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Mission Park consists of 4 houses put together to form one huge ugly award-winning concrete monstrosity. The 4 houses are [[Armstrong House|Armstrong]], [[Pratt House|Pratt]], [[Mills House|Mills]] and [[Dennett House|Dennett]]. It looks like a dungeon (or parking garage, depending on whom you ask) from the inside, a cinder block from the outside, and (reportedly) a phoenix from above. However, since the [[Summer 2003]] renovations, it's extremely nice on the inside, featuring large, well furnished lounges for every four hallways, and general lounges on the ground floor with two televisions, two pool tables, and an old but still awesome foosball table. Many people also think Mission is attractive from the outside, especially when you are walking down mission hill and can see Mission Park with the mountains in the background. The effect can be quite stunning. Though the infamous 'Mission hill' can be a (minor) problem, mission makes up for it by having large and well furnished common rooms. To cement its status, mission also has somewhat large dorms rooms, most of which are singles. Be warned the walls are not just paper thin, but the curtains do little to stop light if you happen to be in an inward facing wing. At least the rooms are carpeted so you can lie on the floor and contemplate the value of joining that club you really know nothing about. The complex's class make-up has changed over the years. When it was initially built in the early 1970's, it had a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. From the 1980's until Spring 2006, the vast majority of Mission was sophomore housing; since Fall 2006, Mission has been exclusively first-year housing. As of Fall 2023, Williams introduced Engagement Community housing for first-years. Students could opt into this housing on the housing forms they filled out in the summer. Mission hosted the LGBTQIA+ Engagement Community in MD2, AAPI Engagement Community in MD3, and Latinx Engagement Community in AP3. In that same year, one anonymous student domesticated a squirrel, killed said squirrel, and held a very large funeral. [[Relationships]] between residents of [[West College]] and Mission Park are considered long-distance relationships. ==History== {{Williams College Archives|url=http://www.williams.edu/library/archives/buildinghistories/missionpark/contents.html}} Twelve years after the incorporation of Williams College in 1793, the Second Great Awakening spread from its origins in Connecticut to Williamstown, Massachusetts. Enlightenment ideals from France were gradually being countered by an increase in religious fervor, first in the town, and then in the College. In the spring of 1806, [[Samuel J. Mills]], the twenty-three year old son of a Connecticut clergyman, joined the Freshman class. Mills, after a period of religious questioning in his late teens, entered Williams with a passion to spread Christianity around the globe.
After visiting Williamstown in August, 1866, the Hon. Harvey Rice (Williams Class of 1824) elected to donate the funds to "erect a monument of some kind, on the sacred spot in Mission Park" that Green had marked more than a decade earlier. The twelve-foot tall marble monument, quarried and crafted in the Berkshires, was dedicated by President Mark Hopkins following the Baccalaureate Discourse on Sunday, July 28, 1867. The monument, approved by the Faculty and Trustees of the College, mounts a globe three feet in diameter and proclaims, "The Field is the World." Beneath this inscription is a similitude of the haystack and the names of the five students who sought its shelter while in prayer. Though the original intent was to "embellish the Park with specimens of the trees and shrubs and flowers of every foreign land to which missionaries have been sent" as can be acclimated to the New England weather, this vision never fully materialized. The most dramatic addition to the landscape of the Park was the 1969 construction of the "Mission Park" dormitory. Though the bulk of the building lies on adjacent lands, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted permission for the eastern and westernmost wings to extend into the Park provided the dormitory be given a name of commemorative significance. To that end, "Mission Park" includes four houses named after Mills (Class of 1809) and fellow Williams alumni [[RelationshipsSamuel Armstrong]] between residents of (1862), [[West CollegeJames Pratt]] (1898), and Mission Park are considered long-distance relationships.[[Tyler Dennett]] (1904)