THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508260372
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Surrounded by elm and sugar hackberry trees survives the heart of The College of William and Mary and the country's oldest hallowed academic hall.
On Friday, William and Mary faculty and students, along with Colonial Williamsburg, celebrated the 300th birthday of the Sir Christopher Wren Building, the spired centerpiece of the college and its most familiar landmark.
``The Wren Building,'' said William & Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan, ``is the soul of the college.''
The stately brick building is named for Sir Christopher Wren, a famous English architect who designed the original Georgian structure.
At the top of the three-story edifice, an iron weather vane carries England's royal crown and the date ``1693'' - the year that King William III and Queen Mary II of England sent a royal charter to clergyman James Blair to establish a college so ``that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners.''
The monarchs also included 2,000 pounds and 200,000 acres in their charter. Ironically, their investment would eventually pay off big, but not for Britain.
Instead, some of the greatest minds of the American Revolution would study in the Wren Building, including Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence.
All told, three presidents, four signers of the Declaration of Independence and 16 members of the Continental Congress studied at William and Mary during the Colonial period.
``This building is one of the great buildings of our country,'' said Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough, who spoke at the college's annual convocation Friday, marking the start of the new academic year.
``It ranks, in my view, with the Capitol in Washington, the Brooklyn Bridge, Jefferson's campus in Charlottesville, the St. Louis Arch - buildings which express the spirit that lifts us above the mundane, the everyday.
``This building is the foundation of all the other buildings because it stands for education. We cannot maintain a free society unless we have an educated population. And the signs are not encouraging.''
The history of the Wren Building goes far beyond academics.
It has witnessed and endured much during its three centuries - including three fires and untold numbers of sophomoric pranks.
On a fall night in 1705, the building was set on fire and by midnight only the thick, red-brick walls remained. In 1859, a fire started in the chemistry lab, quickly consuming the library, the chapel and most of a great collection of scientific apparatus. And three years later, during the Civil War, a group of Union soldiers - some of them drunk - set the building on fire yet again.
In between, there were plenty of undergraduate antics - throwing brickbats into cafeteria windows, parading cows on the second floor. And to protest a late Christmas break, in 1702, students barred teachers from the building.
In 1928, when the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg started, the Wren was the first public building to be rebuilt.
President Timothy Sullivan said the building's survival, since it's first foundation bricks were laid, on Aug. 8, 1695, inspires those on campus to have confidence in the future.
Kostas Skordas, a 19-year-old sophomore, said the building is a ``symbol of what the college stands for,'' a commitment to education and a better future. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bill Barker, left, a historical interpreter for Colonial
Williamsburg, portrays Thomas Jefferson in the great hall of the Sir
Christopher Wren Building, below. Tourists walk past the statue of
Lord Botetourt at the famous building on the campus of The College
of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
by CNB