Talk:Wren Building
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[edit] 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
