Talk:Wren Building

Please cite "oldest in continuous use" claim, etc.
William & Mary (doubtless over the objections of its history department, which cares about accuracy) likes to claim (1) that "The Wren Building is the oldest continually used academic building in the U.S." and (2) "According to tradition, the building was designed by famous British architect Christopher Wren" (both statements removed from this page). Neither statement is true.

(1) The Wren was not used during the early 1880s, when W&M closed its doors and ceased to exist as a private college, and it was not used during the Civil War, when (as this article notes) it was used by the CSA. Buildings at other colleges, notably Harvard, continued in use during those periods. Therefore the Wren is not the oldest continually used academic building.

(2) Although it might be technically true that legend attributes the building to Wren, no serious scholar does so, and placing the legend at the top of the article gives it far too much prominence, implying that it has some basis in fact. It does not, and no one who has studied the history of the building (which was not even named for Wren until the 1920s) believes that it does. A single unreliable writer in the eighteenth century once said that the inspiration for the precursor to the Wren (which burned well before his time) was "modelled by" Wren; that was not the building now standing or even the inspiration for the building now standing, i.e. the one built around 1705.

--Shuffl 21:58, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what "history department" is being addressed here, but the "oldest continually used" statement is generally accepted by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which overlaps significantly with the History Department at W&M. While classes abated during the Civil War, President Benjamin Ewell continued to work and study in the building with any available faculty. Advanced study continued despite the absence of students in the lower studies. The fact remains that the Wren Building was built in the 1600s as a school and continues in this facility today. So the claim is fair and reasonable.

--mwcob 10:45, 25 April 2007

But the "building" has been gutted by fire more than once, and then rebuilt. While it appears that the current structure does incorporate parts of the original walls, it is certainly not the original structure. It would be more accurate to describe it as a reproduction that incorporates portions of the original structure. Local pride should not take precedence over historical accuracy. Davidiank (talk) 17:32, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

User:mwcob's claim concerning Benjamin Ewell working in the building during the Civil War is false - following Virginia's secession, he joined the Confederate Army and spent the Peninsular Campaign directing the construction of fortifications at some distance from the town of Williamsburg, while the building was converted into a barracks and military hospital. In 1862, Williamsburg was captured by the US Army and the building was deliberately set on fire so that it couldn't be used by Confederate snipers. In any case, Ewell had been promoted to the staff of General Joseph Johnston and spent the rest of the war (1862 to 1865) far away from Williamsburg. While I suppose it's possible that other faculty (though the faculty was very small during this period and it's likely that Ewell wasn't the only one to become a Confederate officer), it's very unlikely that they would have been able to work in a fire-gutted ruin under military occupation. It's plausible that Ewell, at least, continued to work there after the college closed in 1881 (there's no evidence that any of the other professors remained in Williamsburg during this period and it reopened with an entirely new faculty), but the Civil War interruption is enough to make the claim of "continuous use" overblown. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.254.142 (talk) 20:45, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

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