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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