Acquired by the College: 1980
Alternative Name: James Blair Terrace
Dorms Closed: 2006
Map it for me
The Dillard Complex, also known as James Blair Terrace, is located approximately three miles from the main campus of William & Mary on Ironbound Road. The Complex was formerly part of Eastern State Hospital. The College leased James Blair Terrace buildings #42 and #43 and sixteen acres of land from Eastern State Hospital for student residences between the years of 1965 and 1980. The College assumed title to buildings #42, #43, #46, #47, and #49 as well as 38 acres of land to be renovated and modernized for student housing in 1980. Four former physicians' residences were converted to graduate student housing over the summer of that same year.
The buildings were collectively renamed the Dillard Complex in 1982 and the individual buildings were named as follows: #42, Hughes Hall, after Robert Morton Hughes, a member of the Board of Visitors from 1893-1918; #43, Munford Hall, after Mary Cooke Branch Munford, the first female member of the Board of Visitors from 1920-1924; #46, Alexander Galt House; #47, Gabriel Galt House; #48, Minson Galt House; #49, Patrick Galt House (Board of Visitors Minutes, October 29, 1982, pg. 382-383, 393-395). The 19th Hole, a small convenience store financed by Shamrock, opened in the basement of Munford Hall during the exam week of the 1983 fall semester.
The Dillard Complex had been used for undergraduate housing before its closing in May of 2006. Hardy Hall and Lemon Hall, completed in 2006, housed students that would otherwise have lived in the Dillard Complex.
Between November 2019 and December 2021, Munford and Hughes Hall were demolished. In December 2023, William & Mary Athletics and Campus Recreation announced that Dillard Field would be enhanced with new turf, a scoreboard, and lighting for evening use, thanks to a joint gift by Jennifer Tepper Mackesy ’91, D. Scott Mackesy ’91 and John Goodenow “Goody” Tyler III as part of the W&M Athletics All In Campaign.
References
- University Archives Subject File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library
Further Reading
- "Behind the Brick Walls: From hospital to dorm to abandoned building, the Dillard Complex holds a varied history," The Flat Hat, November 1, 2015.
- "The haunted history of Dillard Complex," William & Mary University Advancement, October 31, 2018.
- Dillard Complex Demolition and Renewal, William & Mary Facilities Management
- "Home field advantage," W&M News, December 14, 2023.