College of William & Mary

Chartered in 1693 and the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States after Harvard — the only one of the nine colonial colleges in the South, and the one that educated Jefferson, Monroe, Tyler and four signers of the Declaration of Independence. The nickname, Alma Mater of the Nation, is not entirely self-awarded.

The campus divides into three eras. The Ancient Campus holds the Wren Building, the Brafferton of 1723 and the President's House of 1733, the oldest continuously occupied presidential residence in the country. The Old Campus surrounds the Sunken Garden, a long recessed lawn modelled on Chelsea Hospital in London and the social centre of student life. The New Campus runs west toward Lake Matoaka through woodland, past the Crim Dell and the wildflower refuge.

Also here is Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved, dedicated in 2022 — a curved brick structure with a channel of water and names inscribed as they are recovered, acknowledging the people who built and served the college. Free to walk at any hour, and directly adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg.