Kevin - In response to your request on the VA-History listserv for the
history of the Chapel, I offer the following email. Please note this by no means
complete, but is something I had together as part of another email discussion of
the Wren Chapel Cross debate last week. Its context is I was replying to a
friend who offered the argument that removal of the cross was revising history
or revising the history of the building:
The "Wren Building" is the 7th edifice to have been built on this site in
affiliation with the College.
It is a "model" drawing heavily from the 2nd incarnation (Colonial Period)
and original version of the building. The current building was the first major
project undertaken by the Rockefellers in restoring Williamsburg to its
Colonial era ambiance. Everyone should keep in mind that Colonial Williamsburg
sadly DESTROYED or REMOVED tons of 19th and 20th century history (houses,
structures, graves, etc.) in converting Williamsburg into the living museum of
Colonial History that is heralded today.
So, factually speaking, the current building is a 75-year old composite
replica. In addition, the actual long standing and Colonial name of the building
was "The College" or "the College Building". It was re-christened when the
current version was completed in the in the 1930s in honor of an unsubstantiated
claim Christopher Wren had designed the building....
First Wren Building:
The second structure, completed in 1723, was a little shorter in height, had
a smaller cupola, raised basement, and was still "L" shaped. The original
Chapel was an add-on completed in 1732 - completing the "U" imprint. It has a
crypt beneath it as well. The Chapel was used for regular church services and
as part of the divinity school (no longer part of the school). So the current
restored version of the Wren building was a composite copy of version 2.5.
The Building burned in 1859 again and was built with two Italianate Towers as
seen in Civil War depictions. This building burned in 1863 (drunk Union
Cavalry soldiers).
In the late 1800s the College was re-opened and the building again rebuilt.
With the turn of the century the Wren building looked as seen below (view from
the rear - Chapel is the right wing): only 2 floors high with the Chapel and
Great Hall (left) and Chapel (right) both bricked and blocked up.
Below is a photo of the restoration version (view from the rear).
So boiling it down to absolute historical facts....its all context. The
first 2 versions of the Wren building(s) had no Chapel at all and what you see
today, with all the "history" it evokes, is basically an amalgamated spruced up
and improved replica built in the 1930s with a new, good PR, less-historically
relevant name.
In all this, my perspective is things evolve and this includes the uses of
edifices and structures. The Wren Building, has served as a dormitory, a
college, a grammar school, an Indian School (should go that tact as far as the Tribe
feathers in the outgoing logo goes?), twice served as State Capital, twice as
a hospital in wars (Rev. and Civil Wars). It has built 7 times in differing
forms; each epoch distinctly different. So in trying to tie the argument of
the removal of the cross to "revising" history, is a rather weak position given
the nature of the Wren Building's inherent name change/rebuilding/multiple
use. In my mind you end up with the connotation or particular history folks
apply to the building and emotions such connotations evoke.
W&M historically speaking, became a state school in 1906, allowed women to
attend in just after WWI and finally allowed blacks to attend in 1956. It is
absurd to say go back to being historically correct with regard to women and
African-American attendance isn't it? The modern and current use of the Chapel
is no longer the jurisdiction of Christian service, Christian faith, etc. W&M
is no longer a private school, does not have a religious affiliation or a
divinity school. It has evolved from such epochs in its history into its current
roll of a modern equitable, secular, institution of higher education. The
Chapel serves to host weddings, services, fraternity rituals,
I will say, the best thing about this whole controversy if all of the thought
it provokes and the elements infused into its discussion: history, politics,
religion, civics, freedoms, rights, etc. The sad part is the heated and
uncompromising attitudes some folks bring to the table and the often horrendous
lack of courtesy and politeness manifested in some that enter the debate.
Regards,
Tom McMahon
Class of 1994
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