"Whatever’ll become of Sweet Briar now?”
As an architectural historian, my own thoughts quickly turned from students, faculty and staff to the physical heritage of the college. This is not just a college with a rich history, but one that boasts an architecturally significant collection of buildings on a national level.
The answer to that question posed in 1900 is well known ever since the college opened in 1906 as a bequest from Indiana Williams in honor of her daughter Daisy.
As the first half-century approached, Martha Von Briesen (Sweet Briar College 1931) wrote of the college’s academic progress in an article for the “Iron Worker” in 1952, followed by Martha Stohlman’s 1956 book “The Story of Sweet Briar College.”
These works, and Von Briesen’s 1971 history of the college, fully documented the history of the Fletcher and Williams family who had owned the property since 1830, and the history of the college to that time.
Travis McDonald has been an SAH Member since 1976.
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