College of William & Mary — Wren Building

The second-oldest institution of higher learning in the American colonies, founded 1693. The Sir Christopher Wren Building (original structure, rebuilt after fires in 1705 and 1859) housed the college throughout the Revolution and is the oldest college building in continuous use in the United States. George Wythe taught America's first law professorship here, training Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Henry Clay. The college was disrupted by the war — the Wren Building served as a French military hospital after Yorktown — but survived as the seedbed of Virginia's revolutionary legal and political thought.