Martha Barksdale Athletic Field

Martha Barksdale Athletic Field is located at 501 Jamestown Road. It sits next to Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall and Rogers Hall (ISC 2) - at the corner of Jamestown Road and Landrum Drive. Barksdale Field was dedicated on October 10, 1975. The field was designed as women's athletics fields for hockey, soccer, track, and tennis in the 1930s. Over the years, the field has evolved into a venue for intramural football and soccer by students.

In 2004, William & Mary began a plan to construct two residence halls on the site of Barksdale Field. Completed in 2006 at a cost of an estimated $29 million, the Jamestown Residences contain approximately 128,000 square feet of living space for students.

The field honors Martha Barksdale, she entered William & Mary in 1918 as a member of the first class to include women. She was elected the first president of the Women's Student Council, the first house president, the first "Miss William & Mary", and ended her distinguished and groundbreaking student career with an election to Phi Beta Kappa.

After graduation, Barksdale was hired to instruct in the newly established Department of Women's Physical Education, earning a Master's in 1929. Rising through the ranks, she served as acting chairman of the Women's Physical Education Department in 1944 and 1965, eventually teaching or playing nearly a dozen sports before retiring in 1966. In 1970 she received William & Mary's Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award.