College of William and Mary

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

College of William and Mary Project Summary (PDF) 1.26MB

Founded in 1693, the College of William and Mary played a unique role in educating many of the leaders of early America, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe. The campus includes the nation's oldest collegiate building, the Sir Christopher Wren Building, reputedly designed by Wren himself and completed in 1700. In the 1920s the college undertook a major expansion campaign leading to the eventual construction of a Colonial Revival section of the campus to the west. Funding will support historical research and conditions assessment of these Colonial Revival buildings, leading to the creation of detailed preservation plans and laying the groundwork for future nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

College of William and Mary received a Getty grant in 2004 for $150,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose: The goal of the project was to complete the first comprehensive study and campus heritage plan of the Sunken Garden campus at the College of William and Mary. Designed by Charles M. Robinson and Charles F. Gillette in the early 20th century, this unique space was influenced by both Beaux Arts and City Beautiful planning ideals as well as significant aspects of the Colonial revival in America. The project studied archival documentation about its origins in order to understand its historic development as a site and in relation to the institution overall.

Historic Designation(s):Wren Building (National Register of Historic Places; National Historic Landmark); Brafferton Hall, College Yard; Main Building, College Yard; President’s House, College Yard (each designated by the Historic American Buildings Survey).

Planning Process: The College of William and Mary assembled a team of architects, architectural historians, administrators, archivists, and graduate student interns to carry out this project. The team also benefited from the contributions of representatives from the Library of Virginia and also two entities of the college: the Christopher Wren Association and the National Institute for American History and Democracy. Guided by the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties for both historic buildings and cultural landscapes, the team developed a set of preservation guidelines and recommendations for future work.

Integral to the project were individual building dossiers that were developed from an examination of archival documents, including original and current drawings and historic photographs, combined with site visits. The team noted changes made to each building over time and it also completed non-invasive inspections of interior and exterior conditions as part of this documentation.

Outcomes—Products: The effort resulted in the project summary, “The Sunken Garden Campus, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia: A Campus Heritage Preservation Plan” (2008), which focuses on the extension of the colonial campus beyond the Wren Building. The report offers a brief history of the campus, outlines character-defining features of each building within the precinct, and also presents preservation guidelines to assist in the care and treatment of the campus. The summary also delineates the administrative responsibilities of the college’s design review board and other entities in the oversight of its heritage plan, including care and maintenance of the exterior of buildings. It additionally offers recommendations for adaptive reuse of buildings within the precinct.

Outcomes—Strategies and Goals for the Future: It is hoped that the preservation guidelines will be utilized in the future for administrative, maintenance, and adaptive reuse issues that have a long-term impact on the Sunken Garden portion of the campus. It is also expected that this effort is the first step in a larger initiative for future research and campus planning. One such expectation is that the college will consider the development of a cultural landscape report for the Sunken Garden campus to document the history, evolution, and existing conditions of the landscape of this area. The summary provides a beginning foundation for this work.