The Grécourt Gates have stood as a symbolic entrance to Smith College since their installation in 1924. Built in honor of the Smith College Relief Unit, the gates memorialize Smith graduates who went to France in 1917 to rebuild areas of Somme destroyed in World War I. In 1924, Smith’s third president, William Allan Neilson, erected the Grécourt Gates, so called because they are a replica of the gates of the Chateau at Grécourt, where the unit had its headquarters.