Qualla: College of William & Mary

College of William & Mary: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. On December 5, 1776, with the Revolutionary War already a year old, two William & Mary students named John Heath and William Short sat down in the Apollo Room of Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern and founded a secret society. They called it Phi Beta Kappa. The Greek letters stood for "Love of wisdom is the guide of life." The society was the first of its kind in America, the prototype of every Greek-letter fraternity that would follow. The students had no way of knowing that 250 years later their improvised club would still be the highest academic honor an American undergraduate could earn. They were eighteen years old.

Image: Public domain

College of William & Mary: A Royal Charter, A New World College

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smash the Iron Cage, CC BY-SA 4.0. The College of William & Mary was chartered on February 8, 1693, by King William III and Queen Mary II. The charter ordered the creation of "a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good arts and sciences, to be support...

Image: Smash the Iron Cage | CC BY-SA 4.0

College of William & Mary: The Oldest Academic Building in America

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MiguelYerena, CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction on the College Building, now known as the Sir Christopher Wren Building, began on August 8, 1695, and was occupied by 1700. It is the oldest college building still in continuous use in the United States. The original structure burned within a few years and was replac...

Image: MiguelYerena | CC BY-SA 4.0

College of William & Mary: Founders, Firsts, and a Defender of Slavery

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henry Inman, Public domain. Three U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler, took degrees here. George Washington received his surveyor's license from the college in 1749 (he never enrolled as a student) and was later named the college's first American chancellor after the Revolution. ...

Image: Henry Inman | Public domain

College of William & Mary: War and the Long Recovery

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smash the Iron Cage, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Civil War began in 1861, enlistments depleted the student body so completely that on May 10 the faculty voted to close the college for the duration. General Charles A. Whittier reported that thirty-two of thirty-five professors and instructors had joined the Confederate ...

Image: Smash the Iron Cage | CC BY-SA 4.0

College of William & Mary: Restoration and the Modern Tribe

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William & Mary, University Marketing & Advancement Communications, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the 1920s, W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of nearby Bruton Parish Church and a professor at the college, persuaded John D. Rockefeller Jr. to fund a restoration that grew into Colonial Williamsburg. The Wren Building was restored in 1928-1931, the President's House in 1931, the Braffe...

Image: William & Mary, University Marketing & Advancement Communications | CC BY-SA 3.0