Gordon Smith

Natural History of the Berkshires

11/17/09

Field Blog 8: Land Use History for Mission Park

The area that is now known as Mission Park has undergone several changes since colonial settlers first laid eyes on it.

The area that would be my site at Mission Park occupies an area at the north end of housing lots as shown on the original colonial plan for Williamstown that was drawn in 1749. To be more specific, I believe it occupies space touching on housing lots 48, 50 and 52.

For a long period of time between this 1749 map and 1806, it is believed that the area was a hay meadow that may have also been used for grazing animals. The flatness and smoothness of the topography of the current Mission Park also indicates that it was plowed for crops at some point as well during this period, though when is again uncertain.

Though Samuel Sloan was not the original owner of lots 48, 50 or 52, it is known that he acquired the property containing Mission Park sometime before 1806. This is clear because the area, before it was renamed, was known as “Sloan’s Meadow.”

In 1806, there was a fierce thunderstorm raging over Williamstown, and five students, including Samuel John Mills (class of 1809) were caught in the storm on their way back from a religious congregation. These young men took shelter under a haystack in Sloan’s Meadow, and while they were waiting out the storm, began to talk of the word of God. The course of their conversation led them to decide that they would start spreading the “Gospel on a global basis.” And in this way, the American Foreign Mission was born.

Almost 50 years later in 1854 the College Society of Alumni and the Board of Trustees decided to purchase 10 acres of the land surrounding the original haystack, and renamed the area “Mission Park or Grounds” as a historical park. In 1867, the marble Haystack Monument commemorating the 1806 event was raised in the park.

Since this time, there has been relatively little change to the overall land use of the area. Williams College has maintained the area as a historical park, which seems to have involved groundskeepers maintaining the surrounding area. Trees were grown and trimmed, and based on their diversity, it would not surprise me if at least some of them had been planted purposefully for aesthetic reasons. In addition, the area seems to have been kept for the most part clear of bushes, though it is uncertain how long this clearing has been taking place.

There also have been several building projects completed in Mission Park. In 1895/6, Williams Hall Annex was built in the area that currently contains the Mission Park dormitory. This building was used as an infirmary until 1911 when Thomson Infirmary was built to the north. It was converted into a dormitory by 1919, and was used as freshmen housing starting from 1922.

In 1926, the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house was moved next to Williams Hall Annex, and was renamed Sage Hall Annex. In consecutive years, the two buildings served a variety of purposes: football training housing, dining halls, housing for returning veterans and their families after World War II, and others. Eventually, Williams Annex was torn down in 1968, and it is believed that Sage Annex was moved off of Mission Park.

In the late 1960s through 1971, the current Mission Dormitory was constructed. Mitchell-Giurgola and associates designed the building, and in 1970 the clever architectural design of the building earned its builders a Progressive Architecture design award. The building was opened in 1971, and had cost the college $5,400,000.

As can be seen, the land of Mission Park has been for the most part unchanged since it was made into a historical park: it has not been cleared or plowed, but neither has it been allowed to develop and have succession as would a natural setting due to those who maintain its grounds.

This is a drawing that appeared in Durfee’s Biographical Annals in 1871. As can be seen, the surrounding area is for the most part empty of trees. Keep in mind, however, that this is an artist’s interpretation of the site, and that the monument is actually much smaller than it is portrayed here.

Sage and WIlliams Annexes are the two houses below Williams and Sage Halls where Mission Dormitory now stands. My site (between the annexes and the halls) seems similarly forested then to how it is now.

Mission Dormitory when it was under construction in 1971. The trees in my site look nearly identical to the present.