retain essentially unaltered for a century and a quarter:

My Lord: - I beg to acquaint your Lordship that on June 28th, 1732, our new chapel was opened with great solemnity. The governor and his family were pleased to honour us with their Presence, and, it being the assembly time, the members of both Houses came in great numbers…The stated hours of morning Prayer are six in Summer, seven in Winter and always five in the evening…(William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. IX, First Series, p. 220).

1732
CONSTRUCTION OF PRESIDENT'S HOUSE STARTED

About a month after the Chapel was opened the construction of the third of the trio of fine old structures which remain today to ornament the campus of the College of William and Mary was started -

July 31, 1732. The foundation of the Presidents house at the College was laid, the President, Mr. Dawson, M^r Fry, M^r Stith, and M^r Fox,^* laying the first five 20 was, that M^r Henry Cary the Undertaker, had appointed his bricklayers to be ready that day, and that they could not proceed till the foundation was laid. (Journal of the Meetings of the President & Masters of William & Mary College [1729-1781])

1735
LETTER REVEALS COMPLETION OF PRESIDENT'S HOUSE

This building project moved forward with reasonable expedition, it seems, for Dr. Blair was able to make the following report to the Lord Bishop of London in a letter of January 15, 1735—

Our College thrives in reputation, and numbers of Scholars, and handsome buildings; the chappel and the Presidents house making a great addition to the Conveniency and ornament of it…

1739
TABLET ERECTED TO SIR JOHN RANDOLPH IN CHAPEL

Sir John Randolph, speaker of the House of Burgesses, treasurer of the colony and representative for the college in the Virginia Assembly, died in Williamsburg in March, 1737, and was buried beneath the college Chapel. Two years later a mural tablet (destroyed in the fire of 1859) was installed there in his honor:

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… (The Virginia Gazette, Parks, ed., 13-20 April, 1739, p. 3) .

1739
GEORGE WHITEFIELD VISITS WILLIAMSBURG AND THE COLLEGE

George Whitefield, the "flaming apostle" who, in the course of several trips to America, went up and down the whole Atlantic seaboard preaching in all its principal towns and who, more than anyone else, was instrumental in bringing about a spiritual awakening in the colonies, visited Williamsburg 20a PHOTOGRAPHS MADE FROM A PRINT STRUCK FROM THE BODLEIAN PLATES SHOWING VIEWS OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS. The plate was discovered in 1930 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford at the time the Wren Building was being restored and it proved an invaluable aid in this work. The upper photograph shows the Wren Building as seen from the Chapel wing (right) and the Great Hall wing stand out prominently and two of the series of hipped "A" roofs which covered the western slope of the main roof of the building architects are also clearly visible. The latter detail in the picture gave the architects their "cue" for the restoration of the western slope of the roof. The lower picture, which forms a band at the top of the plate, shows the Wren Building flanked by the Brafferton (left) and the President's House. A comparison of this representation of the Wren Building with the daguerreotype of it made in the 1850s (p. 11) and with the photograph of the restored building (frontispiece) will reveal how closely the pictures of the building of a century ago and of the restored structure correspond with that of the original second building. For the Bodleian Plate undoubtedly represents the building as it appeared soon after the completion of the Presidents House (ca. 1735). The plate is thought to have been engraved about 1740. [Photograph from a print struck from the Bodleian Plate] 21 in December, 1739. He dined with Governor Gooch and paid his respects to the Reverend Dr. Blair who received him with great joy, invited him to preach and wished that his stay might be prolonged. Whitefield, writing of Blair in his journal, said that -

His Discourse was savoury, and such as tended to the Use of edifying… Under God he has been chiefly instrumental in raising a beautiful College in Williamsburgh, in which is a Foundation for about eight Scholars, a President, two Masters, and Professors in the several Sciences. Here the Gentlemen of Virginia send their Children; and as far as I could learn by Enquiry, they are near in the same Order, and under the same Regulation and Discipline, as in our Universities at Home. The present Masters came from Oxford. Two of them I find were my contemporaries. I rejoice in seeing such a Place in America. (From Lyon G. Tyler, Williamsburg, The Old Colonial Capital, p. 141).

1740
SPOTSWOOD BEQUEATHS BOOKS, MAPS AND INSTRUMENTS TO COLLEGE

Alexander Spotswood, Governor of the colony from 1710-1722, who "…was proficient in Mathematics… [and] rebuilt William and Mary College…" (Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Introduction, p. xii) made a will dated April 19, 1740, in which he left a handsome gift to the college:

I give to the College of William and Mary in Virginia all my books, maps and mathematical instruments as an acknowledgement of the courteous reception I have met with here in Brafferton house, and of the civilities I have received from the masters of said College.

This will was made in the Brafferton. Spotswood did not have long to live when he made it for he died in Annapolis on June 7, 1740.

1743
DEATH OF DR. JAMES BLAIR

Dr. James Blair, founder and first president of the college, died on April 18, 1743, just half a century after the college charter was granted. His remains were buried at Jamestown, where 22 fragments of the tombstones of himself and his wife, Sarah Harrison, may still be seen.

1747
ASSEMBLY MEETS IN WREN BUILDING AFTER BURNING OF CAPITOL

The original Capitol building burned on January 30, 1747, and on March 30 of that year Governor William Gooch made a speech to the Council and House of Burgesses in which, among, other things, he said:

THE astonishing Fate of the Capitol occasions this Meeting, and proves a Loss the more to be deplored, as being apparently the Effect of Malice and Design… IN the mean Time ire shall be indulged with the Use of the College for holding Assemblies… (Journal of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1742-1749, pp. 235, 236).

The records show that the General Assembly, as in the days before the Capitol was built, did again meet in the Wren Building and in fact, held four sessions there between 1747 and 1752 while the Capitol was being reconstructed. The Assembly met in the new Capitol for the first time on November 1, 1753.

1749
COLLEGE APPOINTS SURVEYOR FOR FAIRFAX COUNTY

The college had the right, under its charter, to appoint all county surveyors, and in 1749 it gave the appointment for Fairfax County to George Washington. The original bond executed by Washington provided that he should pay to the college treasurer a sixth of all his "fees and profits for surveying."

1756
COLLEGE CONFERS DEGREE ON FRANKLIN

In 1756, Benjamin Franklin came to Virginia to enlist recruits for his militia which was fighting off Indian raids in western Pennsylvania. While in Williamsburg,, on April 2, 1756, the college honored "General Franklin," as the Pennsylvania Moravians called him, by conferring upon him the degree of master of arts: 23

Y^s Day, Ben. Franklin, Esquire, favored y^e Society with his company, and had y^e Degree of A.M. conferred upon him by y^e Rev^d T. Dawson, A.M. president to w^m he was in publick presented by the Rev^d W. Preston, A.M. (Extract from Journal of the Meetings of the President and Masters of William and Mary College, published in the William and Mary Quarterly, First Series. Vol. 2, p. 208).

1761-1762
THOMAS JEFFERSON ATE HERE

Of the many men to study at the college who later won distinction, Thomas Jefferson became the most illustrious. In at least one of his college activities recorded in the Bursar's Book, however, he reveals himself as in no wise superior to the purely physical necessities of his other fellow mortals at the institution:

	Thos Jefferson		Dr
1761 - March 25th	To the Table for board &c	one Year	13.-.-
1762 - March 25	To Do for Do	one Year	13.-.-
April 25th	To Do for Do	one Month	1.1.8
			£27.1.8

1766-1767

COLLEGE ACCOUNTS RECORD PUTTING UP OF "UMBRELLOWS"

The following, at first blush, enigmatic entries were found in the College Accounts for 1766-1767:

[1766. MS. torn]	ge.....Dr to Jno Saunders
…
[MS. torn]	To putting up Six Umbrellows [MS. torn]	2 - -
6th	…
[MS. torn]	g 1 Umbrellow frame & puting [MS torn]
…
8th	To a new Roller for an Umbw puting it up	2.6.
…
Augt 5	To making new Cloths for 2 Umbrellows & puting them up	-.6.-

"UMBRELLOW" MEANT, AMONG OTHER THINGS "SUN-BLIND" IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

It seemed odd that the College should be putting up beach umbrellas or something similar so the Oxford English Dictionary was consulted for possible meanings for the term "Umbrellow" other than the familiar one of a portable shield against the sun or 24 rain carried in the hand or set up on the beach, lawn or elsewhere. The Oxford was found to list other meanings for the term of which one, "A sun-blind," seemed definitely to apply here. The dictionary gives the following examples of this usage:

• 1687 Miege Gt. Fr. Dict. II s.v. To have an umbrello before his window to keep off the Sun.
• 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Umbrello,… a Wooden Frame covered with Cloth or Stuff, to keep off the Sun from a Window.
• 1709 Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. I. 33 The Weather violently Hot, the Umbrelloes were let down from behind the Windows, the Sashes open.

IT IS REASONABLE TO BELIEVE THAT THE "UMBRELLOWS" WERE AWNINGS

To make a long story short, further investigation brought to light views of English buildings, one of them made as early as 1750, showing fabric awnings suspended from the heads of windows to prevent the entrance of sunlight into the building, while admitting the passage of air. If such devices were current in England in the eighteenth century, there is every reason to believe that they would have been used in the Virginia colony, where the need for them, due to the far greater intensity of the summer sun, was much greater than in the Mother Country. Therefore, although there is no direct proof that the "Umbrellows" referred to in the College Accounts were awnings, it is by all odds the most reasonable interpretation to consider them to have been this.^*

1773
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY FOUNDED AT THE COLLEGE

In spite of high-handed and underhanded acts which eventually made him an object of hatred in the colony, Governor Dunmore, apparently, was a sincere supporter of the College. We find him during his tenure of office backing more than one laudable project at William and Mary:

We hear that a Philosophical Society, consisting of one Hundred Members, is established under the Patronage of His Excellency the Governor [Dunmore], for the Advancement of Useful Knowledge in this Colony, of which the following Gentlemen were elected Officers for the year ensuing: John Clayton, Esq.; author of FLORA VIRGINICA, President; John Page of Rosewell, Esq,; Vice President; the Reverend Samuel Henley, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Secretary; Mr. St. George Tucker, Assistant Secretary; David Jameson, Esq.; Treasurer. (Virginia Gazette, Purdie & Dixon, Editors, May 13, 1773).

1776
PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY CREATED

The creation of the Philosophical Society was followed three years later by the founding by students of the college of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the first honorary scholastic organization to be established in this country. The ceremony took place on December 5, 1776, in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg.

1771-1772
JEFFERSON PRESENTS SCHEME FOR COMPLETION OF QUADRANGLE

We will now hark back a few years, to 1771-72, when Thomas Jefferson revived a project, the completion of the quadrangle of the college, which had been an integral part of the original design of the building, but which lack of funds had compelled the original builders to leave unfinished. Jefferson, who, assuredly, was well acquainted with the quadrangle project, since Theodorick Bland's plan which shows it and several references which mention it were available then as now, in either 1771 or 1772 drew up and 26 submitted to Lord Dunmore a detailed plan of the existing Wren Building to which he had added an extension which was to have made of the venerable pile, not the square structure shown by Bland and mentioned in the early references, but rather, a rectangular building enclosing a central open court or quadrangle.

JEFFERSON'S EDITION ON THE POINT OF EXECUTION

Jefferson's scheme was accepted for we find that the college authorities had carried it to the threshold of execution by the latter part of 1772—

The Visitors and Governours of the College intending to make an additional building to the College, have directed us, who are appointed a Comittee for that purpose, to procure an exact estimate of the expense thereof, to be laid before them at their neat meeting. Notice is therefore given, to all persons willing to undertake this Work, that a Plan thereof is lodged with Mr. Matthew Davenport, who will be ready at all times to show the same, and to whom they are desired to send their Estimates and Proposals, sealed up, on or before the first Day of October next.

DUNMORE
PEYTON RANDOLPH
RO. C. NICHOLAS
LEWIS BURWELL
JOHN BLAIR

(Virginia Gazette, September 3, 1772)

1774
COLLEGE PURCHASES MATERIALS IN LONDON FOR NEW BUILDING

Entries of November 8 and 9, 1774, in the Bursar's Book of the college list the expenditure of £205 14sh 8¼d for materials ordered from John Norton and Sons of London. The expenditure is noted as "By New Building" and it is a further indication that Jefferson's addition was under way.

1776
FAILURE TO COMPLETE THE ADDITION

As we have just seen, bids on the construction of the addition had been advertised for, and materials had been purchased to build it. Furthermore, as we shall see presently, a part of 27 THOMAS JEFFERSON'S PLAN OF THE WREN BUILDING AND HIS PROPOSED ADDITION TO IT. Jefferson submitted this scheme to Lord Dunmore for approval in either 1771 or 1772. A considerable quantity of building materials for the new structure was assembled and the foundations of the westmost part were actually laid but the Revolutionary War caused the abandonment of the project in 1778 or earlier. 28 the foundations had actually been laid for the new structure. The building, nevertheless, was never completed, and we do not have to search far for the reason; the oncoming Revolution, obviously, turned men's thoughts to other things. We have no record of the deliberations which led to relinquishing the project, but we do have notices concerning matters which were a consequence of it:

Whereas upon an Enquiry it appears to this meeting that M^r Emmanuel Jones sen^r Master has remov'd one Cask of Nails N^o 5. the property of the President & Masters as a publick boar out of their Storehouse in the College to his own Plantation in Gloster under the mistaken notion that any one of the Professors is at liberty to borrow out of this Storehouse what Goods or Chattels he pleases without consulting the Proprietors thereof; …

Agreed - that the Society lend out to each person present 10 Pds. Nails of such sorts as he chuses, giving to the Steward a Rec^t for the same specifying the Quality, provided that the new building be drop'd for the present, & the college be not left without a sufficient quantity for ordinary Uses, in which point we depend upon the Undertaker M^r Saunders for Information.

(Faculty Minutes, June 25, 1776).

1780
EVIDENCE PROVES FOUNDATIONS WERE PARTIALLY LAID

By 1780 the materials which had been assembled for the construction of the addition were being sold as the following "ad" from the Virginia Gazette of September 13 and 20, 1780 indicates:

THE college has for sale, a considerable quantity of scantling [timber], originally intended for an additional building. Any person taking the whole which cost about 500 1. in the year 1775, may have it upon the most reasonable terms.

That Jefferson's addition had been started when the war interfered with the construction operations has been recently established beyond peradventure by both documentary and archaeological evidence. The former consists of a passage in 29 the JOURNAL OF EBENEZER HAZARD'S JOURNEY to the SOUTH, 1778, an original MS. in possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.^* Hazard, who visited Williamsburg, describes the buildings of the College of William and Mary and, among other things, says "…there is also the Foundation of a new Building which was intended for an Addition to the College, but has been discontinued on Account of the Present Troubles…"

OLD FOUNDATIONS UNCOVERED BY EXCAVATION

The archaeological evidence constitutes a striking verification of the statement made in this literary reference, since the foundations of which Hazard speaks have actually been uncovered. The excavations which resulted in the discovery of these remains were prompted by a paper concerning Jefferson's proposed addition to the Wren Building which was written in June, 1950, by the authors of this report and brought to the attention of Dr. John E. Pomfret, then president of the college. The latter, in turn, proposed to A. Edwin Kendrew, Vice President of Colonial Williamsburg in charge of the Department of Architecture, that the site west of the Wren Building be examined. Mr. Kendrew, accordingly, directed James M. Knight, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologist, to investigate this area by cross-trenching. Before describing the findings made by Mr. Knight in September and October, 1950, it should be mentioned that in 1940 certain foundation evidences were uncovered by accident on this same site, in the course of planting a row of trees a few feet to the west of the north-south cross walk which, in turn, lies about 100 feet 30 Copy of Archaeological drawing made by James M. Knight in 1940 showing the Wren Building and, west of this, fragments of an eighteenth century brick foundation wall and portions of filled-in trenches which represent the positions of other sections of the wall. These foundations were uncovered by accident in the course of planting a row of trees at this point and the record drawing was made of these. No further excavations were undertaken at the time (1940).
The drawing also shows, at the west end of the Great Hall, old foundations uncovered in 1928-1931 during the restoration of the building. These are of the first period and indicate that the north wing of the original building was at one time longer than at present. (See p. 43). west of the west ends of the wings of the Wren Building. These evidences consisted of two fragments of an eighteenth-century brick foundation wall and filled-in trenches which had once contained foundations. t record drawing was made of these remains but no further, exploratory excavations were made at that time.

THESE REMAINS CORRESPOND WITH JEFFERSON'S PLAN

In the recent excavations Mr. Knight, investigating the ground west of the north-south cross walk by means of cross trenching, made the noteworthy discovery of a series of eighteenth-century brick foundation walls and back-filled wall trenches whose size and relative positions correspond almost exactly with the walls of the western end of Jefferson's addition, as the latter shows these on his plan. In one respect only do these foundation remains deviate from Jefferson's layout - the plan drawn from measurements made of the excavated remains is reversed in respect to Jefferson's plan of the west end of the addition, that is, the rooms lying south of the east-west axis of the addition in Jefferson's plan are on the north side in the plan of the excavated walls and trenches, and the foundations for the walls of the rooms lying north of the axis in Jefferson's plan are on the south side in the archaeological drawing. A tracing of the plan of the foundations made on transparent paper, when turned over, corresponds with astonishing exactness with Jefferson's layout. The discrepancy between the two plans is actually a relatively unimportant one. The surprising thing is that no more radical changes were made in Jefferson's layout in the time which elapsed between the drafting of the plan and the beginning of the work of laying the foundation walls.

JEFFERSON'S PLAN NEVER REVIVED AFTER WAR

When test trenches were dug between the east side of these foundations and the west ends of the wings no evidence was discovered that foundations for the walls of the east-west building elements which were to have linked the western 32 FOUNDATIONS FOR AN ADDITION TO THE WREN BUILDING PROJECTED BY THE JEFFERSON IN THE 1770s. The building was never erected and, so far as we know, only the foundations for the westmost part were completed. The remains were uncovered by James M. Knight, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologist, in September-October, 1950. His findings are shown in the lower of the two plans. The brick foundations are fragmentary, bat back-filled trenches furnish unmistakable evidence of the existence of the other walls. The upper plan is a photographic reproduction of the western end of the plan made by Jefferson (p. 27). Jefferson's drawing has been turned over for purposes of comparison, since in laying the foundations the original plan was reversed from left to right.
The illustration at the top is a photograph of one of the eighteenth-century brick foundation yells laid bare by Knight. These were covered over again and remain in situ. 33 end of Jefferson's addition with the existing wings of the Wren Building were ever laid. The war probably put an abrupt stop to building operations after the foundations of the west end were completed. Apparently, no move was made after the close of the Revolution to resume again the construction of the addition. This is not strange, since the college, following the Revolution and the cutting off of its main sources of revenue, was in a precarious situation financially. Even before the end of the war its financial situation had become straitened, as is clear from a passage in the statute sponsored by Jefferson and passed by the visitors of the college in 1779 reorganising the curriculum. This passage states that "the funds of the College" are "no longer competent to support so extensive an institution as that which the charter recommends…"

1779
JEFFERSON'S UNIVERSITY IDEA FIRST CENTERED IN COLLEGE
COLLEGE WAS TO BE HEAD OF STATE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

During the Revolutionary War and after it Thomas Jefferson continued to be actively interested in the college and to influence its educational policies. It is, probably, not widely known that his university idea first took the form of a proposal to transform the college into a state university. In 1779 he submitted to the General Assembly of Virginia three bills for the establishment of a general system of education for the commonwealth and these were the basis for all that he subsequently accomplished in this field. As part of a great system of free schools Jefferson recommended that the state be divided into ten or more districts in each of which a 34 college for instruction in the classics, grammar, geography, surveying and other useful subjects would be located. At the head of these and of the entire educational system of Virginia was to be the College of William and Mary, transformed into a new and higher seminary of learning. Jefferson, in his autobiography, states that his second bill "proposed to amend the constitution of William and Mary College, to enlarge its sphere of science, and to make it in fact a University."

FAILURE OF JEFFERSON'S FIRST UNIVERSITY PLAN

The plan failed and Jefferson explains why: "The College of William and Mary was an establishment purely of the Church of England …The religious jealousies, therefore, of all the dissenters took alarm lest this might give an ascendancy to the Anglican seat, and refused acting on that bill." This was not the only reason why the project failed but it was, apparently, the chief one.

JEFFERSON REMODELS CURRICULUM OF COLLEGE

Although Jefferson's project for the reorganization of the educational system of the state was never carried out he did succeed, in 1779, in remodeling the curriculum of the College. He says in his autobiography that

On the 1st of June, 1779, I was appointed Governor of the Commonwealth and retired from the legislature. Being elected, also, one of the Visitors of William and Mary college, a self-electing body, I effected, during my residence in Williamsburg that year, a change in the organization of that institution, by abolishing the Grammar school and the two professorships of Divinity and Oriental languages, and substituting a professorship of Law and Police [administration], one of Anatomy, Medicine and Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter confining us to six professorships, we added the Law of Nature and Nations, and the Fine Arts, to the duties of the Moral professor, and Natural History to those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.

1779-1750
COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL PROSPERS UNDER JEFFERSON'S NEW SYSTEM

Jefferson's reorganisation of the college curriculum, with Dr. James McClurg holding the professorships of Anatomy and Medicine and George Wythe those of Law and Police, bore fruit quickly, in the case, at least, of the law school, for of this he wrote as follows on July 26, 1780:

Our new Institution at the College has had a success which has gained it universal Applause. Wythe's school is numerous, they hold weekly Courts & Assemblies in the Capitol… This single school by throwing from time to time new hands well principled, & well informed into the legislature, will be of infinite value.

1780
STUDENTS LEAVE COLLEGE AS WAR APPROACHES

The war, however, was soon to extinguish this promising prospect of a vigorous new life for the college for by October, 1780, an invasion of the British was "expected daily in this Towns" according to one student at the college, who said that the "College… is intirely deserted by every Stud^t but one or two who are sick…it is more than probable that the College will be suspended for some time." (John Brown to his uncle, Colonel Preston, October 27, 1780).

1781
MADISON COMMENTS ON CONDITIONS AT COLLEGE

The British arrived as Brown had predicted. On January 18, 1781, in a letter to a relative, the Reverend James Madison, the distinguished president of the college, comments on the state of affairs there: 36

The University is a Desert. We were in a very flourishing way before the first invasion… we are now entirely dispersed. The student is converted into the Warrior …

1781
CORNWALLIS OCCUPIES PRESIDENT'S HOUSE

In June, 1781, the British once more entered Williamsburg and camped there for ten days. Lord Cornwallis, on this occasion, turned James Madison out of the President's House and occupied it himself.

FRENCH USE WREN BUILDING AS HOSPITAL

Sometime prior to October 15 of the same year the French took possession of the Wren Building, using it for a hospital. On that date John Blair, Jr., wrote General Washington:

The unhappy Vacation, which the Necessities of the War have made much too long, has however been attended with the Addvantage of supplying considerable Room for the Purpose of a Hospital; & the French Line are now in Possession of the whole [Wren Building) except the Library, the Apparatus-Room, & the Rooms of M^r Bellini, Professor of Modern Languages, and the only Professor who remains in College…

1782
FIRE DAMAGES PRESIDENT'S HOUSE AND WREN BUILDING

Fire, a periodic scourge of the college, broke out while the French were installed in it:

…the French troops took possession of the college buildings and used them as an hospital till the month of May, A.D. 1782. Whilst those buildings were thus occupied by them, the president's house and a portion of the college-buildings proper were destroyed by fire, and the latter building otherwise extensively injured.

The president's house was afterwards re-built at the cost of £1579..11S..8D, the greater part of which, viz. the sum of £1542..13S..6D—was paid to the college by the government of France, leaving the sum of £36..185..2D unpaid. The rebuilding of the president's house was not completed until some time in the latter part of the year 1786…

(From a paper submitted to Congress some years after the fire in behalf of the claim of William and Mary College to reimbursement for damage to its buildings).

1782
COLLEGE REOPENS BUT WITH FEW STUDENTS IN ATTENDANCE

On June 19, 1782, President Madison wrote as follows to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale:

The College is still an Hospital and has been such ever since the Arrival of the French Army; as it was entirely evacuated both by Professors and Students when the Britons took Possession of this Part of the Country. Indeed I fear but little will be done, during the war, from its exposed Situation; tho' we mean to attempt a revival of it…as soon as Circumstances will permit.

The college reopened that fall, although, according to the Reverend Francis Asbury who visited it in December, 1782, there were "but few students." The fact that scholastic activities could be resumed again so soon after the fire, however, is an indication that the damage suffered by the Wren Building was not crippling.

1784-1788
COLLEGE RECOVERS RAPIDLY

The college recovered fairly rapidly for by June, 1784, when Ezra Stiles visited, it had an enrollment of "Eighty Undergraduate Students." And by 1788, it had gained momentum enough to cause Thomas Jefferson to write a friend: "I know no place in the world, while the present professors remain where I would as soon place a son." (Jefferson to Mr. Izard, July 17, 1788.)

1794
WASHINGTON MADE CHANCELLOR OF COLLEGE

In 1794, forty-five years after it had appointed him surveyor (see p. 22) the college chose George Washington, then serving as president of the United States, as chancellor. He thus became the first American to be named to this office, which until 1776 had been held by Englishmen for the most part, bishops or archbishops of the church.

BUILDINGS OF THE COLLEGE AS SHOWN ON THE "FRENCHMAN'S MAP," BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN DRAWN BY A FRENCH ARMY CARTOGRAPHER IN 1782. THE WREN BUILDING, PRESIDENT'S HOUSE AND BRAFFERTON ARE INDICATED AS RECTANGLES WITH THE TYPICAL BROAD BAND OF SHADING FOUND ON BUILDINGS THROUGHOUT THE MAP. FOUR OUTBUILDINGS AND WHAT WAS PROBABLY A FENCED ENCLOSURE FOR STOCK ARE SHOWN WEST OF THE WREN BUILDING. THE DOUBLE ROWS OF DOTS LINKING THE THREE BUILDINGS MAY REPRESENT AVENUES OF TREES OR, POSSIBLY, COLONNADED COVERED WAYS.

1824
VICISSITUDES IN LIFE OF COLLEGE

No college, probably has undergone more vicissitudes in its life span than William and Mary in the course of its 250-year career. It was twice ravaged by war and repeatedly laid waste by fire. At whatever period we investigate, it seems that we find it either in the midst of some calamity or other or struggling to throw off the effects of one. Recovery was frequently slow, particularly when as was very often the case, its complete or partial destruction or rumors of its dilapidated state discouraged students from enrolling there, thus reducing its income from tuition. Its 39 student body fell off sharply when, after the founding of Jefferson's Central College in Charlottesville in 1816, which was shortly after followed by the creation of the University of Virginia, many young men elected to study at the new institution. Somehow, nevertheless, William and Mary clung doggedly to life and through the efforts of its devoted masters and with the financial aid of admirers of its distinguished past, managed ever and again to throw off the effects of its misfortunes and to recover.

RUINOUS CONDITION OF WREN BUILDING

In 1824 the college was in one of its periodic states of decline, according to the testimony of a New England traveler, Daniel Walker Lord, writing of his journey through the South in that year:

Here [in Williamsburg] I visited the ruins of William and Mary College. It has been very much neglected, and will soon go quite to ruin. The steps are mostly out of their place. Some of the windows are entirely broken out and most or all of them more or less broken, some not having more than three panes of glass in them. The cellar is used for a barn, and the building has more the appearance of a gaol in ruins than the remains of a college. In the chapel the seats are broken down, and the panels of the doors broken through. (From Boston Evening Transcript, November 21, 1934).

1828

The faculty did not allow the college to "go quite to ruin" for four years later it reported the following to the board of visitors:

The College needing many repairs a Committee has been appointed to purchase materials to hire workmen by the month or year & to direct as well as superintend their labour …The building remains now much in the same condition in which it has been for several years past exhibiting many marks of decay & delapidation. But we hope by a plan now adopted within the space of 2 or 3 years to put it into a very good state of repair…

1831-1533
PROGRESS OF REPAIR WORK

In July, 1831, the faculty reported that—

The repairs of the College have been slowly progressing but are not yet completed tho' we may be permitted to say that the College building is now in a better condition than for many years past. The Society has ordered the Chapel to be again fitted up.

Two years later it stated:

as to the repairs of college they have to observe that besides Smaller improvements, the northwest wing of College has been shingled, and the large apartment in the ground floor of that wing has been divided into two for the better accommodation of the classical schools—arrangements are now making to Shingle the rest of the buildings as all of them much need it.

1829
"The FLAT ROOF OF THE COLL[EGE]"

The following passage in the faculty minutes of July, 1829, is worthy of some comment:

"The flat roof of the Coll. has for many years past leaked in defiance to all endeavors to make it water tight… This roof has been covered with long and broad shingles so that it is believed to be perfectly water proof… The whole eastern range of the Coll. roof which likewise was old and leaky and rendered some of the subjacent rooms unsafe dormitories is also in the way of being reshingled…

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MEANING OF "FLAT ROOF"

The subject in question is the term, "flat roof of the Coll[ege]." We know that "flat roof" in the eighteenth and early of nineteenth centuries did not mean flat in the sense in which we use it in present-day building. It signified a roof of relatively moderate inclination, but one which, nevertheless, was very definitely pitched. (See reproduction of old drawing of truss for an eighteenth century "flat roof," p. 29a, architectural report on Public Gaol, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, architectural records files). The very fact, indeed, that the "flat roof" of 41 the Wren Building was covered with shingles is, in itself, an indication that this roof could not have been horizontal or nearly so, since wood shingles would scarcely have been a suitable material with which to cover such a roof.

"FLAT ROOF" MUST HAVE BEEN WESTERN HALF OF MAIN ROOF

If we consider that in the foregoing quotation the "eastern range" of the roof is mentioned as a part distinct from the "flat roof," we must conclude, barring the unlikely possibility that it covered one of the wings, that this flat roof was the western half of the main roof. We know from the Bodleian Plate that this roof, at the time the plate was made (ca. 1740), had, superimposed upon it, the series of smaller hipped A-roofs which were replaced on this part of the building in the course of its recent restoration (1928-1931).^* Yet this side of the roof was called, in 1829, a "flat roof."

"LITTLE GIRL'S DRAWING" SHOWS THIS "FLAT ROOF"

An explanation of the discrepancy is suggested by an examination of the "Little Girl's Drawing" of 1856 (see following page). This shows the western side of the main building to have three full stories, roofed with a simple inclined roof. The present pedimented central projection was missing. In the building as it now stands, which purports to be a restoration of the second Wren Building, the eastern front has two full stories above the basement and a third lighted by dormer windows, and its roof is a steeply-pitched one. The west front, on the other hand, has three full stories, covered by the series of A's running perpendicular to the main roof ridge. To have had, in 1856, three full stories (that is, with the wall 42 "LITTLE GIRL'S DRAWING" OF THE REAR OF THE BUILDING AFTER THE FIRE of 1705, WHICH WAS IN USE UNTIL THE FIRE OF FEBRUARY 8, 1859. THIS VIEW WHICH, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THAT SHOWN ON THE BODLEIAN PLATE, IS THE ONLY REPRESENTATION OF THIS WEST FRONT OF THE SECOND WREN BUILDING WHICH WE HAVE, WAS PRESERVED IN THE DRAWING BOOK OF A YOUNG WOMAN] WHO ATTENDED THE SEMINARY ESTABLISHED IN WILLIAMSBURG BY MR. LE FEBRE. IT WAS DRAWN IN 1856. running up to that height), without the use of a device such as the smaller roofs, would have necessitated the use of a pitched roof of slight inclination. It is such a roof condition, presumably, which is shown in the "Little Girl's Drawing" and which is referred to in the statement of 1829.

WESTERN HALF OF ROOF PROBABLY CHANGED BETWEEN 1740 AND 1856

If these suppositions are true, the western slope of the roof test have been altered between 1740 (the probable date of the Bodleian Plate) and 1856 (the date of the "Little Girl's Drawing) from a roof composed of a series of small A-roofs to a simple sloped roof of moderate inclination.

1835
NEED FOR REPAIR OF FOLDING DOOR AND ARCH OF NORTH WING

An item in the report of the faculty of July, 1835, holds considerable interest for us:

In repairing the injuries sustained by the college in the storm of June 1831, the expenses incurred have swelled far beyond what they were estimated in our last report… one heavy item of damage remains still to be repaired, viz. the large folding door at the west end of the north wing of the College, which together with the brick frame and arch by which it was surrounded was swept away in the storm.

FOUNDATIONS PROVE NORTH WING ONCE LONGER THAN AT PRESENT

The archaeological drawing made in 1940 by James M. Knight (p. 30) and the photograph below show several old brick foundation walls uncovered immediately west of the west end of the north wing of the building in the course of restoring the structure in 1928-1931. It is evident from the existence of these foundations that the present north wing at one time extended farther west than it does at present. According to Prentice Duell, archaeologist who investigated the Wren Building prior to and in VIEW FROM NORTH OF WEST END OF NORTH WING, SHOWING AN EXTENSION TO THIS WING, STEMMING FROM TIME OF FIRST BUILDING. THIS EXTENSION WAS PROBABLY REMOVED DURING THE SECOND BUILDING PERIOD. IN THE FOREGROUND ARE STEPS WHICH ONCE LED TO THE BASEMENT KITCHEN. 44 the course of its restoration, the foundation remains were part of the first building. They are not of uniform thickness, the westmost walls being thinner than those adjoining the building. These thinner walls doubtless supported a lighter structure, such as, possibly, a vestibule or porch which covered the basement steps shown in the plan and the photograph.

AGE AND NATURE OF VANISHED EXTENSION; WERE FOLDING DOOR AND ARCH PART OF IT?

It is likely that this vestibule or porch was added after the original north wing was completed, but still prior to the fire of 1705, since the ends of the foundation which abut the west end of the north wing are not bonded in with the brickwork of the latter. Another possible explanation of the nature of this extension is that it was the beginning of an early addition which, had it been completed, would have made the building a square with a central enclosed court. Whatever, finally, the extension may have been, it is possible that "the large folding door…with the brick frame and arch by which it was surrounded" was part of it.

EXTENSION REMOVED DURING SECOND BUILDING PERIOD

Sometime during the life of the second Wren Building the extension to the north wing was lopped off, since the brickwork of the present west end wall of the wing has been identified as belonging to the second building period. This was probably done to make the length of the north wing correspond with that of the south or Chapel wing. It is reasonable to suppose that this cutting down of the north wing occurred when the Chapel was built, a century or so before the occurrence of the storm which blew down the folding door and the surrounding archway, but it could also have taken place later. If the north wing was shortened before the storm, these features, presumably, would have stood in about 45 the position in the west wall of the north wing in which the present brick-enframed doorway now stands.

FOLDING DOOR AND ARCH PROBABLY PART OF WEST WALL, BUT POSSIBLY OF EXTENSION

It is Duell's opinion that this was the case and that it was the door and arched frame of the main west wall of the wing which were blown down. Looking today at this sturdy entrance archway it seems unlikely that a storm of less than hurricane violence could carry this away, but Duell contends that the brickwork of the arch and frame was not bonded into the west wall and was consequently insecure. It is quite likely that he is correct in his assumption that it was these features which were demolished in the storm of 1834 and yet, the possibility remains that the "folding door" and the brick frame and arch" were part of the extension to the north wing, the foundations of which still remain beneath the soil just west of the west entrance to the Great Hall. (For a detailed discussion of the problems relating to these foundations and the shortening of the north wing, see Prentice Duell, Archaeological Report, pp.

1836
MILLINGTON'S ALTERATIONS TO NORTH WING

An idea of the uses to which the north wing of the Wren Building was put in the year 1836 may be gained from the following excerpt from the faculty minutes of December 5 of that year:

Professors Browne & Millington having been appointed a Committee…to report upon the expence of altering the N W wing of the College into a Chemical Laborat^y & Philosoph^l Lecture room… Mr. Millington reported verbally that M^r Bassett [the builder] in the above had made no allowance for pulling down old work - for raising the heavy Timbers - for moving the Benches 45a Lithograph in the college library by C. L. Ludwig,(?) Richmond, after watercolor by Thomas C. Millington, 1840. What is believed to be Millington's original of this is owned by Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. In the latter picture the cows and men are absent from the foreground. Thomas Millington was the son of John Millington (below). DR. JOHN MILLINGTON (1779-1868) Dr. John Millington was an engineer, scientific writer and teacher and a friend of Herschel, Faraday and Davy. He was born near London and became famous as an engineer and teacher of science in that city, before, at the age of 50, he set out on a career of almost 40 years of restless wandering in America. This carried him to Mexico and, in 1835 to Williamsburg, where he accepted the chair of chemistry, natural philosophy and engineering at the College of William and Mary. While there he wrote his Elements of Civil Engineering, published in 1839, possibly the first American textbook on the subject. It is interesting to note that Millington resided, while in Williamsburg, in the Carter-Saunders House on the Palace Green. Subsequently he was professor at the University of Mississippi and the Memphis Medical College. The Civil War impoverished him and he was cared for a while by a daughter in Philadelphia. He settled eventually in Richmond where he died in July, 1868. He was buried in the Breton churchyard in Williamsburg where his monument may still be seen. 46 and Furnaces out of the present Laboraty and for some necessary Brickwork…

TWO-STORY DIVISION OF GREAT HALL SPACE PERSISTED DOWN TO 1928

From the above quotation, and from other references to the north wing, we know that the space which was originally, and is now occupied by the Great Hall was in 1836 divided into two stories, the lower of which was occupied by a chemical laboratory and a philosophical lecture room. Twenty years later, as the "little girl" (Mary F. Southall) indicates on her drawing of the west front (p.42), the laboratory was still there, the library was located on the second floor and the dormer floor above this was used as a dormitory. The two-story division persisted in the third and fourth buildings, but the dormers were absent from both wings. The Great Hall was reinstated in 1928-31, in the restoration of the building.

1856
"LITTLE GIRL'S DRAWINGS" GIVE INFORMATION ABOUT ROOMS

The "Little Girls Drawings" of the east and west facades of the Wren Building (for the former, see p. 111) provide us with further information as to the uses of the rooms in the building a few years after the mid-century, for the youthful artist writes at the appropriate places on the walls the titles of the rooms behind them, or in the case of student rooms, the names of their occupants. She designates the lower part of the south wing as the "large chapel" for there is a "small chapel" north of the east-west central hallway in the main part of the building. Above the large chapel is located the Philomathean Hall, the meeting place of the Philomathean Society, one of two rival literary-debating clubs 47 (the other being the Phoenix Society) which were traditional organisations of the college. That the young lacy was able to identify the occupant of each of the student rooms on the second and third floors of the main structure is a somewhat remarkable circumstance which leads us to suspect that she got around considerably at the college. It is of interest to us that she writes the name of a young gentleman above or below each pair of windows, indicating that at that period each student enjoyed the luxury of two windows in his room.

NEWSPAPER DESCRIBES ALTERATIONS TO BE MADE TO BUILDING

At the time our (probably not so little) "little girl" was making the two sketches which later proved so informative certain major alterations were being made to the interior spaces of the Wren Building. The Norfolk Southern Argus gives us on May 30, 1856, a short time before the work was started, an outline of the changes which were contemplated:

The front portico is to be widened so as to include a window on each side and a new flight of steps are to take the place of the well worn ones that have performed their office since 1723… They [the lecture rooms] will be situated on the first floor, and the chemical and philosophical apparatus will occupy the right wing.

On the second floor great changes are to be made. At the south end of the long hall there will be a society hall 40 feet in length and 22 ft. in width, with a pitch of 17 feet. At the north end another society hall of about the same dimensions to be fitted up in the handsomest style, —roomy platforms, cases for the libraries, carpets, chandeliers, etc… The College Library Hall will be made more convenient by an entrance at the side, the old entrance through the ante-room being dispensed with, the anteroom being comprised in one of the Society Halls. The rest of the area on the second floor will be taken up by a hall and convenient airy rooms for students. The ascent from the first to the second story will be by two new stairways, broad and conveniently located.

48

The third story will also undergo an internal transformation. All the walls will be pulled down, and the rude arches and corpulent chimneys placed there by our ancestors, more for show than for use, will give way to more useful and less bulky rafters and chimneys. The flooring will be relaid and the whole area will be taken up by larger and more convenient dormitories for students. The old rickety belfry will be replaced by a larger and handsomer one, the whole to be finished before commencement next year.

WAS FRONT PORTICO WIDENED AS PLANNED?

If, at this time, the front portico was widened as planned "to include a window on each side" we have no record of it, archaeological, documentary or pictorial. The "Little Girl's Drawing" of 1856 of the east front and the college daguerreotype (p. 11) which must have been made before the fire of 1859, but which may be earlier than the renovation of 1856, show the portico without the windows. There is no evidence, however, to indicate that the contemplated change to the east portico was not carried out, so that it would seem reasonable to assume that it was.

DISCUSSION OF LOCATION OF NEW SOCIETY HALLS

The two new society halls were placed, evidently, on the second floor at the north and south ends of the main structure. This meant, apparently, that the longest dimension of each hall (40 feet) ran from the interior of the main east wall of the building to the east wall of one of the wings, which is a distance of approximately 40 feet. The width of 22 feet would have been included between the inside of the end wall of the building in either case and the face of the chimney which runs through the building at a distance of something over 20 feet from the inside of each end wall. The second floor plan designed for the third building by H. Exall, but never executed (p. 58), shows two rooms in the locations indicated for these society rooms and of the 49 approximate size (40 feet x 22 feet) given in the newspaper notice above. It is interesting here to note that the "little girl" shows the Philomathean Hall over the Chapel. This would tend to signify that her drawing was made before the society halls were relocated although the young artist shows another change which was carried out at this time, that is, the doubling of the size of the student rooms, to give each occupant two windows.

HEIGHT OF THESE HALLS

The pitch or height of the society halls—17 feet (given as 18 feet in another newspaper notice),^* suggests that these rooms must have run up into the third story. In this case, however, it would sees that the room height should have been still greater.

NEW ENTRANCE TO LIBRARY

The new entrance to the college library "at the side" signified a doorway from the west court in the south wall of the north wing. This opened into a stairhall leading to the library on the second floor.

STOVES MAY HAVE MADE "CORPULENT CHIMNEYS" UNNECESSARY

The replacement of "the rude arches and corpulent chimneys" by "more useful and less balky rafters and chimneys" may have been made possible by the substitution of stoves for certain of the fireplaces which were originally the only means of heating the rooms. The "rude arches" may have been brick arches which carried flues from fireplaces in an off center position to the central chimney stacks.

THE WORK OF RENOVATION STARTED

The work of renovation started shortly after the appearance of the announcement in the Southern Argus, if it had not already begun when that was published: 50

The whole interior of the venerable edifice is now undergoing repairs. The floors are to be re-laid, the walls to be replastered and the rooms to be increased in number and fitted up in the most improved modern style. There will be two rooms, each 40 by 22, with a pitch of 18 feet, with arched ceiling, for the accommodation of the Philomathean and Phoenix Societies. The probable cost for entire repairs will be in the neighborhood of $8,000. (Williamsburg Weekly Gazette. June 26, 1856)

THE "ARCHED" CEILING OF THE SOCIETY HALLS

The "arched" ceiling referred to in the above excerpt must have been a curved ceiling constructed of a light wood framework and plastered, a common enough construction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (see sketch below). It seems likely, in view CURVED CEILING IN CHURCH OF 1798. THE "ARCHED" CEILINGS OF THE SOCIETY HALLS IN THE SECOND STORY MAY HAVE BEEN HUNG FROM TRUSSES IN THIS MANNER. of the rather considerable span of 22 feet, that this curved ceiling would have been hung from trusses. In this event the outside ends of the trusses would have rested on the end walls of the building and the inside ends on the walls in which the fireplaces were located. Since the roof at the ends of the second building was hipped, as it is today, the outside upper chords of the trusses probably followed the slope of the hips 51 and may have been incorporated in the framework of these.

THE ALTERATIONS PROCEED RAPIDLY; THE IMPROVED STUDENT ROOMS

The alterations proceeded apace for two months later the following comment on the work appeared in the August 28, 1856, issue of the Williamsburg Weekly Gazette:

The repairs of the College are rapidly speeding to completion. The interior of the building will soon present a new and more becoming aspect. The two spacious halls, for the literary societies, one at the Northern, the other at the Southern extremity of the venerable structure, are well designed and impart much to its beauty and ornament. The accommodations for the young men are advantageously modified, each apartment being well ventilated by means of two commodious windows, the rooms themselves being spacious. Formerly the Students suffered no little inconvenience, by being straightened in their accommodations, but now no College in the United States can vaunt of better apartments for their individual comfort and convenience.

1857
THE WORK COMPLETED

On July 8, 1857, the same newspaper carried a notice commenting on the work, which by that time had been completed:

The College has been thoroughly repaired and altered so much that an old student would not know its interior. The two Societies have very handsome halls on the 2d floor. Many new dormitories have been added and old ones fitted up; so that its sleeping arrangements are equal to any in the State.

1859
FIRE DESTROYS THE BUILDING FOR THE SECOND TIME IN ITS HISTORY
PROFESSOR MORRISON'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRE

The reconditioned building was not to be long enjoyed. Early in 1859 occurred a devastating fire, the second in the history of this structure to cause the total destruction of the interior. Robert J. Morrison, a professor at the college at the time, gives an eye-witness account of the catastrophe:

About two o'clock in the morning of the eighth day of February, 1859, I was aroused from sleep by a servant boy, calling me by name at my chamber door, and crying that the college was on fire. I sprang from my bed, and saw the light streaming in through the windows of the President's House. I raised a window, looked towards the college, and saw two large volumes of flame issuing out of the second 52 and third windows from the entry on the north side of the college edifice. It was evident that the Laboratory and the Library were in advanced conflagration. I threw on my clothes in great haste, and rushed towards the scene. Upon opening the front door of the President's House, I was struck with the terrific roar of the flames, which was unusually great for such a fire. This was probably caused by the burning of the books. I had not reached the college when I met President Ewell, who had just returned from the second floor of the college, where he had been to rescue the students who were sleeping in the dormitories. All the students were fortunately saved, though several of them were for a short time in peril. Three or four of them lost their effects. I urged Mr. Ewell who was not half dressed, to go to his chamber for warmer clothing, as the night was cold and damp, the wind blowing from the North East; but he said that I must first go with him to the basement under the Laboratory, as it was important to discover if possible the origin of the fire. I did so. From the appearance of the opening which had then burnt through the floor of the Laboratory, I was convinced that the fire originated in that apartment. There was evidently more fire above the floor than there had been below it. I thought the hole in the floor nearer the case in which many of the chemicals were kept, than to the stove. About ten o'clock the night before a negro man had been cutting wood in the basement under-the Laboratory, and he had used a candle in a wooden socket, which he said had burnt out before he left the room. Near midnight Messrs, William Tayloe and Peyton Page, students boarding with Mr. Ewell, were passing the north side of the Laboratory. They stopped on this side of the Laboratory and amused themselves by counting the lighted windows of the college. They saw no sign of light in the basement. Later still Mr. Bagwell another student passed by the Laboratory and he saw no sign of fire. About one o'clock Mr. Ewell went into his dining room for something to eat, and he was attracted by no light in the college.

Soon the citizens of Williamsburg flocked to the sad scene. Ladies and gentlemen were silent, sorrowful spectators of the ravages of the flames. Any attempt to stay their progress would have been in vain, The records of the college were saved, and the old portraits that hung in the Blue room. The President saved the college seal. The most valuable furniture of the Lecture rooms and the Library of the Philomathean Society were also 53 saved. Everything in the Chapel was burnt. The mural tablets crumbled under the influence of the heat.

(William and Mary Quarterly, Series 2, volume 8, pp. 267-8).

Among the above-mentioned mural tablets destroyed by the flames was the one dedicated to Sir John Randolph, the erection of which was noted on p. 20. According to a later statement of Professor Morrison (p. 64), one of the heavy losses in the fire of 1859 was that of the priceless library of 8,000 volumes, given to the college over the course of many years by kings, archbishops and other persons of rank and note.

REBUILDING COMMENCED IMMEDIATELY

Under the leadership of President Benjamin S. Ewell, the college authorities, aided by public-spirited citizens, set immediately to work rebuilding the structure. There was, apparently, considerable debate at the time, as to whether the old walls should be reused or a new site selected. The architect employed to do the work furnished two plans, one of an entirely new building and the other utilizing the old walls, with estimates of the cost of executing each scheme.

TOTTEN OPPOSES USE OF OLD WALLS

Silas Totten, professor of belles lettres and moral philosophy, opposed the use of the old walls on several grounds, saying among other things, that

… no building can be erected upon those walls, cracked & warped and abraded as they are in some places, of respectable architectural appearance or sufficient durability for a public building [and that] a building on a new plan containing better & larger rooms more elegant in form, better ventilated and in every way better adapted to the purposes of a college can be erected for a sum not exceeding by $3000 the cost of building upon the old walls. [He stated further his belief] that the public generally and the subscribers to the building fund in particular desire to see a new and handsome building erected, and that any erection upon the old walls & plan, which have always been regarded as uncouth and ill proportioned will disappoint their reasonable expectations and diminish their interest in the success of the College. (Faculty Minutes, March 1, 1859).

VISITORS DECIDE TO REBUILD OLD WALLS

Totten lost out in his fight for a new building, as the following quotation from the Faculty Minutes of March 1, 1859, bears witness:

A letter having been received from Mr. Grigsby^* stating that Mr. Ridley (the chief referee selected by him, the Rector of the Board of Visitors, and two other members of the same) had expressed a decided opinion in favor of the old walls, on the ground of strength economy & dispatch, and further that he, as the Representative of the Board of Visitors gave his decision in favor of retaining them…

BRICKLAYERS FIND THE OLD WALLS SOUND

A statement signed by Professor Morrison and four other faculty members (Faculty Minutes, March 1, 1859), describes the steps by which the Board of Visitors and the faculty arrived at the decision to rebuild upon the old walls. Among other things, it relates that

…After much discussion it was finally determined that Mr. Ridley of Norfolk, a most respectable bricklayer, and a man of forty-five years experience as a builder of walls, and Mr. Bowman of Williamsburg, a brick-layer also, and a man of good character, good sense and much experience as a builder of walls should inspect the walls of the College, and that in case their decision should be in favor of rebuilding upon them, steps should be immediately taken to begin the work of reconstruction, provided a suitable and economical building could be made upon the old ground plan. These referees examined the walls together and concurred in the opinion that they were strong enough for a warehouse even, there being more than one million two hundred and fifty thousand bricks in them, that such walls could not be built for less than ten thousand dollars, and that the present walls cannot be pulled down without a very great destruction of bricks. They further more gave it as their opinion that if an attempt were made to erect a new College edifice that more than a year would elapse before it could be ready for use. (William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. VIII, pp. 270-271).

THEIR PURPOSE TO FIND IF BOTETOURT IS REMAINS WERE BURIED THERE

The interest residing in the subject is sufficient, it seems, to justify our interrupting the narrative of the rebuilding of the college long enough for us to examine, with Professor Morrison, the tombs in the "crypt" of the chapel. On February 12, 1859, four days after the fire, Morrison and others availed themselves of the opportunity which, however regrettably, the destruction of the chapel floor afforded them of investigating the tombs. Their object was to settle, if possible, the long-standing question of where the remains of Lord Botetourt, who died in Williamsburg on October 15, 1770, were buried.

SIR JOHN RANDOLPH AND HIS TWO SONS INTERRED IN CHAPEL VAULTS
BODY OF MAN IN SIR JOHN'S VAULT UNIDENTIFIED

…it will be seen from the letter of the Duke of Beaufort to the Faculty of the College that the remains of Lord Botetourt were interred somewhere within the College grounds. To determine exactly the resting place of the body of this benefactor of the College and of the colony of Virginia, this evening, we had the vault opened that contained the only male body which had not been identified. I say the only male body, because in order to identify the body in this vault, as the sequel will show, it was necessary that it should be proved to be that of a male. This vault according to the mural tablet erected to his memory, was that of Sir John Randolph, and it was the only vault in the college chapel up to the Revolution. The vault in the South East corner of the chapel contains the remains of Peyton Randolph, President of the first American Congress, who died of apoplexy in Philadelphia on the 22nd day of October in the 54th year of his age. His remains were brought to Williamsburg by his nephew, Edmund Randolph, and were buried in the college chapel in November, 1776. In this vault, large enough for two bodies only is another body besides that of a woman. The vault between these two vaults contains only the body of John Randolph, the Attorney General who died in 1784. Peyton Randolph and John Randolph were both sons of Sir John Randolph. Thus the bodies of the men contained in the old vaults of the chapel are all identified save that of one man, and this rests in Sir John Randolph's vault, and was most probably buried before the Revolution, else one 56 of Sir John Randolph's sons would most probably have been buried in his father's vault unless indeed the second body in Sir John Randolph's vault be that of a woman, of Sir John's wife. But it is certain that this supposition is false, for this evening the bones of both bodies in Sir John Randolph's vault were examined by a physician of undoubted skill in his profession, and were pronounced to be the bones of men. Besides the coffin lid of the more recently interred body was six feet three or four inches long. The decayed pieces of this coffin indicated that it must have been as splendid as this country could have produced at the time of the death of Lord Botetourt. These facts in connexion with those in the prefatory history of the college to be found in this book show conclusively that Lord Botetourt's remains repose in the North East vault in the college chapel, to the right of those of Sir John Randolph. The remains of the three Randolphs repose in the northern side of their respective vaults. Elsewhere in the chapel Bishop Madison and Chancellor Nelson are buried. (Robert J. Morrison, MS. volume on the college in the Virginia State Library, reprinted in the William and Mart Quarterly; Second Series, Vol. VIII, pp. 269-70).

MORRISON CONCLUDES BOTETOURT IS BURIED IN RANDOLPH'S VAULT

The vaults which Professor Morrison discusses above, with their distinguished occupants undisturbed, are still beneath the chapel floor. A view of two of these tombs, made during the restoration of the building, may be seen on p. 85.

WEST VAULT, HOWEVER, MAY CONTAIN REMAINS OF GOVERNOR

It appears, from the following extract from the Faculty Minutes of November 22, 1859, that Professor Morrison may have been mistaken in his conclusion that Botetourt's remains were interred in Sir John Randolph's tombs

There is still another vault in the west end of the Chapel, which appears to have been overlooked by Mr. Morrison. It contains a copper coffin with a large skeleton, and was doubtless the vault of Lord Botetourt, who is known to have been buried in a coffin of that character. (William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. VIII, p. 284).

FACULTY BUYS "COLLEGE HOTEL"

The college faculty was determined that the destruction of the Wren Building should not interrupt the scholastic program so, 57 a short time after the fire, they purchased "a new and commodious brick building [opposite the Brafferton], of S. T. Bowman, Esq., well suited for the young men's lodging and eating quarters, and for lecturing purposes." This building came to be known as the College Hotel.

RECONSTRUCTION TO BEGIN IMMEDIATELY

The students, for their part, at a meeting held on February 10, had assured the faculty of their continued support, saying that "we are fully determined to remain in Williamsburg and conform to the arrangements of the faculty, until a few brief months have expired when we trust we shall see Dear Old William and Mary, renovated and rejuvenated, rise from her ruins." (Both quotations from The Weekly Gazette, Williamsburg, March 2, 1859). The board of visitors, meanwhile, decided, without a dissenting vote, to rebuild the Wren Building on the same spot and that operations should start immediately.

H. EXALL, FIRST ARCHITECT, SUCCEEDED BY EBEN FAXON

Before a month had elapsed after the fire, H. Exall, architect of Richmond, was chosen to make plans for the restoration of the building. Exall submitted a scheme which involved the addition of a third story to the structure but this proposal was speedily vetoed bar the faculty. Friction had existed from the beginning, apparently, between Exall and the faculty, so that, on March 11 the latter resolved

That Mr. Eben Faxon, Architect, be written to by Dr. Totten to come on to Williamsburg for the purpose of preparing a new plan for the College building and that a fair compensation be allowed for his services and that he be considered the Architect if his plan be adopted.(Faculty Minutes, March 11, 1859, reprinted in the William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. VIII, p. 276).

FAXON DRAWS PLANS FOR BUILDING; FACULTY CALLS FOR BIDS ON WORK

Faxon must have come from Baltimore, his place of residence, immediately and have executed his plans and got them approved with great expedition for by March 22 they were being let out for bids:

Proposals for rebuilding the edifice of the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., will be received by the Faculty till the 8th of April next. The Plan and Specifications will be furnished on application to Eben Faxon, Esq., Architect, Williamsburg, Va.(The Weekly Gazette, Williamsburg, April 6, 1859, reprinted in the William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. VIII, pp. 276-277).

FAXON PROBABLY REVISED EXALL'S PLANS

FIRST FLOOR PLAN FOR THIRD WREN BUILDING AS DESIGNED BY THE RICHMOND ARCHITECT, H. EXALL. EBEN FAXON OF BALTIMORE SUCCEEDED EXALL AS ARCHITECT AND MUTED THE BUILDING BUT HE DOUBTLESS ADOPTED CERTAIN FUTURES OF THE LATTER'S SCHEME. WHAT APPEARS TO BE A PRELIMINARY FIRST FLOOR PLAN FOR THE BUILDING EXISTS, WHICH SHOWS THE TOWERS AND ENTRANCE ARCADE AS THEY WERE BUILT BUT WHICH DEVIATES IN OTHER RESPECTS FROM DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LAYOUT OF THE FINISHED BUILDING. (SEE ADDENDUM, P. 109). CERTAIN FEATURES OF THE PLAN SHOWN ABOVE ARE OF PARTICULAR INTEREST. THE ARCADE, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS CLOSED OFF, AS IT WAS LATER IN THE FOURTH BUILDING. THE INTERIOR SPACE THUS OBTAINED BEING CONVERTED INTO ROOMS AND A STAIR HALL. IN ADDITION, A U-SHAPED WOOD PORCH ON THE WEST SIDE PROVIDED A COVERED WAY FROM THE MAIN PART OF THE STRUCTURE TO THE COURT ENTRANCE DOOMS OF THE WING.

The fact that the architect, Faxon, required only about a week to draw his plans and write his specifications suggests that he probably leaned rather heavily on the work already done by Exall. Faxon's final plans have been lost but what seems to be a preliminary first 59 floor plan for the third building still exists. A reproduction of this is shown on p. 109 of the Addendum.

WILLIAM BARTON ROGERS REVISITS WILLIAMGSBURG
HIS IMPRESSIONS OF COLLEGE
REMARKS ON PLANS FOR NEW BUILDING AND FUTURE COLLEGE

In March, while steps were being taken to get the rebuilding of the Wren Building under way, William Barton Rogers, a former professor at the college,^* visited Williamsburg. In a letter, written from Boston on April 4, 1859, probably to his brother, Henry Darwin Rogers, he described his feelings on seeing the burnt-out shell of the old building in which he had once taught:

…sad was the sight when about sundown I came in view of the college, as I approached by the road leading past the president's house. Many of the old trees on the roadside greeted me as familiar friends, but I missed the sharp, many windowed roof of the college, and found, as I drew near, that although the solid walls had for the most part, defied the assault of the fire, the whole interior of the wings, as well as main structure, had been turned to ashes.

I drove past, with a tearful eye, noting that the mossy coat of old Botetourt was unscathed, that the dial kept its place, that the presidents house and our home, the Brafferton, had not been injured, and that one of those noble live-oaks at the gate was dead…

The Visitors, including John Tyler Governor Wise, William Harrison of Brandon; Tayloe of Rappahannock; Tazewell Taylor, etc., asked me to confer with them in regard to rebuilding the college. This has been definitely resolved on, and will be commenced on forthwith. The old foundations and the front wall will be retained, but, of course, a more convenient interior has been planned. The insurance money, with what has been and will be collected from 60 friends, will, I believe, put the college in a better condition than before. I obtained in Williamsburg some lithograph views of the college and surroundings taken by Millington's son some years ago [p. 11], one of which I reserve for you. Though a poor specimen of art, it will be precious as reminding us of the home of our dear father, and the spot where we first caught the inspiration of science.

(William and Mary Quarterly, First Series. Vol. XII, pp. 260-261)

NEWSPAPER COMMENTS ON FAXON'S PLANS
OLD WALLS TO BE RETAINED BUT EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR TO BE CHANGED
CHAPEL TO BE LITTLE ALTERED
PAPER EXPECTS NEW BUILDING TO BE READY FOR FALL TERM

The local newspaper on April 6, 1859, makes the following comment on the Faxon plans which, as we saw above, the faculty had released for bids, in order to enable them to select a contractor for the work:

We have had the pleasure of examining the plan of the College building, which has been selected by the Building Committee—. The old walls will be retained, but the exterior and interior of the new structure will differ from those of the old. The new Edifice or rather the renewed Edifice, will present a front of One Hundred and Thirty-six feet, which will be relieved by two Towers of the Italian style of Architecture. One of these Towers will contain the College bell, the other will be used as an Observatory, The two side views will present each a front of One Hundred Feet.^*—The altitude of the new building will be much greater than that of the old building. There will be no dormitories in the College, the Faculty having recently purchased a house which affords ample accommodations for Students. The interior of the College edifice will be convenient. There will be six large Lecture Rooms, each opening into an office for a Professor, and a Laboratory which will present all the modern improvements. There will be a spacious room for the Library, and two splendid Society Halls. The old Chapel will 61 be but little altered. Fortunate indeed is it, that there will be no necessity for disturbing the remains of the illustrious dead that repose within those venerated walls—and fortunate indeed is it, that the flames did not so far impair the strength of any of the out-side walls as to render them unfit for use, hence, the identity of the old building will be preserved, and thus not a single hallowed association of the past lost to old William and Mary. The effect of the fire will be only to make the appliances of the College adequate to the demands of the day.

It is with no little satisfaction that we contemplate the speedy erection of this beautiful Building in this ancient city. It will undoubtedly be in readiness for the fall session of the College.

(The Weekly Gazette, Williamsburg)

BUILDING CONTRACT AWARDED; FACULTY DECIDES TO PAINT OUTSIDE WALLS

The contract for the rebuilding of the structure was awarded on April 12, 1859, to Messrs. Green and Allen of Richmond and the contract price was eighteen thousand two hundred dollars. The company put eighty-six men to work on the job. About three months later the work was sufficiently advanced that the faculty was concerning itself with the painting of the exterior walls:

RESOLVED: That in the opinion of the Faculty it is expedient to apply to the exterior walls of the College building a suitable paint or wash of a stone color, if possible, before the 10th of October next, or as soon thereafter as the walls may be ready to receive it.(Faculty Minutes, July 6, 1859, reprinted in the William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. VIII, p. 279).

THIRD BUILDING APPARENTLY, ONLY FORM IN WHICH WALLS WERE PAINTED

In the drawing of the third building (p. 63) no brickwork is indicated, which suggests that the resolution of the faculty to paint the walls was carried out. The second building, at the time of the daguerreotype (1850s, see p. 11) and the Bodleian Plate (ca. 1740, see p. 20a) was apparently unpainted, as it was at the time (1702) Michel made his drawing (p. 8), since the 62 latter shows each individual brick. All of our photographs of the fourth building show the exterior brickwork exposed. Thus, so far as we know, the third building was the only one of the four forms which was painted or whitewashed, but we have no certain proof of this.

REBUILDING PROGRESSES RAPIDLY; CLASSES HELD OCTOBER 13 IN RESTORED STRUCTURE

The rebuilding of the structure progressed with astonishing rapidity. Less than five months after the work was started classes were resumed in the building, according to a statement made by Professor Morrison in a paper read to the faculty on November 22, 1859:

On the thirteenth of October 1859…Lectures were resumed in the renewed College edifice…

Morrison then proceeds to discuss the question, already examined on pp. 7 and 9, whether the building was rebuilt on the old walls after the fire of 1705. His reasons for believing that it was are set forth in an excerpt from the paper quoted on p. 9.

MORRISON COMPARES NEW BUILDING WITH OLD
ALTERATIONS TO INTERIOR OF MAIN PART OF BUILDING

Morrison also explains at some length the respects in which the new building differs from the one which preceded it:

The exterior of the present differs materially from that of the late Building. [See next page] The Points of difference may be seen by comparing it with the representation of the Old Building which may be seen in the back-ground of the large Portrait of the Rev. John Blair^* still in possession of the College. The Interior has been much changed. The ground plans of the Chapel, of the Lecture-room on the right as you enter the present Hall from the City front and of the Lecture Room in the North-East corner of the Building upon the first floor have not been altered.

THIRD BUILDING, ERECTED AFTER FIRE OF 1859

In the third form of the Wren Building (above) much of the character of the preceding structure was lost, although the old walls were again reused in its restoration. H. Exall, e Richmond architect, was at first chosen to design it, but the college building committee, dissatisfied with his work, finally gave the commission to another architect, Eben Faxon of Baltimore, who exerted the building. Faxon's two towers "of the Italian style of Architecture," one of which was to contain the college bell and the other to be used as an observatory, were scarcely a success for, after fire had once more destroyed the building in 1862, President Ewell, in a report to the visitors, remarked that "It would be advisable… to take down the towers as there are some serious cracks in their comparatively thin walls. This is not to be regretted for they were not of the slightest use and were not ornamental."

Another feature peculiar to the third building was its roof. To judge by the drawing of L. J. Cranston on p. 65, the main roof consisted of two gable-ended "A" roofs of rather low inclination separated at the center of the building by a flat deck. This condition also seems to be shown in the view above, although what appears to be the south gable end of the north half of the building could also be taken to be a pediment paralleling the east face of the building.

The life of the third building was brief; as was noted above, it was again ravaged by fire in 1862—this time while it was occupied by forces of the Union army. Several years were to pass thereafter before a third restoration could be attempted.

GREAT HALL—ITS ORIGINAL AND MORE RECENT USES
CHANGES IN CHAPEL

The Library now fills the space formerly occupied by a lecture-room & the southern end of the piazza. This Piazza extended the whole length of the Building. It has been converted in part into offices for the Professors & a room for the Faculty next adjoining the Library. A portion of the Lecture-room on the left as you enter the Hall was formerly occupied by the main Staircase. The old Society-Halls were not so large as the present. Their ceilings were vaulted. The "Blue Room" was on the second floor and was a part of the present Lecture-room on the north of the Central Hall, the wainscot extended from floor to cieling and was of a blue color. The Faculty met in this room from seventeen hundred and twenty three (the year of the completion of the College after the fire of 1705)—until eighteen hundred & fifty nine—and here were hung the Paintings belonging to the College…

The North-wing of the original Structure, before the Old Chapel was built (which was first used for service on the 28^th June 1732) contained the grand Hall of the College. The Colonial Clergy held their conventions in it. Later the Grammar-School was held there. When the last fire occurred the first floor of this wing was appropriated to the Chemical Laboratory and to the Department of Natural Philosophy—Among the Instruments were some constructed by Nairne more than a hundred years ago. The second floor contained the rare old Library, in great part the gift of Kings, Archbishops, Bishops, Nobles, Colonial Governors & Gentlemen. With the exception of a few volumes in the hands of Professors & Students at the time of the recent fire this curious Collection was consumed.

The illuminated copy of the Transfer and an autograph letter of Gen^l Washington accepting the Chancellor ship of the College were also burnt.

While the ground-plan has not been altered some changes have been made in the Chapel worthy of note. The cieling was formerly vaulted. The window-sills were much higher from the floor and there was a gallery opposite the present rostrum….

(Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879)

1860
COMMITTEE REPORTS ON CONDITION OF COLLEGE
DESCRIPTION OF NEW BUILDING
EQUIPMENT OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

On February 8, 1860, the first anniversary of the destruction by fire of the second building, the faculty held a meeting at which a committee which had been appointed to enquire into the condition of the college rendered the following report:

The Committee report that the present condition of the College when we consider the disastrous consequences 65 of the late fire and the embarrassments under which the College has labored during the past year is in the highest degree satisfactory and encouraging.

The new College Edifice estimated to be worth thirty thousand dollars is completed and has been fully furnished at an additional cost of about three thousand dollars. On the 11th of October 1859 the Cap-stone of the Building was laid by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, and the College Exercises have been conducted in it without interruption, from the beginning of the present Session.

The Building is in every way suitable & sufficient for the wants of the College and is in an eminent degree convenient & comfortable. (There still exist however some defects and omissions in the Construction, especially of the roof of the building but the Faculty have reserved a sufficient sum of money to remedy the faults). The several Lecture Rooms of which there is one for each separate Department, and to each of which is attached an office for the Professor, are large & comfortable, and are amply furnished with all necessary appliances for illustration of the Several Departments of instruction.

THE THIRD BUILDING, FROM A WATER COLOR DRAWING MADE BY L. J. CRANSTON SOMETIME BEFORE THE FIRE OF 1862. THIS PICTURE, A VIEW OF THE BUILDING FROM THE SOUTH, SHOWS THE SOUTH PART OF THE MAIN STRUCTURE COVERED BY AN "A" ROOF WHICH IS TERMINATED AT THE SOUTH TOWER. WE KNOW FROM THE DRAWING ON P. 63 THAT THE NORTH PART WAS SIMILARLY ROOFED. WE ARE UNCERTAIN, HOWEVER, AS TO HOW THE CENTRAL PORTION BETWEEN THE TOWERS WAS TREATED SINCE WE HAVE NO PICTURE WHICH SHOWS THIS DISTINCTLY AND NO DOCUMENTS WHICH DESCRIBE IT.

The Philosophical Apparatus worth about five thousand dollars and being with the exception of three instruments which were not destroyed by fire entirely new, is very complete. The several instruments most of which were purchased under supervision of Prof Wm. B. Rogers late of the University 66 of Virg^a, are of the very best quality. The whole is well arranged in handsome & convenient cases carefully constructed for this purpose. The Walls of the Lecture Room of Nat^l Science are hung with valuable pictorial diagrams illustrative of Natural Philosophy & Natural History, and the Department of Chemistry is furnished with a complete supply of Chemicals and with all the necessary instruments for manipulation & experiment.

The Walls of the Lecture Room of History are hung with a full sett of the most valuable mural maps geographical & historical, on the largest scale & of most accurate construction.

The Literary Societies of the College have been provided with large & handsome Halls which are furnished in the most comfortable manner. To each of these is attached an apartment for library & reading-rooms.

The Chapel has been restored and the remains of its illustrious dead still. lie undisturbed within its vaults. This room, which is designed also for the public Exercises of the College has been comfortably furnished with Seats for about four hundred persons, and has been regularly used for the religious exercises of each day since the beginning of the Session.

Adjoining the Chapel and communicating with it by large folding doors is the room appropriated to the Library. This is a very large & handsome Apartment ample to contain at least twelve thousand volumes. It has been conveniently & handsomely furnished with cases for books & contains already about four thousand select volumes which have been obtained partly by purchase under appropriations of money made by the Faculty, partly by the donations of public spirited Individuals.

Each Department is supplied with a library of standard works upon its own peculiar subjects, while the library of general literature consisting partly of books presented partly of books purchased with money presented for this purpose is very select containing besides standard literature many rare & valuable works.

Thus within the short space of one year the losses by the Fire of Feb 8 1859 have been in every material point of view completely restored; and in all the essentials of its building, furniture, apparatus & library the College is now in a better condition than it was on that day. At the same time a most valuable addition has been made to the property of the College in the large and convenient building which was purchased of Sherard T. Bowman at a cost (including subsequent repairs) of about five thousand dollars. This building in which the Exercises of the College were held during the latter half of the last Session is now the College Hotel and affords besides a residence for the Steward comfortable 67 accommodations for about twenty five Students. The former Stewards House also has been repaired & remodelled at a cost of about two hundred & fifty dollars & furnishes an additional residence for a Professor on the College Grounds…

The prestige of its antiquity, which is at least an interesting association, is retained in those old walls, the basis of the present Structure—the same upon which rested the original building, within which the House of Burgesses met in the year 1700 before the construction of the first Capitol in Williamsburg. The College Exercises have been held regularly and without any interruption.

1861
CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT; THE COLLEGE IS CLOSED

The faculty and students of the college were not for long to enjoy the advantages of their new building. The Civil War broke out in April, 1861 and this was destined to prove catastrophic to the fortunes of the institution. Early in May the immediate prospect of active hostilities made it impossible to continue the college exercises and they were accordingly suspended. Nearly all the professors and students volunteered for service in the Confederate army. President Ewell^* also entered the army and at first aided General Magruder in the fortification of the peninsula. He then 68 became assistant adjutant general to Joseph E. Johnston and served as his chief-of-staff and closest friend until March 20, 1865, when he resigned his commission.

BUILDING USED AS BARRACK, THEN AS HOSPITAL
SOLDIER DESCRIBES WHAT TOOK PLACE THERE

Immediately after the suspension of the college exercises the Confederate military authorities took possession of the building and used it first as a barrack and then as a hospital. A vivid description of what went on in the old structure after the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, has been left by a Confederate soldier who paid it a visit:

…Arriving in Williamsburg, I found the streets full of soldiers as in the morning, but now there were no signs of inhabitants, no lights in the houses and every thing as quiet and desolate as a country village at midnight. "Strange people," thought I, "for altho' a terrible battle has been raging around town all day, and the horrors of war brought fiercely to their doorsills, they quietly go to bed, with the chickens ere sunset, and sleep the sleep of the just." Perhaps tho', the citizens were not asleep but had extinguished their lights as the best wary to escape annoyance from stragglers, and men seeking place to leave their wounded friends. At the College, however, there were lights flashing at nearly every window, and as the rain was still falling. I determined to seek shelter in the building until day break…

Alas! the venerable edifice already had its full complement of occupants. Little had I expected to witness such a sight within those walls as now greeted my eyes on every floor.

Wounded, dying and dead—here, there, everywhere—halls, recitation rooms, dormitories—all were crowded with bloody bodies! Here a ghastly face lay dead, and by its side a wounded comrade writhing, and moaning. In one of the large rooms three surgeons were busy at low tables, sawing off, or binding up limbs of poor fellows who lay upon the tables in such a way that the ghastly hue of their distorted faces showed all the more horribly from the flickering glare of the tallow candle at each corner.

…And what a strange metamorphosis was this of the peaceful abode of science and learning into a veritable chamber of horrors… As I ascended the stairway my foot struck some object, and a man passing at that moment with a light from one of the rooms showed me a pile of legs and arms that had been amputated and thrown on the landing of the 69 stairway, that being the only place unoccupied by the wounded.

Near the doorway were several corpses…

At the campus gate I met Colonel Berkeley, who like myself had halted for some purpose, and now, could not find the regiment. The whole army was retiring by one road, best toward Richmond]….

(Found among the Randolph Abbott Shotwell papers and printed in the William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. XIII, pp. 26-27)

THIRD FIRE DESTROYS BUILDING; AN ACCOUNT OF THIS
STRATEGIC LOCATION OF THE CITY
WILLIAMSBURG HELD BY UNION FORCES
BUILDING FIRED BY DRUNKEN SOLDIERS
THEIR FURTHER DEPREDATIONS
ESTIMATED COST OF RESTORING STRUCTURE

However gruesome may have been the uses to which the Wren Building was put, a still worse fate was in store for it. The following excerpt from a brief history of the college published in 1870 tells the story of what befell it:

…Williamsburg is, to a force holding James and York rivers the strategic point of the peninsula.

The tides in deep creeks, emptying into the James and the York, and flanked by impassable morasses, ebb and flow within a mile of the city. The position is a narrow gorge, where the roads from above and below converge into a single one, passing directly through the place.

It was, therefore, held by the United States army in the Peninsula from the time of Gen'l McClellan's advance on Richmond till the close of the war, almost without intermission, as an important post. At times, however, it was debatable ground, and was alternately in the possession of the contending forces. A conflict occurred on the 9th September, 1862, between a detachment of Confederate cavalry and the United States garrison, then consisting of the 5th regiment Pennsylvania cavalry, in which the latter was worsted. The Confederates took possession of the town early in the day, but withdrew in a few hours.

After they had retired, (by 11 A.M. of the same day all had gone,) returning stragglers of the garrison, provoked by their defeat, under the influence of drink and before organization, or subordination was restored, fired and destroyed the principle building, with furniture and apparatus. For this, it is believed, no authority was given by the officers in command.

…At later periods of the war all the remaining houses on the College premises and the enclosures were burned, or pulled entirely to pieces or greatly injured.

The vaults in the College chapel were broken open and robbed of the silver plates attached to the coffins, and of whatever else of value they were found to contain. This desecration was checked, as is stated, when it became known to the military commander.

70

These facts are fully substantiated by the affidavits of eye-witnesses.

It will require at least eighty thousand dollars to repair these losses and restore the College to what it was in 1860.

(From The History of the College of William and Mary/From its Foundation, 1693, to 1870, Baltimore, 1870, pp. 51-53)

A UNIONIST'S VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE FIRE

It may be well to settle here a question which may seem debatable, that is, whereto place the blame for the fire, by quoting a statement concerning it made by one who surely would have preferred, had it been possible, to deny rather than to confirm the truth of the accusation that this was a case of wanton vandalism perpetrated by Union soldiers. The following account was written after the war by David Edward Cronon, Federal provost marshal in Williamsburg during the Union occupation of the city:

…In the afternoon of the day of the Confederates departure—September 9th [1862] the college building of William and Mary, next to Harvard the oldest institution of learning in the United States, was discovered to be on fire. The flames rapidly destroyed the interior and by evening nothing remained but the bare and tottering walls. Viewed from the main street, the smoking ruins stood out massively against the western twilight—a most impressive picture of the barbarism of war.

Many of the men of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, had begun to regard the building as an outpost of the enemy:… They claimed that the Confederate sharpshooters frequently used it as a shelter in skirmishes, firing from the upper windows and roof, and killing and wounding a number of their comrades.

At all events, it is now known that it was stealthily set on fire by a few of the rank and file in a spirit of retaliation and revenge, and without the knowledge or approval of any commissioned officer.

After the war Congress passed a bill granting a liberal appropriation toward the rebuilding of the structure: and thus the mortifying incident was closed.

(D. E. Cronon, The Vest Mansion/Its Historical and Romantic Associations…in the American Civil War, a typed manuscript in the Department of Research and Record of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, p. 26).

1865
EWELL'S POST-WAR REPORT ON COLLEGE
PROPOSAL TO MOVE COLLEGE DISCUSSED

On July 5, 1865, less than three months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, we find President Ewell in Richmond, laying before the board of visitors of the college a report of the general and financial condition of the college and a resume of what had taken place there during the war years. At the conclusion of this report, which appears in the Faculty Minutes for July 5, Ewell discusses the pros and cons of a question which was under serious consideration at the time, viz., whether or not the college should be removed to Alexandria or Richmond in order to give it, in a location more favorable than Williamsburg, a new lease on life. The same question had been debated in 1824 and was to continue to be argued down to the nineties. But, as we know, the college was not moved because sentiment in favor of the old location, the scene of its past glories, was too strong. As President Ewell summed it up in his report of 1865, "If removed…it would no longer be William & Mary College."

DAMAGES SUSTAINED BY COLLEGE BUILDINGS
CONDITION OF WALLS OF MAIN BUILDING
PRESIDENT'S HOUSE NOT SERIOUSLY INJURED
MOST OF APPARATUS AND BOOKS ARE SAVED
IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, PORTRAITS PRESERVED

Certain statements made by President Ewell in his post-war report throw light upon the losses suffered by the college during the war and list the equipment which was saved:

The walls of the College building are apparently in as good condition as they were after the fire of 1859, in fact are less warped and cracked. The College Hotel still occupied by Mr Harrell the Steward, although in want of repairs has not been injured.

After Mrs. Southall and her family moved from Williamsburg the President's house was somewhat, but not seriously injured. It is now used as the head quarters of the regiment stationed there. This prevented my returning to Williamsburg which I wished to do as soon as practicable as well for the collection and preservation of the scattered property of the College as for other reasons.

Most of the Philosophical apparatus was in 1862 after the evacuation 72 of the place became certain, stored in the Lunatic Asylum, where it still remains. For its preservation it requires cleaning and other attention. Most of the College books saved from the fire are also there. Professor Taliaferro after an examination thinks the most valuable part of the Library has been saved… The value of the property of this kind saved, amounts, as well as I can judge to several thousand Dollars. The Charter and seal of the College are safe. Some of the records have been preserved, but others of great interest and value have I regret to say been destroyed. The portraits have all been preserved. A full inventory of what has been saved will be made when practicable.

ORIGINAL ESTIMATE OF LOSSES TOO LOW
REVISED ESTIMATE OF LOSSES DUE TO WAR

President Ewell thereafter gives an estimate of the damage suffered by each of the college buildings. The total of the losses suffered by the buildings is given as $40,000. In a comment on this sum, apparently added later, Ewell says, "Experience has proved the foregoing estimate to be much too small by about $30,000 dollars." In view of this statement we will record here not the original estimate but a revised one which Ewell tendered the Committee of Education and Labor of the House of Representatives in 1872. The losses represent those suffered by the college from May, 1862, to September, 1865, as a result of the occupation of the college buildings by Federal forces:

Main College building, with wings 145 feet by 100, burned	$40,000
Professors house, with out-houses, burned	5,000
Brafferton House, pulled to pieces, with out-houses	5,000
College library, destroyed or carried off	6,000
College apparatus and furniture, new	6,000
Other out-houses on College premises, and enclosures destroyed and devastation of grounds	4,000
Professor's house partly pulled to pieces, and out-houses destroyed	3,000
	$69,000

1866
VISITORS DECIDE TO REOPEN COLLEGE IN FALL

At a convocation of the board of visitors held in Richmond in August, 1865, it was determined to reopen the college in the 73 fall of that year. Some of the buildings were repaired so that classes could be held in them temporarily and accommodations were provided for students. The college opened, indeed, in the autumn but a little after the date scheduled, as is related in this excerpt from the Annual Report of the Faculty for the academic year ending July 4, 1866.

OPENING DELAYED WEEK
BUILDINGS IN NEED OF FURTHER REPAIR
PIECES OF COLLEGE EQUIPMENT RECOVERED
FACULTY DISCUSSES COLLECTION OF FUNDS FOR REBUILDING

Full possession of the College premises was not given by the United States troops quartered on them until about the 20^th September [1865]. This coupled with the great difficulty of procuring workmen and building materials delayed the opening of the Session one week…

The necessity of a rigid attention to economy has limited the expenditures on the Buildings & Premises. To secure bare respectability of appearance something further is absolutely required. The College Hotel was left in such a condition by the late Steward… that unless refitted it must be abandoned as a dwelling.

Much College property, Books, Maps, Furniture & pieces of Apparatus has been recovered during the year. The Bell, though so cracked as to render recasting necessary, has been restored. The Library now contains about 3500 volumes. An addition of between 300 and 400 volumes, the gift of M^r Robert Potts of Cambridge, England, has just been received … The Philosophical Apparatus is in good order and needs but little to make it complete… Among the first questions considered by the Faculty was the collection of funds in this country & in England by voluntary contribution for rebuilding the College….

(MS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879)

1867
ANSWER OF LEE TO APPEAL FOR AID

By January 21, 1867, when General Robert E. Lee wrote the following letter to Mrs. Cynthia B. Tucker Coleman in Williamsburg the campaign to raise funds for the restoration of the Wren Building was under way. General Lee wrote from Lexington where he was serving as president of Washington (now Washington and Lee) College:

Your beautiful appeal in behalf of William & Mary College, was not needed to excite in me an interest in its welfare; for that I have felt all my life, & 74 have mourned not less than yourself over its destruction. I have watched with anxiety the prospect of its resuscitation, & hope that the completion of the Richmond & Newport News R.R. will make it so accessible, that the beauty & salubrity of the situation with its other advantages, will cause the youth of the Country to flock to its Halls. It must necessarily suffer under the depression incident to the calamities which oppress the State, but they will pass away, & William & Mary will again receive her place in the first rank of the Colleges of the Country.

Time which brings a cure to all things, will I trust remove the difficulties in the way of her progress, & her friends must patiently labour in hope & Confidence for her restoration. Although without the influence you ascribe to me, it will give me pleasure to do all in my power for her advancement & prosperity….

(MS. Tucker-Coleman Papers. Photostat in Department of Research and Record, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated)

EWELL SEEKS ASSISTANCE FROM GRANT

That President Ewell, in his campaign to raise funds for the college, did not hesitate to appeal for aid to erstwhile opponents of the Confederacy is apparent from this letter, written to him on February 8, 1866, by Adam Badeau, military secretary to General Grant and a close friend of the Union commander-in-chief until the latter's death in 1885:

Lieut. Gen. Grant directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of Jany 27^th, relative to the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, Va., and to say that he takes a decided interest in the Success of any educational enterprize or institution in the South, in which the principles of loyalty to the government, and devotion to the unity and prosperity of the entire country, are inculcated… (MS. Tucker-Coleman Papers. Photostat in Department of Research and Record of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated).

NORTHERN GIFTS TO BUILDING FUND
OTHER DONORS CONTRIBUTE BOOKS

It is probable that the approval of so distinguished a Yankee as the victorious general-in-chief of the Union armies, conditional though it was, gained friends and supporters for President Ewell and his cause in the North. Contributions to the building fund, at any rate, were eventually received 75 from a number of wealthy and influential persons there. Among the subscribers were Alexander T. Stewart, a great merchant who later became President Grant's secretary of the treasury; William Earl Dodge, of Phelps, Dodge and Company, for two generations foremost among dealers in copper and other metals; August Belmont, banker, diplomat and patron of art, and Robert Bonner, newspaper publisher and famous turfman, all of them of New York. In Washington the college found a supporter in William Wilson Corcoran, the banker-philanthropist whose gifts of money and works of art launched the famous art gallery which bears his name. A number of publishing houses also made contributions of books—D. Appleton and Company, Scribner and Comes, Harper and Brothers, D. Van Nostrand. Van Evrie and Horton and A. S. Barnes of New York; Lippincott of Philadelphia; Brown, Little and Company of Boston, and J. Murphy and Company of Baltimore. Books also came from donors overseas; John R. Thompson, formerly editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, who was then in England, made donations to the library, as did the Earl of Darby, the celebrated Murray Publishers of London and Robert Potts of Trinity College, Cambridge, as was mentioned in the excerpt from the Annual Report on p. 73.

PLEAS FOR RESTORATION OF COLLEGE BUILDINGS

At a meeting of the citizens of Williamsburg and of James City County held on the 10th of June, 1867, an eloquent plea was made for the rebuilding of the college buildings. This was followed on July 1 by the statement quoted below, which President Ewell made in his annual report to the board of visitors:

…Respecting the future of the College it may be safely asserted that nothing worthy its name or history can be 76 done until its Buildings are restored. Although a considerable sum has been expended in advertising an impression prevails to a great extent that the College is closed. This will continue to be the case so long as the main building is in ruins. The best interests of the Institution require that the work of rebuilding be begun without delay… This done the future is secure… Building material is in some respects cheaper now in currency than it was in gold in 1860. A complete restoration of the Main Building can be effected for less than twenty thousand Dollars. If you conclude to authorise the Faculty to begin to rebuild the work ought not to be pressed as it was in 1859: nor ought it to be given out by general contract. It is in any opinion cheaper and better to procure the material; thus securing its quality; and to make partial contracts whenever practicable; and when this cannot be done to hire by the day. As to the general plan advice and specifications can be obtained gratis from competent Architects sufficient to enable any one of ordinary intelligence to direct its execution. Respecting the walls they are pronounced by a good master bricklayer to be less injured than they were by the fire of 1859. It would be advisable, it is thought to take down the towers as there are some serious cracks in their comparatively thin walls. This is not to be regretted for they were not of the slightest use and were not ornamental. Moreover the bricks now very costly will be needed in other parts of the Building.(MSS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879).

MONEY APPROPRIATED AND ARCHITECT APPOINTED FOR REBUILDING
CHANGES PROPOSED BY PLANS OF ARCHITECT

On July 3, 1867, the visitors met and appropriated ten thousand dollars to commence the rehabilitation of the Wren Building. They further authorized the appointment of a building committee and the employment of an architect to plan and superintend the work. The building committee was duly chosen and it selected Colonel Alfred L. Rives of Richmond as architect. Rives apparently prepared his plans with expedition for they were completed before the following letter was written by Ewell to Dr. Hugh Blair Grigsby on September 18, 1867:

Enclosed are Col Rives' Plans, There was not time to get you here to see him & he is so sickly it is well to wait. I also send his letter. The Committee approve, with your consent, the cheaper, 2^nd story plan. Nothing final until you are heard from. The 3^rd story is not wanted, & would cost 5000 Dol^s more. The plan marked (1) is good looking enough, 77 & will give all we need. I have endeavoured on next leaf to give an idea of his alterations - 1^st Library & Chapel together- former 2 stories high- next verandah in the rear, & all outside doors bricked up & closed as far as possible. From passage, & verandah every room in the building can be reached without going out of doors. He proposes to put a new entrance to North wing, South side- with a Pediment. This is to secure entrance under shelter. Upstairs there will be one Lecture room 2 Society Halls- one Study- 2 Libraries for Halls- & College Library continued- The Chapel Platform is to be transferred to west end where it ought to be- I think. Col Rives thinks he can put a cupola on the roof without much spoiling the effect. The town he condemns outright & so with the Committee here. Write what you think of the general plan. Later in the season we can meet & discuss details.

1868

REPORT OF BUILDING COMMITTEE
DISCUSSION OF PLANS MADE BY COL. RIVES
REASONS FOR SLOWING UP OF WORK
NORTH WING PARTLY FINISHED
ROOMS FOR PHYSICAL SCIENCES NEARLY READY

The building committee made the following progress report to the visitors on July 3, 1868:

Early in July last the Building Committee appointed by you at your convocation of July 3^d 1867 met organized elected Colonel Alfred L Rives Architect and took other necessary steps for commencing to rebuild the main College Edifice. In August a general plan was presented and approved & contracts for material ordered…The plan & elevation^* accompany this report. The Building is so divided as to furnish eight commodious Lecture Rooms; a working chemical Laboratory; two spacious rooms for Society Halls; one office; a suitable & large Library Room; and the time honored consecrated Chapel.

The almost unprecedented unhealthiness of last summer continuing till late in the Fall; the backwardness of this Spring; the failure of the Contractor to furnish lumber; and the quantity of brick work so much greater than was anticipated, combined to protract the work, The principal part is now done… There are materials enough on the ground or contracted & for the most part paid for to finish in a substantial manner the brick work, flooring, 78 roof and windows;

The Committee authorized me (President Ewell] to complete the North wing provided we could get the means without embarrassing the College Funds or expending an undue proportion of the sum, 10,000 Dollars ordered by you to be appropriated for restoring the Main Building. This has been partly accomplished & in no way thereby has the progress or extent of the work on other parts been interfered with.

Fit rooms for the Philosophical & Chemical apparatus which has been injured for want of a proper place to put it in are now nearly ready…

(William and Mary College Papers, Folder 52A, MS.)

1869
BUILDING ONE MONTH FROM COMPLETION ON JULY 3

Just a year from the date of the previous meeting the building committee met with the board of visitors again and made this statement concerning the construction progress:

The appropriation of 10,000 Dolls ordered by you in July 1867 for building purposes was entirely exhausted by August 1868; when it became a question what course to pursue—whether to continue the work on the authority it was thought you had indirectly given, or to suspend entirely. The committee decided to adopt the former course.

In this decision all of your Body there was an opportunity of consulting, concurred; with the advice to borrow money if necessary. The Main College Edifice is now essentially finished, and can, in four weeks time, be fully prepared for students…

(MS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879).

CONSTRUCTION COST EXCEEDS EXPECTATION
FURTHER DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW BUILDINGS
OTHER STRUCTURES ALSO NEED REPAIR

At this point in the report appears an itemized account of expenditures for materials and construction work. The sum of the subscriptions received since 1868 is given as $4,839.00. The report then continues as follows:

The Committee feel that the cost of reconstruction is greater than was expected. The original estimate of the Architect Col. Alfred L. Rives, whose taste, skill and judgment the Committee gratefully acknowledged, was 15,000 Dolls. This was soon increased to 17,000 Dolls.

The cost of fitting up the Library, which he supposed would require about 2,000 Dolls, and the Chemical and Philosophical Rooms; and supplying furniture were not included owing to the fact that some of the walls 79 supposed to be safe were found not to be so the quantity of brick work was double what was estimated for. Not less than 400,000 were laid. Indeed it is next to impossible to estimate, with any accuracy the cost of repairing and restoring old work.

As now divided the first story of the Building contains three large lecture rooms, the old Corridor, and a Library 40 by 28 feet with a Pitch of 30 feet.

The second Story contains two good Lecture rooms and two Society Halls. The Chapel is, as formerly, in the South wing, and communicates with the Library by a large arched doorway 15 by 18 feet. The basement of the North Wing is divided into a working Chemical Laboratory and a Lecture room; and in the upper part of this wing are the lecture and apparatus rooms for Chemistry and Natural Philosophy.

The Committee think the expenditures on the Library room judicious; the surest mode of securing a good Library being to have good accommodations…

The Committee think further that an outlay of 2 or 3 hundred Dolls on the President's House and the College Hotel is necessary. They recommend that the Brafferton be repaired for a Professor's residence, as it was before the war, and that a suitable house for the Grammar and Matty school be erected on the Palace Lot when practicable.

(MS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879).

A PAUSE FOR REFRESHMENT

If it serves no purpose other than to divert it may still be worthwhile to interrupt our chronological parade of quotations relating to the third reconstruction of the Wren Building to bring the reader an excerpt from a letter written by Benjamin Ewell from New York City on January 4, 1868, to Mrs. L. S. E. Scott, a friend, apparently, back home in Williamsburg. The excerpt reveals the existence of a rather rustic state of affairs at the college:

My Dear Lizzy…I am glad Beverly has succeeded so well with the ice house… The College cellar ought to be left open in cold weather for the cattle but shut at night … (William and Mary College Papers, Folder 100, MS.)

It is quite likely that the ruminants, great philosophers as they are reputed to be, appreciated not only the warmth of the cellar on a bleak day, but also the opportunity "to rub their backs on the college walls," as certain students in later years were wont to describe the nature of the contact they had with learning at the college.

FALL SESSION OF COLLEGE TO OPEN ON OCTOBER 13
CONDITION OF LIBRARY COLLECTION

The opening date of the first session of the college in which the new building was used was announced by an (unidentified) newspaper on August 11, 1869:

WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.—This ancient seminary of learning… has again opened its halls for the reception of students, and will resume its session on the second Wednesday, (13^th) of October…

Its Library, which, notwithstanding its many losses, still numbers nearly five thousand volumes, comprises some of the most valuable and rarest works, many being the gift of some of the dignitaries of the past century, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Govs. Spotswood, Dinwiddie, and Botetourt and others again by Louis the Sixteenth of France.

(From a newspaper clipping in the William and Mary College Papers, Folder 19).

SESSION OPENS; LECTURE ROOMS ASSIGNED

The session opened as scheduled:

The first meeting of the Faculty as organized was held on the 13^th of October [186⁹], in the College Library… Lecture rooms were assigned to the various professors… It was determined that the daily Exercises should begin at 9 o'clk A.M.-It was decided that the attendance of the students on prayers should not be compulsory… (MS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1879).

1870
EWELL REPORTS COMPLETION OF BUILDING

COST OF RECONSTRUCTION
REMARKS ABOUT BRAFFERTON AND MATTY SCHOOL

With the following statement made by President Ewell to the visitors on July 4, 1870, the story of the restoration of the building, destroyed by the passions of wax, is ended:

The Committee appointed by you in 1867 to direct the reconstruction of the Main College Building report that they have completed their work. Comparatively 81 little has been done since the last report was presented. Plastering and finishing work of carpenters comprise nearly the whole. The estimate of the total cost contained in the report of July 1869 was about one thousand Dollars too small. In other respects the estimates and expenditures given in that report are essentially correct. The actual cost of the Building may be set down at $21,000 and of contingent expenses at $2,500. This includes the purchase of furniture… The Committee think it important that the enclosure of the College grounds be completed; and they fully concur in the recommendations of the Faculty respecting the Brafferton and the School House for the Grammar and Matty Department.^*

In conclusion, the Committee give it as their opinion that a sufficient and substantial Building has been erected, under some difficulties, at a moderate cost….

FOURTH BUILDING REMAINED LARGELY UNCHANGED DOWN TO OUR DAY

The fourth building, officially designated as completed in 1870 was, as we have said, the building which existed at the time the restoration of the structure to its second state was under taken by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1928. In its lifetime of about sixty years certain changes took place in it, but, in respect to its general external character and its internal arrangements, it came down to us pretty much as it was in President Ewell's day.

BUILDING TWO-STORIED WITH THREE-ARCHED EAST PORTICO

This building, as is seen in the photograph and drawing of it on the next page, was, like the two-towered edifice which immediately preceded it (p. 63), two-storied. The roof pitch (about 25°) was too low to permit the attic to serve as a third 82 THE FOURTH FORM OF THE BUILDING
Photo of East Facade Made About 1928 Design of Alfred L. Rives for East Facade

The Fourth Building, built between 1867 and 1869 to replace the edifice destroyed by incendiarism in 1862, was the design of Alfred L. Rives, a Richmond architect. This building stood, relatively little unchanged, until 1928 when, in the course of the restoration of the structure to its second form, those elements were removed which did not stem from the eighteenth century.

It will be noted from a comparison of Rives' drawing of the east elevation with the elevation as built, that the building was executed pretty much as the architect conceived it. One modification of the design of the main front was the substitution in the story over the entrance portico of three similar windows with segmental-arched heads for the tripartite central window flanked by normal windows with horizontal lintels, which Rives shows in his drawing.47

LIBRARY TWO-STORIED IN FOURTH BUILDING

The most radical departure in the fourth building from the interior arrangements found in its predecessors was, perhaps, in the location and character of the library. In the second building, at least after Millington's alterations to the north wing, the library was located in the second story of that wing and was reached from an outside entrance in its south wall (p. 46). In the short-lived third building it was moved to the first floor of the south end of the main wing (p. 64). In the fourth building it was once more located in that part of the structure and its area 40 x 28 feet (p. 79) was more or less that of the room which preceded it. But its height was 30 feet, meaning that this room now ran through two stories. The neighboring drawing, from the November, Drawing of Library of Fourth Building which appeared in Scribner's Monthly in 1875. The room was two-storied with a balcony running along the outside wall (whether the south or the east wall is uncertain) which gave access to stacks placed at right angles to it. 84 1875 issue of Scribner's Monthly, purports to show the library as it was during this period.

LIBRARY AND CHAPEL JOINED BY ARCHWAY

Another interesting feature of this library room was the fact that it communicated by means of a large arched opening with the Chapel adjoining it on the west. Folding doors separated these two spaces but these could be drawn aside to convert them into a single room. This elongated space served the college as an auditorium for convocations and public meetings in the days before the Phi Beta Kappa Hall was erected. The altar at this time was, of necessity, placed at the west end of the Chapel, against the arched entrance which was bricked up, as were the two oval windows.

LIBRARY SPACE CONVERTED TO OTHER USES AFTER 1909
ENTRANCE TO CHAPEL FROM COURT

The library did not continue in this situation throughout the life of the fourth building. In 1909 when the present library building was completed and set in operation the space in the south end of the main building, occupied until that time by the library, was put to other uses. The two-story height of the former library was cut down by the insertion of a floor to the normal floor height of the first story thereby adding a corner room to the second story. On the first floor a partition was run across the west end of the former library space, separating this from the Chapel and giving the latter a separate entrance. (See plan, p. 88) The entrance to the Chapel from the outside during the lifetime of the fourth building was a doorway in its north wall. This is visible in an old photograph of the Chapel interior shown on the following page along with two other views of the building.

WEST SIDE OF FOURTH WREN BUILDING BEFORE RESTORATION OF 1928. THE BRICKED-UP DOORWAYS AND WINDOWS OF WINGS AND CLOSED ARCHWAYS OF WEST PORTICO ARE VISIBLE

AT RIGHT—PHOTO OF CHAPEL INTERIOR TAKEN, PROBABLY, BETWEEN 1890 AND 1910. THE VIEW SHOWS THE WEST END WITH ITS SUPERIMPOSED ARCH. THE OLD ARCHED DOORWAY AND THREE CIRCULAR WINDOWS HAVE BEEN BLANKED OUT. THE PHOTO BELOW IS THE SAME VIEW MADE DURING THE RESTORATION OF 1928.

THE POSITION OF THE DECORATIVE ARCH IS VISIBLE AS WELL AS THE BRICKED-UP DOOR AND WINDOWS. THE FLOOR-LEVEL WALLS RUNNING LONGITUDINALLY WERE FOR THE SUPPORT OF FLOOR BEAMS. IN THE UPPER PICTURE THE ARCHWAY AT THE EXTREME RIGHT WHICH, IT WILL BE OBSERVED, EXTENDS TO THE FLOOR, CONTAINS THE ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL FROM THE COURT.

WHAT EWELL MEANT BY "PASSAGE AND VERANDAH"

In his letter to Hugh Blair Grigsby (pp. 76, 77) President Ewell stated that "From passage and verandah every room in the building can be reached without going out of doors." In eighteenth-century Virginia the "passage" of a typical house meant the hallway which ran through it from front to rear. We are justified in assuming that this usage had persisted down to Ewell's time and that he refers, in the above quotation, to the hallway which on the main floor ran through the building, connecting the east entrance with what is now the arcade.

SOUTHMOST ARCHWAY OF FORMER WEST PORTICO, AS IT APPEARED IN FOURTH BUILDING, WITH WINDOW AND INFILL OF-BRICK. THE DIAGONAL LINE, UPPER LEFT, DIVIDES A REMNANT OF OLD WALL AT THE RIGHT FROM NEW BRICKWORK. THIS STEMMED FROM THE RECONSTRUCTION AFTER THE FIRE OF 1859 OR THAT OF 1862 WHEN THE WEST WALL, CONSIDERED UNSAFE, WAS IN LARGE PART REBUILT. (SEE ALSO ILL., P. 85).

ARCADE CLOSED 0FF IN FOURTH BUILDING

In the fourth building the arcade was closed off from the outside by filling in each of the lateral arches with a brickwork screen in which a window was inserted. The central archway, also closed off, was provided with a pair of doors.

"VERANDAH" MAY HAVE BEEN ARCADE

The use of the word "verandah," in Ewell's day, was not confined to the type of covered porch found on dwelling houses today. Swell might well have called the arcade a "verandah," even though 87 this was then closed up, since many types of porch at that period, even arcades of masonry, were known as verandas.

WAS THERE, IN ADDITION A WOOD PORCH?

This leaves one point unexplained, viz., how one reached the first floor of the Great Hall "without going out of doors," for, if the measured plan of the fourth building (p. 88) represents the structure, in this particular, as it was when Ewell wrote, one would have had to go out of doors (or, at least, to the basement and up again) to get into the Great Hall wing, since there was no door into it from the arcade, as there is today.

SUCH A PORCH MAY ONCE HAVE EXISTED

The third building (if one may follow Exall's plan, p. 58) had a wooden veranda or porch running the length of the west side of the main part of the building and continuing westward along the court sides of the two wings to a point a little beyond their centers. The presence of such a porch on the fourth building would have made it possible to pass, under cover, from the arcade to the court entrances of both wings. There is no evidence, however, that such a porch ever existed. It is possible, if Ewell referred to such a porch in using the term "verandah," that this, although projected, was never built. It might have been built, on the other hand, and later have been removed, say, at the time, 1909, when considerable changes were made to the structure after the opening of the new library.

MUCH OLD BRICKWORK PRESERVED IN WALLS IN SPITE OF ALTERATIONS

As we have seen, in the construction of the fourth building as in the erection of the third and second structures before it, the old walls were retained. The damage caused by three successive fires, however, had necessitated much patching of the old 87a VIEW OF THE COLLEGE CAMPUS LOOKING NORTH. POSSIBLY FROM A WINDOW OF "OLD TALIAFERRO" (THE PRESENT FINE ARTS BUILDING). THE PICTURE, TAKEN IN THE LATE '80S OR EARLY '90S, SHOWS, ALONG WITH THE FOURTH BUILDING AND THE BRAFFERTON (RIGHT), THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE WITH ITS NINETEENTH-CENTURY PORCH. ATTACHED TO THE WEST SIDE Of THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE IS A TWO-STORY STRUCTURE (NOW DEMOLISHED) WHICH HOUSED A KITCHEN ON ITS FIRST FIR AND STUDENT ROOMS ABOVE THIS. SEE ENLARGED VIEW, P. 110. IT MUST HAVE BEEN SOW SPECIAL OCCASION WHICH BROUGHT ALL THE STUDENTS TO THE CAMPUS IN THEIR SUNDAY BEST. FEMALE STUDENTS (YOUNG LADIES:) ARE CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT, SINCE THIS WAS BEFORE THE DAY OF CO-EDUCATION AT WILLIAM AND MARY. (PHOTO COURTESY OF A. DREWRY JONES). walls and in one area, at least, the extensive replacement of the old work by new brick. The latter case was the tearing down of most of the west (court) wall of the main structure and the rebuilding of this with new brick, when after the fire of 1859 or that of 1862 (which of the two is uncertain) the wall appeared unstable. Furthermore, changes had been made deliberately by one architect or another, such as the erection of the twin towers in the third building; the division of the north wing into two stories in the second building, which necessitated the replacement of the round-headed windows of the Great Hall by two rows of windows with horizontal lintels, etc., 88 FOURTH WREN BUILDING — FIRST FLOOR PLAN The plan shown here is copied from a measured drawing made of the building in 1928, just prior to the beginning of its restoration. It will be noted that the arcade at the rear of the main part of the structure has been closed off by screens of brick with windows inserted in them. The chapel can be reached directly from the outside as well as from the arcade-passage. The only means of access to the first floor rooms of the north wing seems to be through the door opening upon the court. We have noted that when the fourth building was first built the chapel and southeast room (library) were separated only by a movable screen, which could be drawn aside so that the two rooms formed a single large apace. At the tine the above plan was made a fixed partition forming a vestibule adjacent to the chapel separated the latter from the front room. 89 and these alterations had, of course, affected the old brickwork to a greater or less degree. Nevertheless, in spite of the alterations resulting from accident and design and the deterioration caused by time over a period of more than two centuries, the walls of the fourth building were, in 1928, still preponderantly of eighteenth-century brickwork. And the building as a whole retained much of the aspect of age (See old photo, following page).

THE WALLS OF THE FOURTH BUILDING; THEIR RELATIVE THICKNESS

A brief consideration of the walls of the fourth building as they are revealed in the measured section drawings made as the building was being restored will yield some facts of interest. The plate on p. 92 shows sections through the east and west walls of the main structure and through a wall of each of the wings. Except for the Chapel wall, which is uniformly about 2'-9" in thickness for its full height above the basement wall, the walls diminish in width from floor to floor as they rise upward from the basement. The latter walls are all three feet wide, more or less and the first floor walls are approximately 2'-6" in thickness. The third story wall of the west front is 1'-8" thick, which is about 4" less than the thickness of the corresponding wall of the main east front. This is due to the fact, probably, that the west wall was torn down and rebuilt at a time (after the middle of the nineteenth century) when brick walls were being made somewhat thinner.

WREN WALLS COMPARED WITH MODERN BUILDING CODE REQUIREMENTS

The heavy walls of the Wren Building were built for the ages and it accounts for the fact that they survived in fair condition so many disasters. Brick bearing walls today are much less monumental. The New York City building code, for example, which is followed as a standard for safe and sound construction by many cities 90 FOURTH BUILDING, FROM PHOTO OF 1870'S. 91 of the country, requires of a building that rises to a height of 75 feet (about seven stories) that an exterior bearing wall of brick be 16 inches thick for the first 20 feet of its height and 12 inches thereafter. In comparing these requirements with the standard which the builders of the first Wren Building set for themselves, we should also remember that the yard-thick basement walls of the latter building carried walls which, if the first building was, as Michel indicates it, three stories high above the basement, were only about 55 feet high. (The entire height of the highest wall of the fourth building was about 41'-6".)

FLOOR LEVELS VARIED IN FOURTH AND ORIGINAL BUILDINGS

It will be noted from a comparison of the set-backs at the top of the basement walls of the fourth building that the floor heights of the wings were lower than that of the first floor of the main structure. In considering the position of the finished floor in relation to the height of the set-back, something over a foot should be reckoned as the thickness of the floor construction. We find, then, that the floor level in the Great Hall, which we take to have been similar originally to the present one, was lower than the floor of the main building try about two feet so that steps would have been required between the two parts of the building. The original floor level in the Chapel, which could be determined from holes left in the brickwork by the wood floor beams (see photo, p. 85), was lower than the floor found in place and over three feet lower than the main floor level. This comparison of relative floor heights is based upon the assumption, believed to be correct, that the first floor level of the building has remained the same throughout the life of the building. It should be added, however, that the relation 92 WALL SECTIONS
FOURTH BUILDING 93 of this floor level to the surrounding ground has changed from the time of the first building since the grade level was raised some three feet by Governor Spotswood after the fire of 1705.

THE LEAN YEARS AFTER THE WAR

Though its future, with the main building once more restored and in use, may have appeared bright, the college was to live a hand-to-mouth existence for nearly two decades. To the devoted Benjamin Ewell goes the chief credit for preserving the venerable institution during the trying times of reconstruction and readjustment which followed the Civil War.

A STUDENT'S DESCRIPTION OF LIVING CONDITIONS AT THE COLLEGE

Let us turn for a moment from our examination of the official college records to allow a resident student to tell us something of living conditions at the college just after the new building was completed:

At William and Mary—1870-1873
…The session then commenced late in October… On arriving, the first thing to attract my attention was that the College was draped in mourning for General Lee, who had died on October 12th… I roomed at the College Hotel, afterwards called the Ewell building and recently torn down. My room was in the third story, with dormer windows on the south; and one window on the east looking down the Jamestown road to Williamsburg… We had nothing but wood fires and kerosene lamps… Most of the students were so poor that they carried their own wood and water to their rooms… The boarding house was run by Mrs. Waller.. and our bill of fare, though limited in variety was substantial and well served. Fish and oysters were abundant then… and game was abundant… (Annals and Reminiscences of an Octogenarian by Robert M. Hughes, February, 1936, pp. 22 and 35. Typed MS., William and Mary College Papers, Folder 124).

FACULTY RESOLVES TO PRESS THE CLAIM FOR INDEMNITY

The coming of peace found the college in a straitened financial condition since its resources, invested in now worthless Confederate securities, had in large part been wiped out. The new building was built, apparently, in great part by money derived 94 THE ROOM IN THE WREN BUILDING SAID TO HAVE BEEN OCCUPIED BY JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE, WHO ATTENDED THE COLLEGE IN 1792-93. THE DRAWING APPEARED IN FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER ON AUGUST 17, 1866. IF IT WAS MADE IN 1866 A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF RE-CREATIVE IMAGINATION MUST HAVE GONE INTO IT FOR THE BUILDING STOOD AT THAT TIME A BURNT-OUT SHELL OF BRICKWORK. LESLIE'S MAYS ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE REPRODUCED AN OLD SKETCH MADE OF A ROOM OF THE SECOND BUILDING, WHICH HAD DORMITORY ROOMS. DOUBTLESS TRADITION WOULD HAVE INDICATED THE ROOM ONCE OCCUPIED BY RANDOLPH LONG AFTER THE TALENTED ECCENTRIC HAD DEPARTED. from gifts. Under the circumstances it was natural that the faculty should press its claims for damages caused by the firing of the building by Federal troops in 1862 (see p. 72). The following resolution, accordingly, was passed at a faculty meeting held March 7, 1870:

The interest of the College [illegible] that its claim on the U. S. Gov^mt—for damages to the buildings & other property during the war should be pressed… The President 95 of the College be requested to proceed at once to Richmond & Washington cities on this business… (MS. Faculty Minutes, 1846-1899.)

WISE AGREES TO PETITION CONGRESS FOR REPARATION

Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia, at a meeting held in the College library on July 22, 1870 offered to use his influence to induce Congress to indemnify the college. He reported as follows to the rector, faculty and visitors:

At a meeting of the Alumni, held at the College chapel, on the 6^th inst, when the ways and means of restoring the college and enlarging its endowments were under consideration; I volunteered to undertake to engage influences in behalf of those objects, and especially to endeavor to procure an appropriation by the Congress of the United States to pay for the building and other property of the College destroyed by the War. I promised to address myself, on my own responsibility to the Hon. B. L. [sic] Butler^* of the Howe of Representatives… (MS. Visitors Minutes, July 22, 1870)

1871
BUTLER WRITES THAT CLAIM HAS FAILED OF PASSAGE

Governor Wise, apparently, fulfilled his promise to bring the matter to Butler's attention for the latter wrote the following letter to him from Washington on April 23, 1871:

I am sorry to announce to you that the claim of William & Mary College for destruction during the war has failed, so far from getting through Congress; but I have no doubt that it will pass. It has received the nearly unanimous seport [support] of the Committee on Education and Labor, of which my Colleague, Mr. Hoar, is chairman, and in the coming session I think your college will be successful in the Matter of the accidental or certainly causeless destruction of an Educational institution (Tucker-Coleman Collection in the possession of Mrs. George P. Coleman, Williamsburg)

1872
COLLEGE CLAIM NOT ACTED ON BY CONGRESS UNTIL 1893

On January 24, 1872 Benjamin Ewell appeared in person before Committee of Education and Labor of the House of Representatives to present his estimate of the wartime damages to the buildings of the college and to make a direct appeal for a government 96 appropriation to repay these losses. His efforts, however, were of no avail and the matter dragged on and on for over twenty years before it received the favorable consideration of Congress. In 1893, several years after the college had become a state institution, it was finally, by an act of Congress, indemnified for the losses suffered during the Civil War. At this point we will hark back and see how the college fared during those two decades of waiting for the lawmakers to act.

THE COLLEGE LANGUISHES FOR TWO DECADES
PROGRESSIVE DECLINE RECORDED IN COLLEGE DOCUMENTS

No spectacular event occurred to rock the tranquility of the college in the eighteen years between the completion of the fourth building (1869) and the passage by the Virginia General Assembly in 1887 of the act making the college a state institution, but this tranquility betokened creeping decay and disintegration. The progress of this decline can be read in the falling off in student enrollment. The student body had numbered 61 in 1867; by 1878 it had dropped to 35; in 1881 only 12 students were registered, while in the following year the number had dwindled to three. The progressively deteriorating state of affairs is reflected in successive reports made by the faculty to the board of visitors:

1875
SHORTAGE OF FUNDS; THREE REMEDIES SUGGESTED

The difficulty of providing funds to meet the current expenditures of the College is so great… the Faculty think it expedient and necessary to confer with you on the subject… The salaries of the Professors have been but partially paid… It is believed that the College is economically administered, and that it cannot be sustained on its present footing with a less amount than that of the present annual expenditure. Without same relief the embarrassments will become more, and more, serious. The Faculty have three remedies to suggest: First. The suspension, for the present, of the College Exercises, until the debts are paid… Second To diminish the number of Professors, thus changing the College to an advanced Academy… Third to authorize the Faculty to borrow money… (Report of the Faculty to the Board of Visitors—May 17, 1875).

1877
NEED FOR INCREASE IN COLLEGE ENDOWMENT

…the funds of the College have been reduced to $45000, of which a large part yields now no interest; that the income of the College now does not exceed $2300 per annum; that unless the College endowment can be increased very much, it will be the duty of the Visitors to expend the little that remains in keeping up the College, or suspend the lectures entirely… Either of these alternatives will in our opinion be fatal to the College… (MS. Visitors Minutes. Report of a meeting of the Visitors in Richmond, May 25, 1877).

1878
STUDENT ENROLLMENT REDUCED TO THIRTY-FIVE

In the present state of the college affairs, it is no pleasant task to make to you the annual report of the Faculty… Nothing encouraging can be told. Including the fifteen preparatory scholars, the number of students is but thirty-five; less by three than that of last session… The want of money is, without doubt, the chief trouble … (Report of President Ewell to Board of Visitors, June 12, 1878).

1879
EWELL OPPOSES MOVING COLLEGE

…Notwithstanding these disappointments, my opinions in relation to the expediency of moving the College have undergone no change. If moved, property (it would require not less than 80,000 dollars to replace, elsewhere) will be abandoned and virtually lost… (Report and Address of President Benjamin S. Ewell to the Board of Visitors, April 18, 1879).

1881
FACULTY DETERMINED TO CONTINUE EXERCISES

…Respecting the policy of keeping the College open, in spite of adverse circumstances, the opinions of the Faculty have undergone no change. Now, in view of the rapidly approaching Yorktown Centennial, proof of the continued vitality of the College, ought to be given… (Report of President Ewell to Board of Visitors, July 1, 1881).

1882
CONTROL OF COLLEGE BY STATE CONSIDERED

Just before the termination of the regular Session of the Legislature, it was intimated to me that if an offer was made to give the State control of the College on condition of its being endowed and established as the State Normal School it would be received with favor… The condition of the College is such as to require some action. It is at a lower ebb than it has been since 1786… It has but three, bona fide, Students, & one or two primary scholars. Its Faculty has but two Professors… (Report of President Ewell to Board of Visitors, no date, 1882).

1883
THE COLLEGE CLOSED; VISITORS BAN USE OF ROOM AS ARMORY

…Resolved—That in the opinion of the Visitors, it is desireable to use the buildings and grounds of William & Mary College only for Collegiate and literary purposes. The following preamble and Resolution was offered by Co^l W^m Lamb and adopted—Whereas the Wise Light Infantry a volunteer militia Company of the City of Williamsburg, originally composed to a considerable extent of students 98 of the College are now using a lecture room as their Armory, and it has come to the knowledge of this Board that the use of the College building may effect the insurance on the same

Therefore Be it Resolved that the President be requested to inform the Company, that they must remove their Armory, and that for the present they be allowed to use a room in the Brafferton House for the purpose of an Armory, provided that the President obtain from the underwriters permission for such occupancy and use.

(MS. Visitors Minutes, p. 231. Meeting held in Richmond, December 13, 1583).

THE COLLEGE SUCCUMBED TO ITS MANY DIFFICULTIES

It is evident from the above that the college at this time was no longer functioning as an educational institution. The difficulties against which President Ewell and his handful of colleagues had struggled for over a decade and a half had finally proved insurmountable and they had been compelled, with extreme reluctance, no doubt, to close its doors and await more favorable times.^* The college was to stand silent and lifeless for several years. Mrs. Daniel Coil Gilman, who visited Williamsburg in 1887, gives the following picture of the town and the college as she found it at that time:

1887
MRS. GILMAN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN AND COLLEGE

…we ascended once more with care into our carriage and drove all about the little town. It used to be the centre of an elegant wealthy country aristocracy living freely in a handsome way in their fine old houses and everywhere are signs of the former life and elegance all gone to decay. Imagine many of the houses finer than any of the Stratford houses, but instead of that air of decorous well kept respectability everything ruined and out of repair. The streets a foot deep in dust and worn in holes and ruts. Many of the old houses shut up and going to decay - others with rotting gate posts and broken chimneys and hanging shutters, still occupied by the last lingering relics of the old families who once lived in gay state and splendor.

BRUTON CHURCH AND ITS YARD FILLED WITH TOMBSTONES

The old colonial church covered with beautiful ivy is still opened every other Sunday for service and inside has been 99 A VIEW OF THE EAST FRONT OF THE FOURTH BUILDING WITH BOTETOURT'S STATUE IN THE FOREGROUND. FROM A WOODCUT BY C. UPHAM WHICH WAS REPRODUCED IN THE MARCH 19, 1887 ISSUE OF FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER. tastelessly renovated. It contains the font in which Pocahontas is said to have been baptized and various old tablets on the wall attest to the learning and politeness of many worthies of the early part of the last century. One of them was so very worthy and polite that we are told that the Governor of the Province and various other officials stood in "teares" when he was committed to the tomb. Outside the walls are disintegrating fast tho' the splendid old masonry will hold awhile longer. The church stands in an English churchyard full of beautiful tombs all dropping 100 to pieces. Some of them go back over two hundred years

SILENCE AND DESOLATION REIGN AT THE COLLEGE

…The trees and the grass grow thick there and the roses here and in every door yard of the place simply run riot. Every mouldering old chimney had its ivy and its ambitious rose bush clambering after it and every old fence was borne down with vines and shrubs and roses and cyringas. The air was heavy with fragrance. We drove to the college grounds. Here too all was silence and desolation. The grass grows high and the trees are neglected enough…

EWELL, ALONE, KEEPS ACTIVE MEMORY OF WILLIAM AND MARY

The next day she [a Mrs. Scott] and her father came in and showed us some of the antiquities of the place [the college] and opened the old buildings and showed us the dusty old books and pictures. It is a most pathetic place, full of the past with no present but one of dreary decay, and no future. The poor old college has been burnt several times, has grown poorer and poorer until it could no longer support a faculty, so the students have gone and Colonel Ewell, the last President, is left alone. Once a year he rings the bell to let the world know that old William and Mary still is ready to do its part in the education of youth. The rest of his time he gives to hopeless efforts to rouse once more the dead and gone public interest. The public has long ago forgotten all about poor old William and Mary and the cows are grazing peacefully in the playgrounds and the old walls are crumbling away and when the old Colonel goes, I suppose all traces of the place will gradually disappear. It seems as if it ought to be kept as a historic monument, if nothing else, being associated with Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Tyler, Marshall and others. (From a typescript entitled A Visit to Williamsburg in 1887/Extracts from letters written to her sisters by Mrs. Daniel Coil Gilman. This is in the files of the Department of Research and Record, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated).

1888
LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL REORGANIZING COLLEGE AND PROVIDING MONETARY AID
NEW COURSE FOR TRAINING OF TEACHERS ADDED TO CURRICULUM
GOVERNOR EMPOWERED TO APPOINT TEN VISITORS
A PRESIDENT & PROFESSORS ARE ELECTED; THE COLLEGE REOPENED

It is possible that Mrs. Gilman's melancholy prediction that all traces of the college would in time gradually disappear would have come true if an outside agency had not intervened to prevent this. After the college had been closed for several years the board of visitors decided to suggest to the state legislature that it give the institution financial support in carrying out a plan to combine with the regular college course a system of normal education and training. This idea had long been a favorite one with President Ewell. It was received with favor by the General Assembly which 101 on March 5, 1888 passed a bill appropriating $10,000 annually for the support of William and Mary and providing for a new board of visitors, ten of whose twenty members would be appointed by the governor. The board of visitors met in May of that year and took steps to have the buildings repaired and equipped for the reception of students. A course of study was adopted and a new president, Lyon G. Tyler, and several professors were elected. The school, accordingly, reopened on October 4, 1888. The college now stood on the threshold of an new era which, continuing down to the present, was to be free of major difficulties and marked by a steady increase in student enrollment and a recovery of something approaching the old high prestige.

COLLEGE ONCE MORE A STATE INSTITUTION—A RETURN TO ITS EARLIEST STATUS

The new association of the college with the state signified the renewal of a connection which had existed from the beginning, for the General Assembly of the colony had selected its first president and board of governors and had contributed to its support. This relationship between the college and the state had been maintained until the Revolution, after which the two had drifted apart. The reunion was finally consummated when on March 7, 1906 an act was approved by the General Assembly, which put the college on the footing of a regular state institution.

EWELL, GREAT PRESIDENT & PRESERVER OF COLLEGE

It is fitting at this turning point in the life of the college to recall once more to mind the service rendered the college by one of its most devoted servants and greatest presidents, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell. It is conceivable that, had it not been for his exertions in its behalf, the "ancient" and honored institution would today exist only in memory. The story of Ewell's heroic and finally 101a PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FOURTH BUILDING with the Brafferton (left) and the President's House (right), made by David H. Anderson of Richmond in 1881. Both the Brafferton and the President's House at this time had porches on the campus side. The two-story addition to the President's House (see photo p. 87a) is visible at the west end of the latter building. PRESIDENT BENJAMIN EWELL GIVING DICTATION TO CLERK OF THE COLLEGE, BIRD in the library of the fourth building sometime in the '80s. This view shows the northwest corner of the library when the latter was a two-story room. The lower part of the large archway which intervened between the chapel and the library is seen at the left and the doorway behind Swell leads to the arcade, which was at this time enclosed. The picture above Ewell's head is a portrait by T. Kersboom of Robert Boyle, the great physicist, funds from whose estate were devoted to the establishment at the college of an Indian school, "The Brafferton" (p. 14). This portrait, presented to the college by Boyle's nephew, the third Earl of Burlington, now hangs in the Blue Room of the Wren Building. 102 successful battle against great odds to maintain the college is succinctly told by Armistead Churchill Gordon, Jr., in his "life" of Ewell in the Dictionary of American Biography, from which we quote:

A. C. GORDON'S ACCOUNT OF EWELL'S FIGHT TO MAINTAIN INSTITUTION
EWELL'S GIFTS AND CHARACTERS

…He [Ewell] successfully opposed the projected removal of the institution to Richmond… the cost of repairs and increased operating expenses had diminished the endowment fund, efforts to raise money by subscription had failed, and in 1881 the college was again compelled to close. For seven years Colonel Ewell, unaided, husbanded its scanty revenues. He spent on the college thousands of dollars of his own money, only a pittance of which was ever repaid, kept up inclosures and buildings as best he could, and guarded the institution's charter by driving in from his farm at stated intervals to ring the bell to announce that the college still lived. In 1888 the board of visitors requested the state legislature to combine the college with the educational system of the commonwealth… and the application was successful. Ewell now declined any further active connection with the college, but was named president emeritus and held that office until his death [1894].

…He was a distinguished figure, admired alike for his mental gifts and brilliant address and for his qualities of courage, truth, fidelity, perseverance. His broadmindedness is revealed in his efforts, after Appomattox, to foster harmony between North and South. His students, who affectionately termed him "Old Buck," loved him for what were perhaps his most noticeable characteristics: his love of his fellow man, his consideration for others and his faculty of bringing out the best in those with whom he came into contact.

1928-1931
RESTORATION OF BUILDING IS UNDERTAKEN

The next major event in the architectural history of the Wren Building and one which worked a change of revolutionary effect, was the deliberate and considered act of men. As the first project in a program initiated by Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin and sponsored by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to return to their colonial appearance the old areas of the City of Williamsburg the Wren Building, or, more accurately speaking, the fourth structure on the Wren Building site, was, in 1928, taken over for 103 restoration by the Williamsburg Holding Corporation. Perry, Shaw and Hepburn of Boston were chosen architects to take charge of the work and Cleverdon, Varney and Pike of the same city were the structural engineers. A thorough archaeological investigation was made of the building prior to and in the course of its restoration. This was conducted by Prentice Duell who later incorporated his findings in a report which is reproduced in the second part of this treatment of the building.

STRUCTURE RESTORED WITH FIDELITY TO SECOND FORM

It was decided, since relatively so little was known of the first building, that it would be feasible to restore the structure to its second form, concerning which a considerable amount of documentary and pictorial evidence existed. This, together with the architectural record still legible in the structure itself, furnished the architects sufficient information to enable them to restore the exterior of the building with great fidelity to the original appearance of the second edifice. The fortuitous discovery early in 1930 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England of a copper plate of about 1740 showing the east front of the Wren Building and the structure as seen from the southwest proved an additional, invaluable aid in assuring the accuracy of the restoration, particularly of the western half of the roof of the main part of the building. A comparison of the Bodleian plate drawing, shown on the following page, of the east facade of the building and that of the Blair portrait (p. 14a) with the photograph of the building as restored (frontispiece) will indicate the extent to which the original appearance of this facade has been recaptured in its restoration.

ENLARGEMENT OF THE MAIN (EAST) FRONT OF THE SECOND WREN BUILDING AS IT IS SHOWN ON THE BODLEIAN PLATE OF ABOUT 1740.

MANY DETAILS OF INTERIOR BASED ON PRECEDENT

In the case of the interior of the building which, after the completion of the second structure, was twice burned out and then rebuilt, less positive evidence existed. The best guide which the architects had to the arrangement of rooms in the second building was Jefferson's first floor plan which, however, was made in 1771 or 1772, some half century after the completion of the second building. Many of the interior features and details as they exist at present are conjectural restorations, based more largely on the precedent of other known examples of the period and locality than on positive evidence of what existed in the building. A detailed 104a FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF THE RESTORED WREN BUILDING
The external walls in the above plan and the major internal walls and the two chimneys were existing elements which had been preserved more or less intact from the period of the second building—the form to which the structure was restored. Other internal walls were placed in the approximate locations in which Jefferson shows them on his plan (p. 27). The latter is, by the way, the only plan of the second building which has come down to us.
A comparison of the above plan with Jefferson's reveals a disparity between the two in the depth of the rooms east of the piazza or portico. Jefferson gives the depth of the end of the main part of the building as 38'-6", whereas its actual depth, by measurement, is almost 46'-0". We must conclude Jefferson to be in error by about 7 ½ feet and this would account for the relative shallowness of the east rooms in his plan. It also accounts for the difference, in the two plans, in the number of risers in the east-west runs of the main stair immediately south of the central passage.
The stairways at either end of the piazza in the present building are not shown by Jefferson and, so far as we know, did not exist in the second form of the edifice. They were placed at these points as a convenience in the use of the building and to meet the requirements of the Virginia fire laws.
The interior appointments of both the Chapel and the Great Hall are conjectural restorations based upon the precedent of eighteenth century English rooms known to have been similar in use to these. 105 discussion by Thomas T. Waterman of the interior as it was restored is included in the second part of this treatise. The far-reaching structural changes which were deemed necessary to insure for an indefinite future period the stability and fire safety of the building are discussed in a report by Herbert Cleverdon, head of the firm of engineers who carried out this work. Changes in the roof construction occasioned by the discovery of the Bodleian Plate are described in a statement made by Andrew Hepburn of the architectural firm in charge.

BUILDING REDEDICATED; LONG LIFE TO THE NOBLE OLD EDIFICE!

To bring to a close this architectural history of the Wren Building it remains only to be said that its restoration was completed in 1931 and that the rededication of the venerable structure took place with appropriate ceremonies on September 16 of that year. Since that time the Wren Building has been constantly in use and it is probable that it will continue to perform its honorable service and to grace with its hoary beauty the campus of the College of William and Mary for many generations to come.

DEBATE CONCERNING THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE DESIGN OF THE WREN BUILDING

THE QUESTION: DID WREN DESIGN THE WREN BUILDING?

The debate referred to on p. 12 concerning the validity of the attribution to Sir Christopher Wren of the authorship of the original plans of the second form of the main building of the college was carried on in the columns of the Virginia newspapers in 1946. The affirmative viewpoint, that is, that the building, as Hugh Jones puts it, was indeed "first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren" and "adapted to the Nature of the Country by the Gentlemen there…" was sustained by Oliver Lodge, an English architect who was at the time Carnegie visiting professor at William and Mary. The negative position was taken by Thomas Tileston Waterman, who had worked on the restoration of the building and who had just published his The Mansions of Virginia.

WATERMAN DISPUTES WREN'S AUTHORSHIP OF BUILDING

Waterman contends that Hugh Jones, who included the statement quoted above in his The Present State of Virginia, published in 1721, might have been mistaken about the original designer of the building since he wrote two decades after the building was built. He points out that the original scheme for the college as indicated in old documents and shown on Theodorick Bland's plat of Williamsburg in 1699 called for a square building built around an open space or quadrangle. "The quadrangle," says Waterman, "is a form easily demonstrated as contrary to Wren's taste by his own words—'if anybody will pay for a quadrangle, there is no dispute to be made; let them have a quadrangle, tho' a lame one, somewhat like a three-legged table.'" (History of the Renaissance in England by Sir Reginald Bloomfield, p. 153. Wren's remark refers to the building of the inner court of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1665). Waterman then discusses a number of buildings by Wren which have inner courts or quadrangles and dismisses them as unconvincing examples on various grounds, such as that they were merely light courts; that they represented the completion of some older plan, which Wren, contrary to his own taste, was compelled to execute, etc. Given a free hand, which he presumably had here, he would not have used the quadrangle form, according to Waterman.

LODGE ACCEPTS WREN AS DESIGNER

Professor Lodge does not accept Waterman's dismissal of the several quadrangular designs of Wren as being untypical of his planning. Lodge, who knew Wren's work well, contends that the master architect frequently chose to use the quadrangular form in his buildings and that "in that age in England it was hardly possible to think of an academical building—a college—on any other plan." 108 He also stated that the elevations of the building in question recalled to him the work of Wren. He concludes with this sound statement: "Of course, authorship is of minor importance beside 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 a weakness, almost a superstition…"

THE TWO VIEWS PUBLISHED IN RICHMOND NEWSPAPERS

(The above abridgement of the arguments of Waterman and Lodge was made on the basis of an article by the former which appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 14, 1946 and one by the latter in the same newspaper of June 30, 1946. Other articles on the subject by the same authors appeared at this period in the Times-Dispatch and the debate received rather wide attention elsewhere.)

"LITTLE GIRL'S DRAWING" OF EAST FRONT OF WREN BUILDING, MADE IN 1856, THREE YEARS BEFORE THE SECOND DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

PRELIMINARY FIRST FLOOR PLAN FOR THIRD BUILDING. Although this shows certain salient features, such as the towers and the main entrance arcade, which were executed (see perspective sketch, p. 63), the plan deviates in other respects from descriptions of the finished building.

REMINISCENCES OF PRESIDENT EWELL
By
George Preston Coleman
(Extracts from Mr. Coleman's 1942 Alumni Oration, published in the William and Mary Alumni Gazette of October, 1942)

VIEW OF PRESIDENT'S HOUSE FROM SOUTH, SHOWING TWO-STORY KITCHEN ADDITION ON WEST SIDE. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN PROBABLY, IN LATE '80S OR EARLY '90S. (SEE P. 87a).

After the Civil War, the greatly depleted Maintenance Funds were needed for the restoration of buildings which had been looted, occupied as barracks, and burned. Had it not been for the loyalty and determination of Colonel Ewell, who struggled to keep the old institution alive and which is now so thoroughly appreciated that it has become a classic, the College would have been abandoned in despair. Everyone has heard the story of the old soldier who was President of William and Mary during those difficult days, who rang the bell daily, and opened each session formally even when a handful of little barefoot boys were his only audience, so that he could boast the College had never been closed to students…

Colonel Ewell was not what one could term sociable. I have few memories of his visiting our home, but how I have squirmed and twisted as a small boy through interminable discussions and reminiscences exchanged on the roadside between him and my father. The latter was a country doctor and I used to accompany him on many of the long drives to visit his patients—long, slow drives over roads axle-deep in dust or mud, the old buggy creaking at each plodding step of our patient horse. On some wooded by-path between here and Ewell's we would 111 encounter a similar vehicle driven by the Colonel, his factotum Malachi (a colored boy a little older than I) perched beside him. Both drivers would draw to the side of the road, more for the sake of shade than for fear of obstructing any possible traffic, and the discussion of problems—past, present, and to come—would go on over the heads of the two future citizens of the State. We were equally inattentive but, of the two, the small African was the most patient. Colonel Ewell and my father would flick the flies from the sweating sides of the horses with their buggy whips, as they talked, but Malachi and I must slap and scratch our bare legs in desperation.

The question of educating the rising generation was a burning one in every Southern family, and Colonel Ewell's offer to help with my schooling must have been a godsend to my parents. I was at various schools during successive winter terms. The summer vacations were when I studied with "Buck" as we called him—most respectfully I assure you. I would arrive on the campus about 10:00 a.m., and the Colonel and Malachi would drive in at the same time, as he did not then live in the President's house. He had his study in what is now Mr. Bryan's dining room, and he would go in there and raise great clouds of dust rummaging for some book or paper he needed, and then we would wander over to the College, he, Malachi, and I, and sometimes other boys—his students varied in number and personnel. Someone would ring the bell—you can imagine that part of the procedure was popular—and work would begin in the classroom over what is now the great hall. I was supposed to be studying mathematics and science, but there are numberless other subjects in which I owe all I have of learning to this devoted teacher. Colonel Ewell was an instructor of the rare type that can rouse the enthusiasm of his pupils. He loved to talk, to discuss and inform, and—if he were unable to answer a question or give information at one study period—he would be fully able to do so at the next!

He made anything but a picturesque scholarly impression, a homely old man with heavy features and a scornful, protruding underlip. His dress and personal appearance were not of the least consequence to him. He had a bitter tongue, but his affections were deep and sincere, and I early learned that his addressing me as a "young ass" was almost a form of endearment.

This association of mine with the College under Colonel Ewell lasted intermittently from 1882 until 1888, when the long demanded appropriation was obtained from the Legislature and the College was reopened under Lyon G. Tyler.

THE PRESIDENTS OF
THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY

BENJAMIN S. EWELL
DEVOTED LEADER WHO SUSTAINED THE COLLEGE IN THE DARK DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION PERIODS

• JAMES BLAIR, 1693-1743
• WILLIAM DAWSON, 1743-1752
• WILLIAM STITH, 1752-1755
• THOMAS DAWSON, 1755-1761
• WILLIAM PATES, 1761-1764
• JAMES HORROCKS, 1764-1771
• JOHN CAMM, 1771-1777
• JAMES MADISON, 1777-1812
• JOHN BRACKEN, 1812-1874
• JOHN AUGUSTINE SMITH, 1814-1826
• WILLIAM H. WILMER, 1826-1827
• ADAM EMPIE, 1827-1836
• THOMAS RODERICK DEW, 1836-1846
• ROBERT SAUNDERS, 1847-1848
• BENJAMIN S. EWELL, 1848-1849
• JOHN JOHNS, 1849-1854
• BENJAMIN S. SWELL, 1854-1888
• LYON G. TYLER, 1888-1919
• JULIAN A. C. CHANDLER, 1919-1934
• JOHN STEWART BRYAN, 1934-1942
• JOHN EDWIN POMFRET, 1942-1951
• ALVIN DUKE CHANDLER, 1951

THE CHANCELLORS OF
THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY

• HENRY COMPTON, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1693-1700
• THOMAS TENISON, ARCHBISHOP OF. CANTERBURY, 1700-1707
• HENRY COMPTON, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1707-1713
• JOHN ROBINSON, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1714-1721
• WILLIAM WAKE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1721-1729
• EDMUND GIBSON, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1729-1736
• WILLIAM WAKE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1736-1737
• EDMUND GIBSON, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1737-1748
• THOMAS SHERLOCK, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1749-1761
• CHARLES WYNDHAM, EARL OF EGREMONT, 1762-1763
• THOMAS HAYTER, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1762
• PHILIP YORKE, EARL OF HARDWICKE, 1764
• RICHARD TERRICK, BISHOP OF LONDON, 1764-1776
• GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1788-1799
• JOHN TYLER, TENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1859-1862
• HUGH BLAIR GRIGSBY, HISTORIAN, 1871-1881
• JOHN STEWART BRYAN, TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, 1942-1944
• COLGATE W. DARDEN, JR., GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 1946-1947

JOHN TYLER, TENTH PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES AND CHANCELLOR OF COLLEGE, FROM A PORTRAIT BY HART, 1841, IN POSSESSION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

THE WREN BUILDING
BIBLIOGRAPHY

A PRESENT-DAY PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WREN BUILDING OF THE COLLEGE TAKEN FROM THE NORTHEAST

• Adam, Dr. Herbert B. A treatise entitled, The College of William and Mary: A Contribution to the History of Higher Education, with Suggestions for its National Promotion. Printed as one of the circulars of information of the Bureau of Education by the Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887.
• Addleshaw, George W. O. and Frederick Etchells. Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship: An Inquiry into the Arrangements for Public Worship in the Church of England from the Reformation to the Present Date, London, 1948. The book contains numerous plans of English churches and chapels, among which types can be found upon which the original plan of the Chapel of the Wren Building may have been based.
• The Alumni Gazette of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. This was first issue on September 30, 1933. Bound copies of all issues of this publication may be consulted in the college library and at the alumni office in the Brafferton. 115
• Architectural Department. Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated. Progress photograph collection. Photographs taken of the Wren Building before its restoration in 1928, during the course of it and after its completion. The collection also contains several photographs taken in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  Field notes, measured drawings, working drawings, sketches, specifications, etc. of and for the building made prior to and in the course of its restoration.
• The Architectural Record, December, 1935. This issue is devoted to the restoration of Williamsburg and contains a number of fine photographs of the restored Wren Building made by F. S. Lincoln. This number of the Record is available as a bound book.
• Beverly, Robert. The History and Present State of Virginia, London, 1705 and 1722. See also the reprint of this book published for The Institute of Early American History and Culture by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1947, which is edited and has an introduction by Louis B. Wright. It should be pointed out that the latter edition is a reprint of Beverley's 1705 volume and does not contain certain additional references to the college which the author included in his 1722 edition.
  For references to the college see, in the 1722 edition, the following: p. 90, #141; p. 93, #145; p. 98, #154; pp. 231-232, #43 and #44 and p. 249, #68.
• Brown, G. Baldwin, The Care of Ancient Monuments, Cambridge, England, 1905. This is an account of the measures adopted in European countries for the protection of old buildings, objects, etc.
• Cappon, Lester J. and Stella F. Duff. Virginia Gazette Index 1736-1780, two volumes, Williamsburg, 1950. This work, published by The Institute of Early American History and Culture, is a complete index to all known issues of the Gazette. It is an invaluable key to the location in the paper of any items referring to the college.
• Cleverdon, Herbert S. Structural Features in the Restoration of the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary (1935). This treatment of the building describes the measures taken to render the edifice fireproof and structurally stable. It is included in Part II of this work.
• Dearstyne, Howard, see Kocher, A. Lawrence and Howard Dearstyne.
• Department of Research and Record, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated. General Description of Williamsburg, a chronologically-arranged compilation of writings describing the town drawn from primary source material. This contains many references to the college. (1942) 116
• Duell, Prentice. A Brief History of the Four Forms of the Building and The Wren Building, Archaeological Report (1932). These companion articles contain a detailed discussion, by the individual in charge of the archaeological investigations of the building, of the walls and foundations of the structure, in which the writer gives his opinion as to the relative age of the various parts. Both articles are included in full in Part II of this work on the Wren Building.
• Duff, Stella F., see Cannon, Lester J. and Stella F. Duff.
• Etchells, Frederick, see Addleshaw. George W.O. and Frederick Etchells.
• Ewing, Galen W. Early Teaching of Science at the College of William and Mary, Bulletin of The College of William and Mary in Virginia. Vol. 32, No. 4, April, 1938.
• General Files, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated. The correspondence file of Perry, Shaw and Hepburn, architects for the restoration of the building, contains many letters relating to the work on the structure.
• Goodwin, Rutherfoord. A Brief and True Report Concerning Williamsburg in Virginia. Richmond, 1940. This book contains many facts concerning the college. Its valuable appendix is composed of excerpts from original early documents, of which many refer to the college.
• Goodwin, Mrs. Rutherfoord. Compilation of documentary references to the college, drawn from documents in possession of the College of William and Mary and from many other sources. This was made for the Department of Research and Record of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.
• Goodwin, Rev. W. A. R. The Romance and Renaissance of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Williamsburg, no-date (ca. 1924-25). This is a brochure with numerous illustrations, giving certain salient facts about the history of the College. It was written as part of a drive for funds to aid in the erection of needed buildings and was instrumental in adding many thousands of dollars to the endowment of the College.
• Gordon, Armistead Churchill, Jr. Life of Benjamin Stoddert Ewell in Dictionary of American Biography, Volume VI, New York, 1931.
• Grigg, Milton L. Architectural report entitled Brafferton Hall, 1932. This describes the architectural features of the restored building. Consult architectural records files, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.
• Grigg, Milton L. Architectural report on the President's House, 1932. This describes the building as restored. Consult architectural records files, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated. 117
• Hartwell, Blair and Chilton (Henry Hartwell, James Blair and Edward Chilton). The Present State of Virginia, and the College. London, 1727. See also the reprint published by Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, 1940, edited, with an introduction, by Hunter D. Farish. Section II of the latter edition, pp. 68-94, deals with the college.
• Hepburn, Andrew H. Notes concerning the roof of the Wren Building, set down by the authors of this report from an interview with Mr. Hepburn of March 24, 1947. These are included in Part II of this work.
• Jefferson, Thomas. From time to time in his various writings Jefferson refers to the College of William and Mary. A convenient method of locating many of these references is afforded by The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, New York, 1900, a compilation of Jefferson's writings arranged according to subject. It is not complete in the sense that writings of Jefferson discovered since 1900 are not, of course, included.
• Jennings, John Melville. Notes on the Original Library of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. 1693-1705. This appeared in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 41., Third Quarter, 1947. Jennings was formerly archivist of the rare book department of the college library and is now librarian of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond.
• Jones, Hugh. The Present State of Virginia, London, 1724. See pp. 26-28 and 83-94 for statements concerning the Wren Building and the college.
• Knight, Edgar W. A Documentary History of Education in the South Before 1860. Volume I, European Inheritances. Edited by E. W. K., Chapel Hill, 1949. See Chapter XII, The College of William and Mary, pp. 368-552.
• Kocher, A. Lawrence and Howard Dearstyne, Colonial Williamsburg/Its Buildings and Gardens, Williamsburg, 1949. This book contains numerous references to the college and several recent photographs of its old buildings.
• Kocher, A. Lawrence and Howard Dearstyne. Discoverer of Foundations for Jefferson's Addition to the Wren Building, article in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Volume X, No. 3, 1951.
• Morrison, Samuel Eliot. The Founding of Harvard College, Cambridge, 1935. This book has a chapter on the building of the Old College (1638-42), the first structure erected for academic purposes in America. This is worthy of study since some of the interior arrangements of the first and second Wren Buildings may have been similar to certain features of this building.
• Public Records Office, London: Documents containing references to the college are to be found here. 118
• Swem, Dr. Earl G. Some Notes on the Four Forms of the Oldest Building of William and Mary College. William and Mary Quarterly, October, 1928. This is a valuable, chronologically-arranged compilation of excerpts from original documents appertaining to the Wren Building.
• Swem, Dr. Earl G. Virginia Historical Index, Roanoke, 1934. This is a very useful aid in locating specific items, such as references to the college, which are to be found in the following publications: Calendar of Virginia State Papers; Hening's Statutes; Lower Norfolk County Antiquary; Virginia Historical Register; Tyler's Quarterly; Virginia Magazine of History and the William and Mary Quarterly, First and Second Series.
• Tyler, Lyon Gardner. Williamsburg, The Old Colonial Capital. Richmond, 1907. This is a useful reference book on the history of the college.
• Waterman, Thomas Tileston. Architectural report entitled Main Building, William and Mary College. This report, which has been incorporated in Part II of this treatment of the Wren Building, describes the architectural features of the building as it has been restored.
• Waterman, Thomas Tileston. The Mansions of Virginia 1706-1776, Chapel Hill, 1946. This contains some references to the college buildings.
• [William and Mary College]. A Catalogue of the College of William and Mary in Virginia from its Foundation to the Present Time, 1859.
• [William and Mary College]. The History of the College of William and Mary, from its Foundation, 1693, to 1870. Baltimore, 1870.
• William and Mary College Papers. These are to be found in the archives at the college library. Among other things they consist of the following: Faculty Minutes, 1729-1784 and 1817 to date, Visitors Minutes and Bursars Books of the college of various periods and many miscellaneous papers having a bearing on the college.
• The William and Mary Quarterly. There are articles concerning the college and references to it in various numbers of the Quarterly. Complete bound copies of the three series of the periodical are on file in the college library and the library of the Department of Research and Record of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.
  Series I of the Quarterly, Volumes 1-27, began in 1892 with the July issue and terminated in 1919 with the April issue.
  Series II, Volumes 1-23, started in January, 1921, and ended in October, 1943. These two series were published by the college.
  Series III began in January, 1944, and still continues. This series is published under the auspices of The Institute of Early American History and Culture.

THE WREN BUILDING PART I
INDEX

VIEW OF DUKE OF GLOUCESTER STREET LOOKING EAST FROM COLLEGE "CORNER." FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF 1870'S [(ca. 1859) #51-T-1761]

NOTE: In this index the word "building," unless otherwise designated, refers to the Wren Building is one or another of its forms. The abbreviation "ill." following a subject means that the latter is illustrated by a photograph or drawing.

ACT of General Assembly of 1888,

reorganising college

100, 101

Act of General Assembly of 1906,

making college a state institution

101

Addition to Wren Building

See Jefferson's plan for an addition

Allen,

see Green and Allen

Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor of Colony

Letter of

3, 4

Apollo Room, Raleigh Tavern

Phi Beta Kappa Society founded in

25

Appendix

106-113

Appleton, D., and Co.

Contribute books to college

75

Arcade of west front

Enclosed in third and fourth buildings

58, 86

120

Archaeology

See Excavations

Arched ceilings of literary halls

Conjectural construction of, ill.

50

Discussed

50-51

Archers Hope swamp

2

Asbury, Reverend Francis

Visits college

37

Assembly,

see General Assembly

Awnings,

see "Umbrellows"

BADEAU Adam, secretary to General Grant

Letter of, to Benjamin Swell

74

Bagwell, Mr., student at college

52

Ballard, Colonel Thomas

Site for college purchased of

2, 7

Barnes, A. S., publisher

Contributes books to college

75

Bassett, Mr.

Builder for alterations of 1836

45

Bellini, Charles, professor at college

Rooms of, taken for hospital

36

Belmont, August

Contributes to college building fund

75

Beverley, Robert

5, 8a

Description of building by

5

History of Virginia by

54

Bibliography

114-118

Bird, Professor Hugh S.

Photograph of, with Benjamin Ewell, ill.

101a

Bishop of London

1, 9, 16, 19, 20

Bishop of Worcester

1

Blair, Dr. James

Affidavit of

6

Agent for the college

1

Buried with wife at Jamestown

21, 22

Commissary to Bishop of London

1

Dies, 1743

21

Elected president of college

2

Gets funds for Brafferton

14

Gives details of progress of first building

5, 6

Informs bishop of building of Chapel

16, 17

Informs bishop of building of President's House

20

Portrait of, by Charles Bridges

Discussion of

14a, 62, 103

Reproduction of, ill.

14a

Proposal of, for a college in Virginia

1

Receives George Whitefield

21

Blair, John, Jr.

Letter of, to General Washington

36

Member of committee for execution of Jefferson's addition

26

121

Blair, Sarah Harrison, wife of James Blair

22

Bland, Theodorick

Surveyor of Williamsburg

4

Bland survey map, 1699

Discussion of

4, 5, 25, 107

Portion of, showing plan of first building, ill.

4

Bloomfield, Sir Reginald

Author of History of the Renaissance in England

107

Blue Room of Wren Building

Portrait of James Blair in

14a

Portrait of Robert Boyle in

101a

Board of Visitors,

see Visitors, Board of

Bodleian Library, Oxford

Bodleian Plate discovered in

103

Bodleian Plate (ca. 1740)

Aid in restoration of Wren Building

20a, 41, 42, 61, 103, 105

Detail from, showing east front of Wren Building, ill.

104

Discovery of, in 1930

103

Portion of, showing college buildings, ill.

20a

View from, of second building from southwest, ill.

20a

Bonner, Robert

Contributes to college building fund

75

Botetourt, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de

Statue of, at Eastern State Hospital, ill.

vii.

Statue of, before building, ill.

Title page

Tomb of

55, 56

Boundary stones

Discovered by Lyon G. Tyler

7

Photograph of one of, ill.

7

Placing of

2

Bowman, Mr., bricklayer

Gives opinion about strength of walls

54

Bowman, Sherard T.

Sells College Hotel to faculty

57, 66

Boyle, Robert, physicist

Funds from estate of,

used to found Brafferton

14, 101a

Portrait of, shown in photograph, ill.

101a

Brafferton Hall

Building of, 1723

14

Damage to, in fire of 1562

72

Governor Spotswood makes will in

21

Photograph of, by Anderson, 1581, ill.

101a

Photograph of, from south, ill.

87a

Plan of, shown on Frenchman's Map

35

Repair of, recommended

79

Shown on Bodleian Plate, ill.

20a

Shown on Millington drawing, ill.

11

Suggestion off as place for armory

98

122

"Brick frame and arch"

Swept away by storm

43, 45

Bridges, Charles, English portraitist

Portrait by, of James Blair

14a

Brock, Robert K.

Book by, about Archibald Cary

16

Brown, John, student at college

Predicts arrival of British

35

Brown, Little and Co.

Contribute books to college

75

Browne, Professor Dabney

On committee with Millington

45

Bruton Parish Church

Continues its services, 1887

98

Burlington, Richard, third Earl of

Gives funds to establish Indian school

14, 101a

Sponsor of Palladianism

14

Burwell, Lewis

Member of committee for execution of Jefferson's addition

26

Butler, Hon. Benjamin F. ("Beast")

Approached in attempt to secure indemnity for war damages to college

95

Byrd, Colonel William, II

College treasurer

6

Diary of

8b

Quotation from, on use of old foundations

8b

CAPITOL Building

Destroyed by fire, 1747

22

Cary, Archibald

Biography of

16

Cary, Henry, Sr.

Builder of Capitol, Palace and second building

16

Cary, Henry, Jr.

Builder of Chapel

16

Central College, at Charlottesville

Founded by Jefferson, 1816

39

Chancellors of college, chronological list of

113

Chapel of Wren Building

Photograph of interior of, looking west, ca. 1890, ill.

85

Photograph of interior of, looking west, during restoration, ill.

85

Second Building

Dated brick in wall of

17-19

Cement on by Lyon G. Tyler

18

Photograph of, ill.

18

Exterior of, shown on Bodleian Plate, ill.

20a

Interior of, destroyed by fire of 1859

53

Opening of, 1732

11, 19

123

Shown on "Little Girls Drawing"

42, 46

Still not built in 1724

14, 15

Under construction

15-18

Third Building

References to

64, 66

Fourth Building

Combined with library for convocations

77, 79, 84, 88

Floor level of

91

Interior of, between 1890 and 1910, ill.

85

Interior of, during restoration of 1928, ill.

85

Charter of college

Acquisition of, proposed by Blair

1

Provisions of

2

Saved in fire of 1862

72

Signed by King

1

Chelsea Hospital

Old drawing of

13

Wren Building likened to

12

Civil War and the college

67-70, 93

Clayton, John

President of Philosophical Society

25

Cleverdon, Herbert

Mention of report of, on structure of building

105

Cleverdon, Varney and Pike

Structural engineers for restoration of building

103

Coleman, Cynthia B. Tucker

Letter of Robert E. Lee to

73, 74

Coleman, George Preston

Reminiscences of, of Benjamin Ewell

110-111

College Hotel

57, 66, 67, 71, 73, 79, 93

College of William and Mary

See William and Mary College

Compton, Henry, Bishop of London

Becomes interested in project for college

1

Corcoran, William Wilson

Contributes to college building fund

75

Cornwallis, Charles, second Earl

Occupies Presidents House

36

Council of colony

Meets in building

6, 22

Cranston, L. J.

Watercolor by, of third building

Mention of

63

Reproduction of, ill.

65

Cronon, David Edward, Federal provost marshall

Discussion by, of third fire

70

DAGUERREOTYPE of east front of second building

Discussion of

11, 48

References to

61

Reproduction of, ill.

11

124

Damages, Civil War

Claim of college for, pressed

94-96

College indemnified for, by Congress, 1893

96

Ewell presents claim for

95, 96

Darby, Earl of

Donates books to college

75

Davenport, Matthew

Jefferson plan lodged with

26

Dawson, Reverend William, second president of college

Announces completion of Chapel

19

Confers degree on Franklin

23

Lays brick of President's House foundation

19, 20

Succeeds Blair as president of college

19

Debate about authorship of design of building

106-108

De Graffenried, Baron Christopher

Founder of New Bern

8

"Designed Square of the Colledge"

Reference to, in letter to Andros

4

Dodge, William Earl

Contributes to college building fund

75

Duell, Prentice

Archaeologist for restoration of Wren Building

13, 103

Archaeological report by, mentioned

45

Article by, on Wren excavations

8a

Comment of, on Michel drawing

8a

Compares Chelsea Hospital to building

13

Opinion of, on nature of storm damage

45

Duke of Gloucester Street

Old photograph of, as seen from college "corner," ill.

118

Dunmore, John Murray, Earl of (Governor)

Jefferson submits plan to

25, 26

On committee for execution of Jefferson's addition

26

Patron of Philosophical Society

25

EARL of Burlington (Richard, third Earl of)

Gives funds to support Brafferton

14, 101a

Sponsor of Palladianism

14

Eastern State Hospital

Photograph of old central building of, with Botetourt statue, ill.

114

Ewell, Benjamin Stoddert, president of college

Becomes president of college

67

Brief biography of

101, 102

Campaign of, to raise funds for college

74, 75

Civil War service of

67, 68

Comment of, on reuse of old walls

9

Death of, 1894

67

Describes fourth building, planned by Rives

77, 87

Estimate of, of damages from fire of 1862

72

Faithful servant of college

93, 98, 101, 102

Letter of, to Hugh Blair Grigsby

76

125

Letter of, to Mrs. L. S. E. Scott

79

Maintains college single-handed

100

Named president emeritus of college

67, 102

Photograph of, taken in library of fourth building, ill.

101a

Pleads for rebuilding of college, 1867

75, 76

Portrait (photograph) of, ill.

110

Post-war reports of, on college

71, 72, 97

Presents claims for damages to college

95, 96

Reminiscences of, of George P. Coleman

110, 111

Reports completion of fourth building, 1870

80, 81

Rouses students in fire of 1859

52

Sends plans of Rives to Grigsby

76

Exall, H., Richmond architect

Draws plan for third building

48, 57, 87

Plan of, for third building

Discussion of

48, 49, 63

Reproduction of, ill.

58

Excavations of 1940 on site of Jefferson's addition

29, 30

Discovery of foundations in course of

29, 30

Drawing of these, ill.

30

Excavations of 1950 on site of Jefferson's addition

29, 31-33

Confirm building of part of Jefferson's addition

31-33

Plan of excavated foundations, compared with Jefferson's plan, ill.

32

FAXON, Eben, architect

Acts as architect of third building

57-59, 63

Fire

Destroys President's House

36

Fires, Wren Building

First, 1705

5, 8b

Second, 1859

51-53, 66, 86

Third, 1862

63, 69, 70, 86

Flat roof

Meaning of, in eighteenth century

40

Of Wren Building

40-42

Floor levels

In fourth building

91

Folding door at end of north wing

Swept away by storm

43, 45

Foundations

Of first building, laid August 8, 1695

3

West of Wren Building (Jefferson's addition)

Discovered in 1940

29, 30

Plan of, ill.

30

Discovered in 1950

29, 31, 33

Plan of, ill.

32

Photograph of, ill.

32

126

Foundations, old

Of extension to north wing

Discussed

43-45

Photograph of, ill.

43

Shown on plan, ill.

30

Used for second building

8b

Fountain, Mr.

First professor at college

10

Fox, Reverend John

Lays a brick of Presidents House foundation

19, 20

Usher of grammar school

19

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly

Illustrations from

94, 99

Franklin, Benjamin

Receives degree from college

22, 23

Frenchman's Map, 1782

Portion of, showing college, ill.

38

Fry, Joshua

Lays a brick of President's House foundation

19, 20

Master of grammar school

19

GENERAL Assembly

Meets at building

22

Passes bill for support of college, 1888

101

Passes act making college

a state institution, 1906

101

Gilman, Mrs. Daniel Coil

Description by, of Williamsburg and college, 1887

98-100

Glasgow, Ellen

Quotation from

Page following Title page

Gooch, Governor William

Comments on destruction of Capitol

22

Entertains Whitefield

21

States intention to build Chapel

15

Goodwin, Dr. W. A. R.

Letter to, concerning Wren Building

13

Restoration of building initiated by

102

Goodwin, Mrs. Rutherfoord

Acknowledgment to

Title page

Gordon, Armistead

Article by, on Benjamin Ewell

69

Grade level about building

Raised under Governor Spotswood

91, 93

Grant, General Ulysses S.

Response of, to appeal for aid to college

74

Great Hall (see, also, North wing)

Division of, into two stories

46

Exterior of, as shown on Bodleian Plate, ill.

20a

In fourth building

91

Green and Allen

Contract for construction of third building awarded to

61

127

Grigsby, Hugh Blair, college chancellor

In favor of reuse of old walls, 1859

54

Letter to, from Benjamin Ewell

76, 86

HADLEY, Thomas

Surveyor (builder) of first Wren Building

3, 6

Hampden-Sydney College

Benjamin Ewell professor at

67

Harper and Brothers

Contribute books to college

75

Harrell, Mr.

Steward of College Hotel

71, 73

Hawksmoor, Nicholas, architect, pupil of Sir Christopher Wren

Mention of

108

Hazard, Ebenezer

Journal of

29

Recounts seeing foundations for addition

29

Henley, Reverend Samuel

Secretary of Philosophical Society

25

Hepburn, Andrew H.

Mention of statement of, on roof

105

Reference to notes of, on roof

41

Hoar, George Frisbie, congressman

Chairman of Committee on Education and Labor

95

Hospital

College buildings used as, during Revolution

36, 37

Wren Building used as, in 1862

68, 69

House of Burgesses

Meets in building

22, 67

One member to, elected by college

14

Hughes, James

Bids on construction of Chapel

15, 16

INDIAN school at college

14

Izard, Ralph

Letter of Jefferson to

37

JACKSON, General T. J. (Stonewall)

67

Jameson, David

Treasurer of Philosophical Society

25

Jefferson, Thomas

Account of, for meals at college

23

Draws plan for completion of quadrangle at college

25-27

Founds Central College at Charlottesville

39

Letter of, to Mr. Izard

37

Name of, associated with college

100

Plan of, for reorganization of education in Virginia

33, 34

Remodels college curriculum

34, 35

Studies at college, 1761-1762

23

128

Jefferson's project for an addition to Wren Building

Bids for, let

26

Committee appointed for execution of

26

Discovery of foundations for

29-32

Execution of, hindered by Revolution

28, 33

Foundations for, partially laid

26-33

List of expenditures for, 1774

26

Materials for, put on sale

28

Plan of, ill.

27

Plan of excavations of 1950 compared with, ill.

32

Serves as basis for restoration of interior

104

Jenings, Edmund, President of Council

Mention of house of

8b

Johnston, General Joseph E.

Benjamin Ewell serves under

68

Jones Hugh

Attributes building to Sir Christopher Wren

12, 106, 107

Comment of, on Brafferton

14, 15

Describes second building

10

Gives condition of college, 1724

14

His The Present State of Virginia

10, 107

Likens building to Chelsea Hospital

12, 13

Professor at college

10

KENDREW, A. Edwin

Authorizes excavations west of building

29

Kennon, Richard, rector of college

18

Kennon, Richard III, Justice of Henrico

18

Kersboom, T.

Portrait by, of Robert Boyle, shown in photograph

101a

Knight, James M., archaeologist

Conducts excavations of site west of building

29, 32

Drawings by, of foundation remains of Jefferson's addition, ills.

Made in 1940

30

Made in 1950

32

LAMB, Colonel William, member of board of visitors

Offers resolution concerning Wise Light Infantry

97, 98

Lambeth, near London

Conference at

3

Lee, General Robert E.

Letter of, concerning college

73

Mourning for, at college

93

Surrender of, at Appomattox

71

Le Febre, Mr.

"Little Girl" attends seminary of

12

Library of college

Destroyed, 1859

52, 53

Interior of, fourth building, ill.

83

Benjamin Ewell seated in, ill.

101a

129

Of second building

64

Of third building

64, 66, 72, 73

Of fourth building

77, 79, 80, 83, 84, 88, 101a

Views of, ills.

83, 101a

Removed to new building

84, 87

Library of Philomathean Society

Saved in fire of 1859

52, 53

Lippincott, publishers

Contribute books to college

75

Literary halls at college

After renovations of 1856-57

49, 51

In third building

60, 64, 66

In fourth building

77

Relocation of, 1856

46-51

Little Girl (Mary F. Southall)

Drawings by, of building

41, 42, 46, 47, 108

Little Girl's Drawing

Of east elevation, 1856

Discussion of

46, 48

Reproduction of, ill.

108

Of west elevation, 1856

Discussion of

41, 42, 49

Reproduction of, ill.

42

Lodge, Professor Oliver

Upholds Wren's authorship of building

106-108

London Post Boy

Notice from

6a

Lord, Daniel Walker

Comments on decline of college, 1824

39

Ludwig, C. L.

Lithograph by, after Millington drawing

45a

Lunatic Asylum

72

McCLELLAN, General George B.

Advance of, on Richmond

69

McClure, Dr. James

Professor at college

35

Madison, James, fourth president of the United States

Name of, associated with college

100

Madison, Reverend James, president of college

Comments on conditions at college

35, 36

House of, used by Cornwallis

36

Letter of, to Ezra Stiles

37

Magruder, General John B.

67

Malachi, factotum of Colonel Ewell

111

Marshall, John

Name of, associated with college

100

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Founded by William Barton Rogers

59

Matthew Whaley Observation and Practice School

81

Matty (Mattey) School

81

May Day celebration at college

6

130

Michel, Francis Louis

Describes ceremony at college

8, 8a

Earliest elevation drawing of building by

7, 8, 8a, 13

Comment on, by Prentice Duell

8a

Reproduction of, ill.

8

Spends night in tower of Wren Building

8

Visitor to Williamsburg, 1702

7, 8

Middle Plantation

Selected as site for college

2

Middleton, Dr. A. Pierce

Furnishes quotation from Hazard's journal

29

Millington, Dr. John

Alterations to north wing by

45-46, 83

Author of work on civil engineering

45a

Brief biography of

45a

Burial of, in Bruton Churchyard

45a

Portrait of, ill.

45a

Scientist, professor at college

45a

Millington, Thomas Charles

Drawing of, of campus, viewed from east, ill.

45a

Reference to, by William Barton Rogers

60

Monroe, James

Name of, associated with college

100

Morrison, Robert S., professor at college

Comment of, on reuse of old walls

9, 62

Describes fire of 1859

51-53

Discusses third building

62, 64

Discusses tombs in Chapel

55, 56

Mentions portrait of James Blair

14a

Murphy, J., and Co., publishers

Donate books to college

75

Murray Publishers, London

Donate books to college

75

NAILS, bought for Jefferson's addition

College agrees to lending out of

28

Nicholas, Robert Carter

Member of committee for execution of Jefferson's addition

26

Nicholson, Francis, Governor of Virginia

Memorandum for, concerning college

17

Occupies building

6, 6a

Project for college, endorsed by

1

Temper of

6a

"Nicholson papers"

Memorandum from

17

North wing

Extension to

Discussed

43-45

Foundations of, shown on plan, ill.

30

In second building, two stories high

45, 46, 64

Uses of

64

131

Norton and Sons, merchants of London

26

Nott, Edward, Governor of Colony

5

PAGE, John

Vice president of Philosophical Society

25

Page, Peyton

Student at college

52

Palladianism

Sponsored by Earl of Burlington

14

Parke, Daniel

Makes brick for college

3

Perry, Mr.

6

Perry, Shaw and Hepburn, architects for restoration of 1928

Title page, 103

Phelps, Dodge and Co.

75

Phi Beta Kappa Society

Founded at Raleigh Tavern, 1776

25

Philomathean Hall

46-52

Philomathean Society

46

Philosophical Society

Established at college

25

Phoenix

Conventionalized representation of

Page following Title page

Phoenix Hall

46-51

Phoenix Society

47

Plan of Wren Building

Original, as shown on Bland Survey Map, 1699, ill.

4

By Thomas Jefferson, with addition to building, 1771-72, ill.

27

By James M. Knight, showing foundations for addition, 1940, ill.

30

By James M. Knight, showing foundations for addition, 1950, ill.

32

From Frenchman's Map, ca. 1782, ill.

38

By H. Exall for third building, ill.

58

For third building, preliminary, ill.

109

Of third building

Description of

60

Let out for bids

58

Of fourth building, illustration and discussion

88

Of restored building, illustration and discussion

104a

Pomfret, Dr. John E., president of college

Proposes excavation of site west of Wren Building

29

Potts, Robert, Trinity College, Cambridge

Donates books to library

73, 75

Present State of Virginia, by Hugh Jones

10

Presidents of college, chronological list of

112

Presidents House

Destroyed by fire, 1782

36

Estimated cost of repairing of

79

Foundations of, laid, 1732

19, 20

132

Photograph of, by Anderson, 1881

101a

Photograph of, from south

87a

Photograph of, showing west addition, ill.

110

Plan of, shown on Frenchman's Map

38

Rebuilt, 1786

36

Shown in Millington drawing, ill.

11

Shown on Bodleian Plate, ill.

20a

Preston, Colonel

Letter to, from John Brown

35

Preston, Reverend W.

Presents Franklin to President Dawson

23

Public Gaol

Architectural report on, mentioned

40

QUADRANGLE form

Wren's remarks concerning

107

Quadrangle of Wren Building

Described by Robert Beverley

5

Not realized in first building

15

Part of original, scheme of Wren Building

4, 107

Queen Anne

Donates money for rebuilding

9

Queen Mary

See William and Mary

RALEIGH Tavern

Scene of founding of Phi Beta Kappa Society

25

Randolph, John, of Roanoke

94

Room of, in Wren Building, ill.

94

Randolph, Sir John

Buried beneath Chapel

20, 55, 56

Tablet to, erected in Chapel

20

Randolph, Peyton

On committee for execution of Jefferson's plan

26

Tomb of, in Chapel

55, 56

Restoration of Williamsburg

102

Restoration of Wren Building, 1928-31

31

Initiated by Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin

102

Sponsored by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

102

Revolutionary War

Interrupts building of Jefferson's addition

31, 33

Threatens to cause closing of college

35

Ridley, Mr., bricklayer

Gives opinion about strength of walls

54

Rives, Alfred L., Richmond architect

Appointed architect for fourth building

76

Makes plans for fourth building

76-78, 82

Robinson, John

Member of Council

15

Robinson, Mr.

Appointed professor of Philosophy

15

Rockefeller, John D., Jr.

Restoration of building sponsored by

102

133

Rogers, Henry Darwin

Letter to, from William Barton Rogers

59

Rogers, Dr. P. K.

Professor at college

59

Rogers, William Barton

Comments on condition of college

59, 60

Obtains charter for M. I. T.

59

Purchase by, of philosophical apparatus

65, 66

Visits Williamsburg

59

Roof

Flat,

see Flat roof

Of west side of main building

41

ST. GEORGE TUCKER

Assistant secretary of Philosophical Society

25

Saunders, John

College undertaker (builder)

28

Scribner and Co.

Donate books to college

75

Scott, Mrs. L. S. E., sister of Benjamin Ewell

Letter to, from Benjamin Ewell

79

Mention of

100

Sections, wall

Of fourth building, ill.

92

Society Halls,

see Literary Halls

Southall, Mary F.,

see Little Girl

Southall, Mrs.

Occupant of Presidents House

71

Southern Literary Messenger

75

Spotswood, Governor

Arrival of

5

Dies at Annapolis 1740

21

Informs Bishop of construction progress

9

Letter of, to Mr. Fountain

10

Makes gift to college

21

Raises grade levels about building

91, 93

Stewart, Alexander

Contributes to college building fund

75

Stiles, Ezra

Letter of Reverend James Madison to

37

Visits college

37

Stillingfleet, Dr., Bishop of Worcester

Arranges meeting for Blair with Queen Mary

1

Stith, William, third president of college

Author of a history of Virginia

19

Lays a brick of President's House foundation

19, 20

Storm of June, 1834

Injuries caused by, repaired

43

Stratford

98

Sun-blinds,

see "Umbrellows"

Survey Map of Williamsburg, 1699

Portion of, showing building, ill.

4

134

Surveyor (builder) of Wren Building

3

Swem, Dr. Earl G.

Acknowledgment to

Title page

TALIAFERRO, Professor Edwin

Reports on library after fire of 1862

72

Tayloe, William, student at college

52

Thompson, John R.

Donates books to library

75

Tillotson, John, Archbishop of Canterbury

Arranges meeting with King for Blair

1

Tombs in Chapel

Discussion of, by Morrison

55, 56

Totten, Reverend Silas

Engages Faxon as architect

57

Opposes use of old walls in third building

53, 54

Transfer of college

Copy of, referred to

64

Trinity College, Oxford

Remarks by Wren, appertaining to

107

Truss of 1798

Discussion of

50

Drawing of, ill.

50

Tullitt, Mr.

Undertakes construction of second building

9

Tyler. John, tenth president of the United States

Name of, associated with college

100

Portrait of, ill.

111

Tyler, Lyon G.

Article by, on walls of college

16, 18

Becomes president of college, 1888

101

College reopened under, 1888

113

Comment by, on dated brick of Chapel

18

Records date (1881) of suspension of college exercises

98

Remarks of, on Matty School

81

"UMBRELLOWS" (Awnings)

Dictionary definition of, as "sun-blinds"

23, 24

Record of installation of, at college

23

Used in England in eighteenth century

24

VAN EVRIE and Horton, publishers

Contribute books to college

75

Van Nostrand, D., publisher

Contributes books to college

75

Vaults,

see Tombs

Verandah

Meaning of, discussed

86, 87

Verandah, east, of fourth building

Discussed

86, 87

135

Visitors, Board of

Allows government to use first building

6

Appropriates funds for rebuilding, 1867

76

Asks Assembly to make college state institution

102

Decides to rebuild on old walls, 1859

57

Decides to reopen college in 1865

72, 73

Powers of

2

Reference to

39

Reorganized under act of 1888

101

Reports to, about condition of college

96, 98

WALLS

Old, used in construction of second building

9

Old, used in construction of third building

54, 60, 62

Of fourth building

87-91

Washington, George

Appointed surveyor for Fairfax County

22

Letter of, accepting chancellorship

64

Letter to, from John Blair, Jr.

36

Made chancellor of college

37

Name of, linked with college

100

Washington (and Lee) College

Benjamin Ewell professor at

67

Robert E. Lee president of

73

Waterman, Thomas T.

Author of The Mansions of Virginia

106

Mention of report of, on interior of building

105

Questions Wrens authorship of building

106-108

Webb, John, architect, pupil of Inigo Jones

Mention of

108

West Point

Benjamin Ewell trained at

67

Whaley, Mary

Leaves money for free school

81

Whaley, Matthew

School named in memory of

81

Whitefield, George, evangelist

Brings about spiritual awakening in colonies

20

Comments on college

21

Dines with Governor Gooch

21

Visits Williamsburg

20, 21

William and Mary College,

see also Brafferton Hall and President's House

Becomes state institution

67, 96, 97, 101

Boundary stones placed

2

Buildings started

2, 3

Charter of

1, 2, 72

Condition of, in 1860

64, 65

Condition of, 1870-73

93

Condition of, 1875-1887

96-100

Construction progress, first building

5, 6

136

Exercises of, suspended, 1881

98

Indemnified by United States Government, 1893

96

Location of, selected

2

Occupied by British troops, 1781

36

Occupied by French troops, 1782

36, 37

Organization and government of

1, 2

Receives support from state

100-101

Reopens in 1865

73

Reopens in 1888

101

Student enrollment in, after Civil War

96

Visitors of,

see Visitors. Board of

William and Mary, English monarchs

Receive Dr. Blair, 1691

1

Supporters of college project

1

William, King,

see William and Mary

Williamsburg

Battle of, 1862

68

Description of, in 1887

98-100

Its strategic position

69

Old photograph of, looking east from college "corner," ill.

116

Williamsburg Holding Corporation

Undertakes restoration of Wren Building, 1928

103

Windows

Casement, of first building

8a

Wise, Henry A., Governor of Virginia

Letter of, to Benjamin F. Butler

95

Offers to use influence to obtain indemnity

95

Wise Light Infantry

Uses lecture room as armory

97, 98

Wrens, Sir Christopher

Architect of Chelsea Hospital

12, 13

Design of building attributed to

12

Statement of, concerning quadrangles

107

Surveyor General to Crown

13

Wren Building,

First Building

Beverly's statement concerning

5

Casement windows of

8a

Construction progress of

3, 5, 6

Destroyed by fire, 1705

5, 8a

Earliest drawing of, by Michel

Discussion of

7-8a, 61

Reproduction of, ill.

8

Foundations of, laid in 1695

3

May Day celebration held in

6

Michel's drawing of

7-8a

Reproduction of, ill.

8

Naming of, basis for

12

Original scheme of, for a square building with quadrangle

4, 5

Plan of, from Bland map, ill.

4

137

Tower of

8a

Used by Governor and Council, 1700

6, 7

Wren, Sir Christopher, alleged designer of

12, 109-111

Second Building

Accommodations of, 1729

16

Alterations to, 1856-57

47-51

Arched ceilings of literary halls of

50, 51

As shown on Bodleian Plate, ills.

20a

Building dates of, summarized

11

Building of, under Governor Spotswood

5

Chapel of, opened

11, 19

Chapel under construction

15, 16

Condition of, in 1729, as described in memorandum

17

Damage to, by storm of 1834

43

Depth of front part of, as shown by Jefferson

60

Description of, by Hugh Jones

10, 12

Destroyed by fire, 1859

51-53

Early daguerreotype of, ill.

11

East front of, enlargement from Bodleian Plate, ill.

104

East front of, from an unidentified painting of 1820, ill.

106

Flat roof of, discussed

40-42

Jefferson's projected addition to

Abandoned, ca. 1776

28

Bids for execution of, advertised for

26

Building committee for, appointed

26

Building materials for, put on sale

28

Execution of, hindered by Revolution

28, 33

Foundations for, partially laid

26-33

List of expenditures for

26

Plan for, by Jefferson

Reproduction of, ill.

27

Submitted to Lord Dunmore

27

Library of

Contents of

64

Destroyed

53, 64

Location of

46, 47, 49

Literary halls, rebuilt

46-51

"Little Girls Drawings" of

Discussion of

41, 42, 46, 48, 49

Illustrations of

42, 111

Millington drawings of, ills.

11, 45a

North wing extension of

Discussed

43-45

Foundations of, shown on plan, ill.

30

Occupied by troops, 1781-82

35-37

Old walls used in building of

8b, 9

138

Plan of, by Thomas Jefferson

25-27, 104, 104a

Reproduction of, ill.

27

Portico of east front of

Widened

47

Renovated, 1831-33

39, 40

Repairs to, 1828-31

39, 40

Repairs of 1856 to

47-51

Used as hospital

36, 37

Views of

From east, as shown in painting of 1820, ill.

106

From east, as shown in daguerreotype of 1850s, ill.

31

From east, as shown on Bodleian Plate, ca. 1740, ill.

20a

Enlargement of, ill.

104

From southeast, as shown on Blair portrait, ill.

14a

From southwest, as shown on Bodleian Plate, ill.

20a

Walls of, unpainted

61

Third Building

As Civil War hospital

68, 69

Chapel of

64

Claims for war damages to

94-96

Contract for building of, awarded

61

Cranston drawing of, ill.

65

Descriptions of

58, 60, 62-67

Destroyed by fire, 1862

63, 69, 70

Drawing of east front of, ill.

63

Estimate of damages to by fire

72

Floor plan of

Discussion of

58

Illustration of

58, 59

Interior of

60, 61

Plan, preliminary, of

58, 59

Reproduction of, ill.

112

Plan for, by H. Exall

58

Reproduction of, ill.

58

Plan for, by E. Faxon

58, 59

Progress of erection of, after fire of 1859

61, 62

Towers of

60, 63, 76, 87a, 90

Walls of

60

Fourth Building

Arcade of, closed off

86, 88

Archway of portico of, closed off

Photograph of, ill.

86

Building costs of

78, 79

Building fund, subscribers to

74, 75

Building progress reports concerning,

1868, 1869

77, 78

139

Campaign to raise funds for

74, 75

Cattle kept in cellar of

79, 80

Chapel of

77, 79, 84, 85, 88, 91

Photographs of interior of, ills.

85

Completed, 1870

80, 81

Descriptions of

77-79, 81-93

East entrance porch of

83

First steps in building of

76

Foundation walls of pronounced sound, 1867

76

Great Hall in

87, 91

Library of

77, 79, 83, 84, 88

"Passage" in

86

Plan of

Discussion of

88

Illustration of

88

Plans for, by Rives, described

76, 77

Quotation about, from Ellen Glasgow

Page following Title page

Rives appointed architect for, 1867

76

Roof, slope of

81, 83

Verandah (porch, portico) of

86, 87

Views of exterior of

From east

Drawing by Alfred L. Rives, ill.

82

Drawing of 1887, ill.

99

Photograph by Anderson, 1881, ill.

101a

Photograph of 1928, ill.

82

From southeast

Photograph of 1870s, ill.

90

Enlargement of, ill.

90

From south

Photograph of 1880s or '90s, ill.

87a

From west

Photograph of 1920s, ill.

85

Wall sections of, ill.

92

Walls of

87-90

Window detail of arcade of, ill.

86

Restored Building

Mention of

81, 82, 102-105

Photographs of east front of, ills. Frontispiece,

114

Plan of, ill.

104a

Process of restoration of

102-105

Rededicated, 1931

105

Wren Building, authorship of

Attributed by Hugh Jones to Sir Christopher Wren

12, 106

Debate concerning, between Waterman and Lodge

106-108

Statement concerning, by Prentice Duell

13

Wythe, George

Professor at college

35

YORKTOWN Centennial

97