The College of William & Mary existed before Williamsburg did. The building that would become its center was standing in 1695 — before the capital moved from Jamestown, before the street grid, before the city had a name. It burned and was rebuilt in 1716 and again in 1732, and still the walls held. In 1776, Phi Beta Kappa, the first Greek-letter academic fraternity in America, was founded inside it. Thomas Jefferson studied here. When the dissolved House of Burgesses needed a room after Governor Botetourt shut them out in 1769, they walked to the Raleigh Tavern's Apollo Room and passed the Non-Importation Agreement anyway. Down Duke of Gloucester Street, Bruton Parish Church has stood since 1715 — original walls, not a reconstruction — where Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe worshipped while Virginia was still a colony. The college endured. The church endured. They are the reason the city has a shape at all.
