The campus Lodges…

It is hard to choose just one location to talk about when W&M has such a beautiful campus – if you haven’t visited yet please do. I found my favorite spot, however, one lazy afternoon over lunch. At the time, my friend lived in one of the highly coveted Lodges. They are small houses located in the center of campus, equipped with a kitchen, living room and front porch. That day, we put our lunch from the Sadler CenterRoFC into environmentally friendly to-go containers and relaxed on the couch his roommates had dragged onto the porch. I felt curiously lucky knowing someone in the Lodges as I set my lunch down and a feeling of home spread over me.

People-watching at W&M is a popular hobby since there are so many great spots to spread out your books to ‘study’ and the Lodges are located next to the best people-watching spot on campus, the SC Terrace. W&M is small enough that you will see friends walking across campus yet will be meeting new people every day. As we waved to friends who passed by, we speculated about secret societies (more specifically, which of our friends might be sneaking around putting up homecoming banners on campus), discussed his plans after graduation and his role in the Undergraduate Honor Council.

W&M demolished a handful of Lodges to make room when the Sadler Center was built in 1994. Before construction, I realized while sitting on the Lodge porches, you could watch the football games in Zable stadium. I appreciated how much the campus has changed in such a short time and how W&M is constantly making the facilities bigger and better for future generations.

Granted, you probably should know some of the residents of the Lodge you choose to eat lunch on, so this might not be as ‘public’ of a place as you were hoping, but you will soon learn that the students are incredibly friendly. I can bet they would not mind that much if you stopped by to see why I love this location so much. I will always remember that afternoon and I hope that when you arrive on campus you’ll find your own favorite spot!

– Mary Bonney ’10