The Haunted Wren Building

The Sir Christopher Wren Building on the College of William and Mary campus in Williamsburg, Virginia, is not only its oldest but also the oldest college building in the entire United States. It was originally built before the city of Williamsburg was even founded, when Virginia was still a colony. It also served as a military hospital during both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Naturally, there are ghosts here – from those that died during the tumultuous wartimes to those laid more peacefully in the crypt that sits beneath its chapel.

Did You Know?

• The building has caught on fire a total of three times
• It is the second oldest college in the country, after Harvard University
• The chapel and crypt were added in 1729 and 1732 respectively
• Several soldiers died here during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars

Is It Haunted?

It’s a 327-year-old building in a key area of early United States history; of course it is! The sound of disembodied footsteps echoes frequently, followed by the eerie sight of dead soldiers marching through the halls before they vanish into thin air.

Then, of course, there is the always creepy crypt beneath the chapel, containing the bodies and spirits of famous Virginians like Lord Botetourt and Peyton Randolph, of the also haunted Peyton Randolph House.

The Marching Dead

The college was closed from 1775 to 1783 and 1861 to 1865 when the military commandeered it for use in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. It was used mainly as a hospital both times, in which its rooms saw dozens of sick and injured soldiers. Many of the more badly and gruesomely injured men did not live to see another day of battle.

Of these, one is sometimes seen lying where a cot would have been in one of the third-floor offices. Bloody and bandaged, he gazes out while gasping for breath before disappearing. Based on the clothing of his that they can make out, most say he’s a Revolutionary War soldier.

Many students who have pulled all-nighters before exams in the Wren have claimed to be visited by another Revolutionary War soldier on patrol. His presence has proved to be both a good and a bad omen depending on the student.

As for the other soldiers seen throughout the building, it seems that most of them are from the Civil War, but their uniforms can appear transparent and blurry, making it difficult to tell which side they are on. They also tend to disappear more quickly than the 18th Century army men.

Tales From the Crypt

In 1729, contractor Henry Cary Jr. began construction on the building’s South Wing, which included a chapel and, below it, a crypt.

Twelve bodies wound up entombed there: Virginia Attorney General and House of Burgesses Speaker Sir John Randolph, his son twice president of the Continental Congress Peyton Randolph, both of their wives, Virginia governor and member of the College Board of Visitors Norborne “Lord Botetourt” Berkeley, several college presidents, and a student who drowned in the campus mill-pond.

The fire in 1859 left the chapel in ruins and left the burials exposed. The graves were then quickly and easily robbed. Three years later, Union soldiers also raided the tombs – the diaries of one specific document the filching of some items of silver from Lord Botetourt’s coffin.

Botetourt’s silver was eventually returned to the college and is now on display at the nearby DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum – but the damage was done, and the spirits were rudely awakened.

The only way to access the crypt today is through a door into the chapel basement by way of the old underground steam tunnels. Those who regularly work in the area, students who have snuck down despite school policy, and the lucky few granted official access for research purposes have claimed to hear screams coming from behind the locked door and see translucent figures lurking in steamy pipe-filled corners.

History of the Wren Building

The Wren Building was chartered in 1693 by King William III and Queen Mary II as a boys’ grammar school, philosophy school, and divinity school. It was built in 1695 by English contractor Thomas Hadley and was dubbed simply “The College” and “The Main Building”.

The College was located in what was then the small town of Middle Plantation, which became Williamsburg in 1699, thanks in no small part to that Main Building. A year prior, the Statehouse in Jamestown burned down – again.

Just like they had in 1676 in the aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion, the Virginia General Assembly moved their operations to Middle Plantation, which at that time had a preferable climate and now the use of the College’s nice new Great Hall.

Students presented several speeches to the House of Burgesses about building the town to its full potential. This swayed the House to agree to move their operations to Middle Plantation permanently unanimously. The town was then renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III, and plans for a more proper central village were then drawn up.

The House continued to meet in the Great Hall until 1704, when the new Capitol Building was completed. When the Capitol burned in 1747, they again returned to the Wren Building for another seven years while it was rebuilt.

One night in 1705, the College saw its first fire break out near the president’s quarters in the North Wing. The blaze continued into the next morning, doing quite a bit of damage though luckily, no one was injured or hurt.

During the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the Wren became a field hospital and barracks primarily for the French but was used by American soldiers as well.

Another fire broke out in the chemistry lab in the wee hours of the morning in 1859. Some students were trapped on the third floor but were rescued by then-college president Benjamin Ewell. The library and the chapel were completely burned, however.

Two years later, when the Civil War began, the Confederacy used the building for hospitalization and general housing for their soldiers.

In 1862, during the Battle of Williamsburg, men from the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry reached the Wren and deliberately set the building on fire since Confederate troops had used it – and they wanted to smoke out any remaining Confederate snipers hiding on the upper floors.

The building was just about gutted, but the Union cavalrymen used its remaining brick walls as part of their defense.

In 1928, John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated five hundred million dollars – or over eight billion dollars today – to the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, including the College of William and Mary campus buildings.

In 1960, the Wren was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places six years later and in 1969 was also added to the Virginia Landmarks Register.