On October 22, 1976 Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at William & Mary in Williamsburg hosted the third and final presidential debate. Step closer and you can imagine the largest auditorium on campus, with two floors of seating where art shows, musical acts, theatre, assemblies and guest speakers have drawn crowds. Its name honors Phi Beta Kappa, the first academic honor society created in the United States, founded at the College in 1776.
The hall you see opened in 1957 as the first building on the College’s "new campus" after the original Phi Beta Kappa Hall in a different building burned down in 1953. One of the building’s most electric nights came on October 22, 1976, when it hosted the third and final presidential debate between Jimmy Carter (D) and Gerald Ford (R), moderated by Barbara Walters, with panelists Joseph Kraft, Jack Nelson and Robert Maynard. The hall continued to serve campus life for decades, until the aging building began demolitions in 2019.
Notice the College campus stretching out where a presidential debate once drew crowds in 1976.