Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded at the College of William and Mary in Virginia in December 1776.
The College of William & Mary in Virginia, is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the ninth-oldest in the English-speaking world. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity". In his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, Richard Moll included William & Mary as one of the original eight "Public Ivies". The university is also one of the original nine colonial colleges.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
The Flat Hat Club is the popular name of a collegiate secret society and honor fraternity founded in 1750 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The fraternity, formally named the "F.H.C. Society", was founded at the College on November 11, 1750. The society maintains relationships with societies at the University of St. Andrews and Amherst College.
The Wren Building is the oldest building on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with the Brafferton and President's House, these buildings form the College's "Ancient Campus." With a construction history dating to 1695, it is the oldest academic building still standing in the United States and among the oldest buildings in Virginia. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
The Flat Hat is the official student newspaper at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. It prints Tuesdays during the College's academic year. It began printing twice-weekly in 2007; since its inception in 1911, The Flat Hat had printed weekly. It returned to weekly printing in 2015. In fall 2020, The Flat Hat began printing biweekly due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Flat Hat staff operates out of its office in William and Mary's Sadler Center.
The Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools is a combined public school division which serves the independent city of Williamsburg and James City County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region in southeastern Virginia.
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OI) is an independent research organization located in Williamsburg, Virginia, sponsored by William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. Founded in 1943, the OI supports the scholars and scholarship of vast early America—a term used to describe the capacious histories of North America and related geographies, including foundational histories of indigenous peoples, the scale and impact of transatlantic slavery, and multidimensional European colonization and settlement, from the 1450s to the 1820s.
The Virginia Informer was a student-run publication at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The newspaper contained five sections: News, Features, Sports, Arts & Culture, and Opinion. It was a member of the Collegiate Network and a member of the Associated Collegiate Press.
The Raymond A. Mason School of Business is the business school of William & Mary, a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. The school offers Full-time MBA, Part-time MBA, Executive MBA, Masters in Accounting, Master of Science in Business Analytics and Undergraduate Business Degrees. The school is named after alumnus and founder of Legg Mason, Raymond A. "Chip" Mason.
The Crim Dell bridge is a wooden bridge on the College of William & Mary’s campus in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, and is considered one of the College's most visually appealing elements. Crim Dell is the pond that the bridge crosses, but the bridge is commonly referred to as Crim Dell.
Colonel Ebirt was the unofficial school mascot for the College of William & Mary from 2001 to 2005. A green and gold frog that donned a tri-corner hat, Colonel Ebirt was originally used as a promotional tool for Colonial Williamsburg. It became involved with the College athletics program when someone from the William & Mary gymnastics program volunteered to wear the costume. "Ebirt" is Tribe spelled backwards, and "Colonel" comes from the school's historical and geographical ties to Williamsburg, Virginia, specifically that of Colonial Williamsburg.
The Seven Society, Order of the Crown & Dagger is the longest continually active secret society of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The clandestine, yet altruistic group is said to consist of seven senior individuals, selected in their junior year. While, historically, graduating members formally announced their identities each spring, today's membership is steeped in mystery and is only revealed upon a member's death.
The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
WMTV is the student-run television station at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It plays syndicated television shows, movies and original student-created productions. It was founded in 2001 by Ross Johnston as a spin-off of the College's Student Information Network.
The Williamsburg Bray School was a school for free and enslaved Black children founded in 1760 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Opened at Benjamin Franklin's suggestion in 1760, the school educated potentially hundreds of students until its closure in 1774. The house it first occupied is believed to be the "oldest extant building in the United States dedicated to the education of Black children".
The President's House is the residence of the President of the College of William and Mary in Virginia in Williamsburg, Virginia. Constructed in 1732, the building still serves its original purpose and is among the oldest buildings in Virginia. Since its construction only one of the college's presidents, Robert Saunders Jr., has not moved into the building, which is let for free to the president. The President's House is William & Mary's third-oldest building and the oldest official college presidential residence in the United States.
