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Tour College of William & Mary on your summer road trip to Williamsburg
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Wren building from the back, College of William & Mary
Don’t wait until next summer or even next year to check out possible colleges for your youngster. College tours in the spring can be a hectic mad dash from school to school, so take in a few colleges at your leisure as you plan your family summer vacation road trip.
If you plan to visit Colonial Williamsburg this summer to make that history class come alive, add a few hours touring The College of William & Mary, which is the second oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Only Harvard, with the claim of Boston Latin School origins, is older, although the W&M students like to make a case for the fact that it wasn’t an institute of higher learning or Harvard at that time.
The college in Williamsburg was founded in 1693 by a Royal Charter from King William III and Queen Mary II. William always seems to get top billing, but I have a neat shirt which puts things in the right order, with the message, “Mary & William. Never under estimate the power of a woman."
Students at William and Mary are in good company, as Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, Henry Clay, and 16 signers of the Declaration of Independence were educated at William & Mary. The academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa was established there in 1776. The history and tradition of learning provides an outstanding academic environment.
The Historic Campus has several buildings worth touring. Construction began on the Wren Building in 1695, and it was completed by 1700. It was named after Sir Christopher Wren, who is said to have modeled the original structure. Thomas Jefferson made plans to complete the building as a quadrangle, but the War of Independence halted that construction project. The building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt over the years, being finally restored in the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in the 1920s. Several of the red brick Flemish Bond walls remain. It is the oldest U.S. academic building still in continuous use.
Other historic buildings include the Brafferton, built to house the college Indian School, and the President’s House. In 1781 General Cornwallis evicted College President James Madison, cousin of the future president, and his family from the house and used it as the British Headquarters. A short time later fire destroyed the interior, but it has been rebuilt.
Admission information sessions followed by a campus tour are usually given at 10:00 or 2:30 daily, and reservations are not needed. However, when there are special events, or new students are arriving for orientation, such as August 21-28, tours will not be offered, so check the site for dates.
Read about another college with historic buildings, Roanoke College in Virginia.
Read College tours 101 articles by Examiner Blair Baker.
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