Wren Building - College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia
Posted by: 
Lat34North
N 37° 16.251 W 076° 42.523
18S E 348500 N 4126287
Quick Description: The Wren Building is the signature building of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 9/11/2007 7:24:26 PM
Waymark Code: WM26BB
Views: 91
Long Description:The
Wren Building is the signature building of the
College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with the
Brafferton and President's House, these buildings form the
College's Historic Campus.
Construction of the first building on this site began August 8,
1695 and was completed by 1700. After several fires and
rebuildings, the Wren Building was the first major building
restored or reconstructed by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., after he and the
Reverend Dr.
W.A.R. Goodwin began Colonial Williamsburg's
restoration in the late 1920s. Although the building's current
state dates to the 20th century restoration by Boston architects
Perry Shaw & Hepburn, the College named the building in honor
of the English architect Sir Christopher Wren, after the Reverend
Hugh Jones, a William and Mary mathematics professor, wrote in 1724
that the College Building was "modeled by
Sir Christopher Wren". Perry Shaw and Hepburn's
restoration reflects the building's historic appearance from its
reconstruction in 1716 after a 1705 fire to 1859, when it burned
again.
The building is constructed out of red brick in the style of
Flemish Bond, as was typical for official
buildings in 17th and 18th century Williamsburg, including several
walls remaining from previous structures, and it contains
classrooms, offices, a refectory (known as the Great Hall),
kitchen, and a chapel (added as a south wing in 1732). On the top
of the building is a weather vane with the number 1693, the year
the College was founded. In the early 1770s, plans were drawn up to
complete the building as a quadrangle. Alumnus Thomas Jefferson
(class of 1762) drew up a floorplan submitted to Governor Dunmore
and foundations were laid in 1774. The looming War of Independence
halted further contruction, however, and the fourth wing was never
completed. The foundations, however, still exist.