$30M Gift to Honor W&M Chancellor

“The Foundation’s mission is to partner with the university to provide vital resources for scholarships, professorships, research and program funding. That is why I am so excited by the flexible design and the way the building can evolve to meet the needs of future students, faculty and staff,” says W&M Foundation Chair Janet Rollins Atwater ’84, P ’17, P ’20. “This is the definition of ‘adaptive re-use’ — reimagining century-old spaces for cutting-edge work, thanks to this investment by our generous trustee.”

Named in honor of a Methodist family who helped to fund construction, Brown Hall was built in 1930 by the Women’s Missionary Society of the Virginia Methodist Conference. It originally served as an off-campus residence for Methodist women students at William & Mary. Later, it served as men’s housing, Army housing, rented space for service families, upperclassmen residences and most recently a freshman dormitory.

Archaeological digs that William & Mary faculty and students and researchers at Colonial Williamsburg have conducted over the years show that the site directly beneath Brown Hall originally had been home to the Williamsburg Bray School, which enslaved and free Black children attended in the 18th century. A historical marker at the site commemorates the Bray School’s foundation in 1760 and operation there for several of its 14 years. The surviving Bray School building was moved to a different location on Prince George Street in 1930 and relocated to Colonial Williamsburg property in 2023.

William & Mary is partnering with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to uncover, document, preserve and disseminate the history and legacy of the Williamsburg Bray School. The W&M Foundation has provided three time periods for excavation on the site during the past three years, including this spring and summer, in addition to earlier archaeological work in partnership with Colonial Williamsburg and the university.

Plans call for exhibits inside the new Gates Hall that will honor and tell the story of the Bray School and the children who studied there, with input from the school’s descendant community in designing the commemoration.

“It’s fitting that this building will honor Chancellor Gates, given that during his tenure, William & Mary has advanced its partnership with Colonial Williamsburg, has undertaken the Bray School project and has engaged with the community to tell a more expansive history of our university and the nation,” says Ann Marie Stock, the university’s presidential liaison for strategic cultural partnerships.

“I’m exhilarated to think about world leaders converging at Gates Hall on the site where the Bray School once stood and where enslaved and free scholars were empowered by learning,” she says. “While new discoveries are being made in this vibrant research hub, we will also continue the archaeological and genealogical research and oral histories that will further illuminate the rich history of the Bray School.”

Prior to the opening of Gates Hall, GRI, IIC and WGC are operating from and in partnership with Swem Library in a new section they’re calling The Hive. They have already collaborated on projects, including the Nepal Water Initiative to examine fish biodiversity and the Whole of Government Center’s National Security Conference. In addition, WGC and IIC are developing a geographic information system course, and GRI faculty teach in a military training program led by WGC.

By bringing these three academic centers together, William & Mary fulfills important strategic goals in Vision 2026: to expand the university’s reach, educate for impact and evolve to excel.

“Gates Hall will provide room to host thought partners from outside W&M, which could include diplomats-in-residence from the U.S. Department of State, military experts, scientists from Conservation International or linguists from Tokyo University. The next generation of national security leaders — whether at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command or through the Global Innovation Challenge for undergraduate students — will receive training that leverages the talents of the combined centers in ways that traditionally siloed buildings cannot,” says WGC Director Kathryn H. Floyd ’05.

The classrooms and shared spaces also will be available for use by all W&M students, faculty and staff.

“We are thrilled that state-of-the-art technology in the new building will allow our students and faculty to connect with partners around the world in new ways,” says Global Research Institute Director Mike Tierney ’87, M.A. ’88, P ’15, the George & Mary Hylton Professor of International Relations. “But there is something about face-to-face engagement that ignites the creative process. Random interactions spark ideas that lead to creative solutions. This new building is designed to encourage those spontaneous encounters.”