Evening star., 1933-11-26
Back to the Colonial Days
Restoration Historic Wamg Shoes Vy Definite Progress, and Virginia Is to
Colonial -EuAraing Rebuilding Ja
Political and Mzv WAA

fields arose majestic buildings-the re-
Election of the days when William was
King in England and Mary was his
Queen. For the restoration of Williams
burg has its roots in four centuries.
William and Mary reigned from 1859
to 1894, following the deposition Of her
father, James II, from the throne Of
England. Mary died of smallpox in
1894, but her regal husband continued
on the throne until death deprived him
of his scepter in 1902, when he died
from the effects of a fall from his horse.
Perpetuating their memories in tho
New World is the College of William
and Mary, which received its charter
from the crown, under the seal of Privy
Council of England. Rev. DR.. James
Blair, commissary in Virginia of tho
Bishop of London, went to England in
1891 to secure funds and friends for the
educational institution. Their Majesties
received the clerical envoy from the
Western wilderness graciously. They
decreed that the income tax from to-
bacco sent to the English Colonies should
60 toward the upkeep of the college.
They authorized 10000 acres of land
to be given the educational institution
and in consideration the college was to
produce annually two copies of Latin
verse. Caught in the wave of enthusi-
asm for the college, founded to spread
religion and learning in Virginia, the
merchants of London pledged 5000
pounds. Pardoned pirates raised 500
pounds. From these revenues came the
College of William and Mary, founded
in 1893, with DR.. Blair as its first preSi-
dent.
A ND so it is that William and Mary
- boasts of the oldest group of COL
lege buildings in America, with its main
building, facing Duke of Gloucester
street, designed by Sir Christopher
Wren, who rebuilt London after the
famous fire. And, wonderful to say,
fires in the New World failed to dim
the glory of the child of Wren at
Williamsburg, for the building weathered
storms of flames. Federal troops
0o4 ACo Az al AoO6, ou1Al6 Vic 0ICdu
Civil War. But despite setbackS, tho
College of William and Mary survived
to be a beacon of Colonial America,
in the darkness of modernism. It was
in 1928, through Mr.. Rockefeller'S gens
erosity that the work of restoring the
Wren Building to early eighteenth CEN
tury years was started.
Ard in, Nf ;c@o
pher Wren Building, stands the statue
of Lord Botetourt, known as Norborne
Berkeley, sculptured in 1773 in England,
on the eve of the American Revolution.
Once, it stood, honoring this royal Gov
ernor of Virginia, in the old capitol
building, now restored. There are those
that desire that the venerable statue
be placed again in the old capitol,
and circular place has been reserved
for 1t, where tradition says it was of
yore, If the college will surrender it.
The bricks being utilized in the resto-
ration are made in Williamsburg by
hand. DR.. Charles Moore, chairman of
the Fine Arts Commission, explains that
through the courtesy of Mr.. Rockefeller
the brickmakers of Williamsburg were
loaned to the Wakefield Memorial Asso-
citation to make the bricks that were
used to restore the ancestral home of
George Washington on Pope's Greek.
Out of the clay found at Williamsburg
and its environS, the bricks for the
Colonial resurrection are being made. A
North Carolina br1ckmaker Is taking u
leading part in this work, having e.
perimented and rediscovered the ancient