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Blacksmith
This working shop is one of several buildings associated
with the prosperous industrial site. Inside the shop are tools and materials
typical of a blacksmith's business in the colonial period. Coal fired
forges and hammers, anvils, files, saws, punches, chisels, and many
other tools are used to shape iron and steel into useful articles. Most
of the work that colonial blacksmiths completed was repair work, because
it was cheaper to buy finished products from England. (Reconstructed
on the original site)
Bruton Parish Church
At the corner of Duke of Gloucester Street and Palace Green, Bruton
Parish Church stands as a strong link between the past and the present.
From 1715 to the present time this building has been in continual
use, a fine architectural example of the colonial church in America,
and a reminder in bricks and mortar of the part religion played in
the daily life of eighteenth-century Virginia.
The state supported the Anglican church in colonial Virginia. Made
up of twelve men, the vestry regulated church affairs and determined
the annual taxes necessary to pay the minister's salary, provide relief
for the poor of the parish, and repair the church. Free Virginians
were required by law to attend divine services at least once each
month and could be fined for failure to do so. All officeholders were
obliged to conform to the Anglican church, and all taxpayers - Anglicans
and dissenters alike - were expected to support it and participate
in its sacraments.
It was considered an honor in colonial times to be buried within
the confines of the church. Among the gravestones that can be seen
there is that of a past royal governor, Francis Fauquier. (Original
building)
Capitol
For eighty years, Williamsburg was the political center of
Virginia, England's largest, wealthiest, and most populous American
colony. At the Capitol, the General Assembly debated and framed legislation,
and the courts dispensed justice. The H-shaped plan of the Capitol reflects
the makeup of Virginia's two-house government system, comprised of the
Council and the House of Burgesses. The King of England appointed a
governor who selected a council of twelve men who served for life. The
office of burgess in the House of Burgesses was the only elected office
in Virginia. In order for legislation to be passed, both the council
and the House had to agree. (Reconstructed on the original foundation)
Courthouse
Built in 1770, the courthouse housed the James City County
Court for more then 150 years. Court was held on the second Monday of
every month and lasted until all cases were heard. Lesser crimes such
as not attending church, petty theft, cheating at cards, gossiping maliciously,
and all cases involving slaves were tried here. The justices were prominent
landowners. All elections were held on the courthouse steps. (Original
building)
Geddy House and Foundry
This property may well have been put to more intensive use in a greater
variety of trades and crafts than any other site in the town of Williamsburg.
The occupations of gunsmith, founder, cutler, blacksmith, silversmith,
jeweler, engraver, watch finisher, milliner, and import merchant were
all practiced here at some time. James Geddy lived and worked here
until 1777, becoming the town's best known silversmith and often advertising
his wares and services in the columns of the Virginia Gazette. One
notice revealed a concern on Geddy's part that his shop was located
so far from the Capitol; the reasonableness of his prices would, he
hoped, "remove that Objection of his Shop's being too high up
Town…and the Walk may be thought rather an Amusement than a fatigue."
Among his customers was George Washington.
Geddy was not just a tradesman, but he was also a leader in his community.
Like his fellow artisans, he belonged to the "middling"
class, which owned property, enjoyed the rights of all Englishmen,
and could vote for the city's representatives in the House of Burgesses.
(Original building)
George Wythe House
Perhaps one of the grandest and most impressive private dwellings
in town, the Wythe house represented the aspirations of the Virginia
gentry during the second half of the eighteenth century. Behind the
house, excavations established the locations of the major outbuildings
- smoke house, kitchen, laundry, lumber house, poultry house, well,
dovecote, stable, and two "necessary houses" or privies (toilets).
The house served as headquarters for General Washington just before
the siege of Yorktown. George Wythe was one of the most influential
men of the Revolutionary era; he probably did more to shape Thomas Jefferson's
ideas than any other man. Thomas Jefferson studied law under Wythe and
later referred to him as "my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth,
and my most affectionate friend through life." (Original building)
Governor's Palace
This was the official residence of seven royal governors, from Alexander
Spotswood, who supervised its building, to the Earl of Dunmore, who
fled from it before dawn one June morning in 1775, thus ending for
all time British rule in Virginia. When the new commonwealth came
into being, the Palace served as the executive mansion for the first
two governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
The residence of Virginia's royal governor was considered one of
the finest such buildings in British America. The high visibility
and symmetrical formality of this complex did much to reinforce the
importance of the governorship in the eyes of Virginians. The Palace
complex was a carefully orchestrated procession of spaces moving toward
and culminating in the presence of the man sworn to uphold the authority
of the English monarch in Virginia. The architectural setting of the
governor's residence was intended to instill in the colonists respect
for executive power and prerogative.
The formal vista along Palace Street toward Francis Street, the elaborate
gardens with a canal and falling terraces, the enclosed forecourt
with its iron gate and royal beasts, the magnificent display of arms
in the entrance hall, and the elegant appointments of the upper middle
room, where the governor received petitioners, were features that
appear to have been introduced during Spotswood's time. (Reconstructed
on the original foundation)
Hay's Cabinetmaking Shop
On this site, a succession of cabinetmakers made some of
the finest furniture in the colonies. Like London and other American
cabinetmakers, they also repaired furniture and musical instruments,
resilvered mirrors, and made exotic "Gothic" garden fences.
Williamsburg cabinetmakers also ran an elaborate funeral service that
included expensive coffins and hearse rentals. (Reconstructed on the
original site)
King's Arms Tavern
Jane Vobe, one of Williamsburg's most successful tavern keepers,
ran the tavern. During the war she supplied food and drink to American
troops; Baron Von Steuben ran up a bill of nearly 300 Spanish Mill Dollars
for lodging, meals, and beverages. The law required tavern keepers to
provide food, drink, a place to sleep, and a place to stable horses.
The county government regulated the prices for the public sections,
and all tavern prices were the same. The taverns were a place for socializing
and entertainment; cards, dice, and conversation were as important as
food and drink. (Reconstructed on the original site)
Magazine
The magazine, erected in 1715, was a government building
and was used to store arms and ammunition that were sent from London
for the defense of the colony. The magazine was the site of a significant
incident on April 21, 1775, when weapons and gunpowder were by Governor
Dunmore's troops. (Original building)
Market Square
Market Square, a green open space about halfway between the College
of William and Mary and the Capitol, was set aside as a permanent
area for markets and fairs by an act of the General Assembly early
in the eighteenth century. Market Square's central location made it
a favorite place for public notices, official announcements, communal
celebrations, and elections.
There before dawn on each market day - as often as six times a week
later in the century - the town slowly came alive. People from nearby
farms brought produce in creaking wagons and carts. Sometimes cattle
and sheep, leading to the square, competed for road space and were
driven on by shouting children and yelping dogs. In the predawn light,
vendors unloaded meat, eggs, milk, butter, fish, crabs, oysters, fruit,
and vegetables, displaying their wares on makeshift counters of pine
boards.
Milliner
The Margaret Hunter shop presents its gabled end to the street.
Most of the brickwork is original. Like some other shopkeepers in Williamsburg,
Margaret Hunter lived above her store. The shop occupies a favorable
spot on the busy downtown end of Duke of Gloucester Street. The sales
take place in the front of the shop, and there is a small counting room
in the back. The milliner was a shopkeeper who sold fashionable household
goods. An important business woman, she imported cloth and accessories,
principally for women and children. (Original building)
*Palace Green
The palace green is a long expanse of open ground that reaches
to the Governor's Palace. The green adds to the importance of the Palace
and makes it look very English. The green helped set the tone for how
the palace was perceived. (Reconstructed on the original site)
Powell House
The Benjamin Powell House is named for a successful builder
who obtained the property in 1763. A general contractor Powell worked
on a number of public buildings in Williamsburg. He and his wife had
two daughters, nine known slaves (three women and six children), and
apprentices. Powell, a patriot, was a member of the Admiralty Court,
a group of people responsible for disposing of confiscated goods from
pirates. He is considered one of the "middling" sort. Both
of his daughters married into the upper-class, called the gentry. (Original
structure)
*Prentis Store
The Prentis Store is the best surviving example of a colonial
store. In the colonial days, it was a successful general store with
long blank walls used for advertising. The tea shipment that Yorktown
patriots threw into the York River during their Tea Party of 1774 was
consigned to this firm. (Original building from 1740 until the American
Revolution)
*The Printing Office, Post Office, and Bookbindery
The building where these services were housed served as the
town's communication hub. The protruding windows decorated with the
most recent prints from England not only proclaimed the latest fashions,
but helped to create a demand for them. Reading was recognized as an
important element in commerce, and the newspapers, prints, magazines,
Bibles, and inexpensive books that were sold fueled the great information
explosion. (Reconstructed on the original site)
*Public Gaol
Serving time in the Gaol (pronounced jail) was not a punishment;
accused offenders were imprisoned in the Gaol only until their cases
came to trial in the Capitol, before either the General Court or the
criminal court. The Gaol was a holding area for runaway slaves, lunatics,
and accused offenders who were awaiting trial, an appeal, or the death
penalty. People convicted of serious crimes by the General Court could
be fined, branded, or hanged. (Original building)
Rural Trades, Cooper, Carpenter, and Windmill
Rural trades are trades that would take place on plantations or small
farms. Often slaves were trained to complete these tasks.
Outside of town, production sites such as a mill or farm would have
needed coopers to construct and repair casks for cider, grain, tobacco,
and other products.
*Today, carpenters use eighteenth-century tools and methods to reconstruct
outbuildings and other structures; many materials are shaped by hand.
It took about as much time to erect a house in eighteenth-century
Williamsburg as it does today, if only construction hours are counted
and not those hours required to prepare the building materials.
Colonial Virginians depended on local mills, like Robertson's Windmill,
to grind the grain from which they made bread, a staple of their diet
that appeared at nearly every meal. The windmill is called a post
mill, because the whole superstructure revolves on top of a single
huge post of hewed timber. Around the windmill lie fields and pastures
planted with corn, wheat, tobacco, and other agricultural products
important to Virginia's economy in the eighteenth century. (All are
reconstructions)
Stocks, Pillory, and Whipping Post
Convicted offenders were punished immediately after the verdict was
given. Often their sentence included public flogging at the whipping
post, conveniently located just outside the courthouse. Petty offenders
were locked in the stocks or the pillory or were cuffed to the whipping
post, where they were exposed to public ridicule and humiliation.
Wren Building
This is the oldest academic structure in English-speaking America
that is still in continuous use. The cornerstone was laid in 1695,
and although fires in 1705, 1859, and again in 1862 did serious damage,
the massive exterior walls are largely original.
Added in 1732, the chapel is evidence that in colonial Virginia the
established Anglican church played a central role in education as
well as in government. Students in all four branches of the college
(grammar school, Indian school, school of philosophy, and school of
divinity) began the day at 6:00 or 7:00 with morning prayer service
in the chapel and ended it with evening prayer or song.
It was here, in the school of philosophy, that Thomas Jefferson enrolled
at the age of seventeen and studied for two years. Benjamin Franklin
was the first man to receive an honorary Doctorate degree from the
College of William and Mary. In the crypt below the chapel are buried
Sir John Randolph, his sons Peyton and John "the Tory,"
Governor Botetourt, Bishop James Madison, and several other distinguished
Virginians. (Original building)
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Historic Triangle
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