Colonial Williamsburg

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Williamsburg Historic District
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)
View of Duke of Gloucester Street
Location:	Williamsburg, Virginia
Built/Founded:	1927
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Reference #:	66000925 [1]

Colonial Williamsburg is the historic district of the independent city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Colonial Williamsburg consists of many of the buildings that formed the original colonial capital of Williamsburg in James City County from 1699 to 1780, with all traces of later buildings removed. Colonial Williamsburg was the center of Government, Education and Culture in the colony of Virginia. Williamsburg was also built around four main buildings which were the Raleigh Tavern, College of William and Mary, The Governor's Palace, and Bruton Parish Church.

Contents 1 Historical restoration 2 History 2.1 Jamestown 2.2 Middle Plantation, College of William and Mary 2.3 Williamsburg becomes the Capital 2.4 Capital moves to Richmond 3 Recreation and Restoration 3.1 Dr. Goodwin and the Rockefellers 4 Merchandising 5 Colonial Williamsburg Today 5.1 A tourist destination 5.2 Grand Illumination 5.3 Local lingo 5.4 Reenactments 5.5 Financial Troubles 5.6 Publicity 6 Getting There, Getting Around 6.1 Transportation 6.2 Local Bus Services 7 Historic Triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown 7.1 Colonial Parkway 7.2 Jamestown 7.3 Yorktown 7.4 Commercial enterprises 8 Criticism and Controversy 9 See also 10 Media 11 Notes 12 Further Reading 13 External links

[edit] Historical restoration

Colonial Williamsburg is an example of a living history museum, an open-air assemblage of buildings populated with historical reenactors whose job it is to explain and demonstrate aspects of daily life in the past. The reenactors (or interpreters) work, dress, and talk as they would have in colonial times. While there are many living history museums (such as Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts or Castell Henllys in the UK), Colonial Williamsburg is unusual for having been constructed from a living town whose inhabitants and post-Colonial-era buildings were removed. Unlike other living history museums, however, anyone can walk through the historic district of Williamsburg free of charge at any hour of the day. Charges apply only to those visitors who wish to enter the historic buildings to see arts and crafts demonstrations during daylight hours, or attend scheduled outdoor performances such as the Revolutionary City programs.

Early in the 20th century, the restoration and recreation of Colonial Williamsburg, one of the largest historic restorations ever undertaken, was championed by the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin and the patriarch of the Rockefeller family, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., along with the active participation of his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, who wanted to celebrate the patriots and the early history of the United States.

Some of the missing Colonial structures were recreated on their original sites during the 1930s. Many other structures were restored to the best estimates of how they would have looked during the eighteenth century. Most buildings are open for tourists to look through.

A main source of tourism to Williamsburg, Virginia and the surrounding area, Williamsburg is meant to be an interpretation of a Colonial American city with exhibits including dozens of authentic or accurately-recreated colonial houses, American Revolutionary War history exhibits, and the town jail, which includes an authentic stocks and pillory display. Other notable structures include the large Capitol and the Governor's Palace, each carefully recreated and landscaped as closely as possible to original 18th century specifications. Dependency structures and animals help complete the ambiance.

Colonial Williamsburg is owned and operated as a living museum by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the non-profit entity endowed by the Rockefeller family. Although it is not directly affiliated with the nearby Colonial National Historical Park, the nearby Colonial Parkway and attractions at Jamestown and Yorktown presented by state and federal entities are complementary adjuncts to the restored area of the colonial city. With Colonial Williamsburg as its centerpiece, the Historic Triangle of Virginia is a much visited tourist destination. However, attendance at Colonial Williamsburg peaked in 1985 at 1.1 million, and has been in decline ever since.^[2]

Ada Louise Huxtable, noted architecture critic, wrote in 1965: "Williamsburg is an extraordinary, conscientious and expensive exercise in historical playacting in which real and imitation treasures and modern copies are carelessly confused in everyone's mind. Partly because it is so well done, the end effect has been to devalue authenticity and denigrate the genuine heritage of less picturesque periods to which an era and a people gave life."[1]

A more nuanced interpretation may be that of University of Virginia Professor of Architectural History Richard Guy Wilson, who notes that Colonial Williamsburg is a superb example of an American suburb of the 1930s, with its inauthentically tree-lined streets of Colonial Revival houses and segregated commerce.

[edit] History

[edit] Jamestown

On May 13, 1607, at a small low-lying wooded peninsula, virtually an island, the Jamestown Settlement was established on the south side of what is now known as the Virginia Peninsula by English colonists. Soon about a dozen subsidiary settlements such as Martin's Hundred and Henricus were established in areas along the James River.

The first meeting of a representative government group in the American colonies was held at the Jamestown Settlement on July 30, 1619, making Jamestown the first Capital of Virginia. Among the 22 members of this first legislative group was the governor, who was appointed by officials of the Virginia Company in London. The governor in turn appointed six important members of the colony to be his council. The other 15 members were elected by the free men of the Virginia Colony who were over 17 and also owned land. This body, known as the House of Burgesses, later became the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly.

See also: Jamestown, Virginia

[edit] Middle Plantation, College of William and Mary

Middle Plantation was originally established in 1632. Unlike Jamestown and other early settlements along the rivers and navigable waterways, Middle Plantation was located on high ground about half-way across the Virginia Peninsula between the James and York Rivers. Not only was it at the highpoint of the width of the peninsula, it was also at the western edge of a geographic plateau of the Tidewater Region, from which the land slopes eastward down to sea level at the lower end of the peninsula. This was a natural point to build a line of defense for the lower peninsula during early conflicts with the Native Americans.

In 1676, after the State House at Jamestown was burned during Bacon's Rebellion, the House of Burgesses met at Middle Plantation, which was nearby. With education long a goal of the colonists, the College of William and Mary was founded in 1693 and established adjacent to Middle Plantation beginning in 1694. George Washington received his surveyor's license from the school. Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall were among many of Virginia's (and the nation's) future leaders who received their higher education at the College of William and Mary, a tradition which has continued for hundreds of years. The Commonwealth of Virginia has operated the College since 1888, when it reopened the institution after several years without operation.

[edit] Williamsburg becomes the Capital

The statehouse (capitol building) in Jamestown burned again on October 20, 1698. Once again, the legislators found themselves meeting at Middle Plantation. The following year, in 1699, in a meeting held by the colonists, a group of students from the College of William and Mary submitted a proposal to move the capital to Middle Plantation, to escape the dreaded malaria and mosquitoes that plagued the Jamestown Island site. The capital of the Virginia Colony was relocated to Middle Plantation.

Soon thereafter, Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg by Royal Governor Francis Nicholson, proponent of the change, in honor of King William III of Great Britain. The new site was described by Nicholson as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil" and was seen as a glorious vision of future utopia.

In 1705, the first Capitol building in America was built at the end of the Duke of Gloucester Street. Williamsburg was to be the capital of Virginia for the remainder of the Colonial Period. It was the center of the political and social life of Virginia for most of the 18th century. Famous members of the House of Burgesses which met in the Capital there included Patrick Henry, George Washington, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson. A fire destroyed the building in 1747. It was rebuilt, but fell into disrepair after the American Revolution. The building now standing on its site is a 1930s recreation of the 1705 building, designed by the architects Perry, Shaw & Hepburn. The new Capitol was dedicated with a ceremonial meeting of the Virginia General Assembly on February 24, 1934.

As a tradition in Virginia, since 1934, Virginia's state legislators have reassembled for a day every other year in the Capitol building at the east end of Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area.

[edit] Capital moves to Richmond

During the American Revolutionary War, in 1779, the Capital of Virginia was moved to Richmond, about 55 miles (90 km) west for security reasons, and there it was to stay.

For many years thereafter, the colonial section of Williamsburg was neglected as the modern town was built around it. By the early 20th century, many of the older structures were in poor condition, and were no longer in use. The site on high ground and away from waterways was also not reached by the early railroads, whose construction began in the 1830s. About 50 years later, when Collis P. Huntington built the new Chesapeake and Ohio Railway through the area in 1881, his main purpose was the through shipment of coal from West Virginia to Newport News and the new coal pier on the harbor of Hampton Roads at the southeastern tip of the Virginia Peninsula. In fact, the entire Industrial Revolution also seemed to only pass by Williamsburg, with barely a flag stop.

Williamsburg relied on three institutions: The Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), The College of William and Mary, and the Court; it was said that the "500 Crazies" of the asylum supported the "500 Lazies" of the College and town. Colonial-era buildings were neglected in the wake of the Civil War, which had a much larger presence in the minds of the townsfolk. Williamsburg had several Civil War commemorations every year, the most important on May 5, the anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg. On May 5, 1908, Williamsburg dedicated a monument to Confederate soldiers and sailors and placed it prominently on the Palace Green. [2]

[edit] Recreation and Restoration

[edit] Dr. Goodwin and the Rockefellers

The Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, became rector of Williamsburg's Bruton Parish Church in 1903. The energetic 34-year old native of Nelson County was soon leading a successful campaign to save and restore the historic church building, which had been built beginning in 1711. Dr. Goodwin was also an instructor at the nearby College of William and Mary, home of the historic building that would come to be called the Wren Building. He completed the church restoration in time for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Anglican (Episcopal) Church in Virginia in 1907.

Dr. Goodwin was transferred by the Church, and worked in upstate New York until his return in 1923. What he saw in further deterioration of colonial-era buildings both saddened and inspired him. In 1924, fearing that the many other historic buildings in the area would be destroyed as time went on, he started a movement to preserve the buildings in the historic section of the town. After working for several years to interest potential individuals or organizations to assist with funding, Dr. Goodwin was fortunate in this effort draw the interest (and major financial commitment) of John D. Rockefeller Jr., the wealthy son of the founder of Standard Oil. Rockefeller's wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller was also to play an active role.

Re-creation and restoration started on November 27, 1926 with the noted designer Arthur Shurcliff as the chief landscape architect and Perry, Shaw & Hepburn as architects. Concerned that prices might rise if their intentions were known, Rockefeller and Goodwin kept their plans a secret. They quietly bought up properties using false identities so that nobody would realize what they were doing. Of course, that much property suddenly changing hands was noticeable, and after two years of increasingly nervous rumors, Goodwin and Rockefeller finally revealed their plans at two town meetings on June 11 and 12, 1928.[3]

Most townspeople seem to have been contented to sell their property and expressed enthusiasm about the plan, but a few had qualms. Major S. D. Freeman said, "We will reap dollars, but will we own our town? Will you not be in the position of a butterfly pinned to a card in a glass cabinet, or like a mummy unearthed in the tomb of Tutankhamun?"[4]

Goodwin and Rockefeller demolished 720 Williamsburg buildings that postdated 1790, many of them considered historic at the time. Since then, Colonial Williamsburg (CW) has been nearly completely recreated. It features shops, taverns and open-air markets in the colonial style. The Governor's Palace, the Wren Building, and the Capitol building are among the significant buildings built to conjectural designs during the 1930s. Of the approximately 500 buildings in the historic area, 88 are original.

In the western side of the district, near the College of William and Mary, modern shops have been grouped under the name "Merchant's Square". Dating from the 1930s, Merchant's Square was an effort of Williamsburg to provide for a modern, auto-oriented shopping center within the Historic Area. The district is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Merchandising

Central to the Rockefeller vision of Williamsburg was the need for retailing to not only pay for the upkeep of Williamsburg, but also to aid in educating visitors through affordable reproductions. From the beginning, CW has been a national leader in the idea of selling museum-quality reproductions of items in its collection. The Williamsburg Reproductions program took this effort to a new level; items sold in CW's Craft House were either inspired by or exact reproductions of items in the collections. Vendors such as Wedgwood, Charles Overly, Kittinger, Martin Senour, Kirk Steiff Co. and Virginia Metalcrafters have made products licensed by Colonial Williamsburg.

[edit] Colonial Williamsburg Today

[edit] A tourist destination

Colonial Williamsburg is a combination of a historical theme park and a living history museum. It has become one of the more popular tourist destinations in the world for families and groups.^{[citation needed]} With its historic significance in democracy, it and the surrounding area have been the site of many summit meetings of world leaders.^{[citation needed]}

The Visitor's Center near the Colonial Parkway features a short movie, "The Story of a Patriot", which was made in 1956 and has been criticised for its indifference to the realities of a slave-owning society.[5] Visitors may park at the Visitor's Center as automobiles are restricted from the restored area. Wheelchair-accessible shuttle bus service is provided to stops around the perimeter of the Historic District of Williamsburg, as well as Jamestown and Yorktown during the peak summer season.

The costumed interpreters have not always worn Colonial dress. As an experiment in anticipation of the Bicentennial, in summer 1973 the hostesses were dressed in special red, white, and blue polyester knit pantsuits. Visitors were confused and disappointed and the experiment was dropped at the end of summer.[6] For the Bicentennial docents wore historical costume after all.

[edit] Grand Illumination

The Grand Illumination is an outdoor ceremony and mass celebration involving the simultaneous activation of thousands of Christmas lights held each year on the first Sunday of December. The ceremony was invented in 1935, based loosely on a colonial (and English) tradition of placing lighted candles in the windows of homes and public buildings to celebrate a special event such as the winning of a war or the birthday of the reigning monarch. The Grand Illumination also has incorporated extravagant fireworks displays.

[edit] Local lingo

When visiting Colonial Williamsburg, it helps to know some of the local lingo. Locals, students, and employees frequently call Colonial Williamsburg "CW." The main portion is often called the "Restored Area" or the "Historic Area." One of the main streets, Duke of Gloucester, is called "DOG street."

"Confusion corner" is the unwieldy intersection of York Street, Francis Street, Page Street and Lafayette Street. "College corner" is the unwieldy intersection of Jamestown Road, Richmond Road, North and South Boundary Streets, and the head of Duke of Gloucester Street (in front of the Wren Building of The College of William and Mary, itself often called simply "The College.") The intersection is nicknamed as such due to the irregular traffic pattern where right-of-ways are unclear.

[edit] Reenactments

Many times there are reenactments by volunteers in period costumes representing Colonial Willamsburg.

[edit] Financial Troubles

In a front-page article in The New York Times on 31st December, 2006, it was reported that the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, struggling because of dwindling attendance and lack of sufficient endowment funds for upkeep, will offer the Carter's Grove mansion and grounds for sale to a private purchaser, possibly as soon as January 2007. The article stated that the dilemma of historic museums and houses is that there are too many of them, upkeep is too expensive, and fewer people are visiting them. ^[3]

[edit] Publicity

CW has hired former NBC journalist Lloyd Dobyns to produce podcasts for the museum where he usually interviews various staff members about their particular specialty. ^[4]

[edit] Getting There, Getting Around

[edit] Transportation

The closest commercial airport is Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport about 15 minutes driving distance away. Williamsburg is about midway between 2 larger commercial airports, Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport, each about an hour drive. The land transportation service from Richmond is more dependable time-wise due to periodic traffic delays from Norfolk at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Amtrak offers a passenger rail service stop at Williamsburg, as does Greyhound and Carolina Trailways with intercity buses.

Williamsburg is located adjacent to east-west Interstate 64 and the parallel U.S. Route 60 passes through the city. Many visitors also approach via State Route 5, a scenic byway from Richmond which passes many of the James River Plantations, or from the south via State Route 31 and the Jamestown Ferry. A bicycle trail along SR 5 is in the planning stages.

Williamsburg offers good non-automobile driving alternatives for visitors. The area has both a central intermodal transportation center and a public transit bus system.

The Williamsburg Transportation Center is located in the restored Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) station, and is a combined intermodal facility with taxicabs, Amtrak passenger railroad service, and intercity bus service provided by Greyhound Lines (and its Carolina Trailways subsidiary) and Hampton Roads Transit which provides two express routes (one from downtown Newport News and one from Virginia Beach). The transportation center is centrally located near the downtown, restored areas, the College of William and Mary, and Colonial Williamsburg's Visitor's Center.

[edit] Local Bus Services

Main article: Williamsburg Area Transport

The community's public bus system, Williamsburg Area Transport (WAT), has its central hub at the transportation center. Various color-coded routes, with buses accessible to disabled persons, serve many hotels and motels, restaurants, stores, and non-CW attractions in City of Williamsburg and much of neighboring James City County and part of York County. There is a transfer point between the WAT's Grey Line (US 60 East) route and HRT's Route 116 (Mall-Hall) off Warwick Blvd on Elmhurst Street at Lee Hall, just inside Newport News' city limits.

Colonial Williamsburg (CW) operates its own fleet of buses with stops close to attractions in the Historic Area, although no motor vehicles actually operate on Duke of Gloucester Street (to maintain the colonial-era atmosphere). During the peak summer months, CW also operates buses to Jamestown and Yorktown attractions, for visitors who prefer to park their personal vehicles at the main Visitor's Center parking area.

Both WAT and CW operate a route known as a "Gray Line". However, an easy reference is the distincitive colors of the fleets: WAT buses are burgundy, beige, and white, while CW buses are all gray and white.

The College of William and Mary also operates some coordinated bus services for students and employees.

Buses run every ten minutes until 10pm every single day.

[edit] Historic Triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown

The Historic Triangle is located on the Virginia Peninsula and includes the colonial communities of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, with many restored attractions linked by the Colonial Parkway.

[edit] Colonial Parkway

The National Park Service's Colonial Parkway joins the three popular attractions of Colonial Virginia with a scenic roadway shielded from views of commercial development. This helps visitors mentally return to the past and maintain the ambiance while moving between the major attractions by motor vehicle or bicycle. There are often views of wildlife and waterfowl. Near the James River and York River ends of the parkway, there are several pull-offs with views and wildlife feeding opportunities. No trucks are allowed and animals and birds have right-of-way over vehicles.

Some visitors choose to approach the area from the south by water from Surry County with a ride aboard one of the Jamestown Ferries. Weather and daylight permitting, passengers usually see the Jamestown Island much as the first colonists may have approached it. The replicas of Christopher Newport's three tiny ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery are docked near the northern ferry landing. Both the Jamestown Ferry and Colonial Parkway are toll-free.

[edit] Jamestown

Today, visitors can go to the Jamestown National Historic Site, Jamestown Festival Park, Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Island attractions. Included are recreations of a Native American village, replicas of sailing ships and a colonial fort, and archaeological sites of the Jamestown Rediscovery project where current work is underway.

[edit] Yorktown

There are two large visitor centers at Yorktown, battlefield drives, and a waterfront area.

[edit] Commercial enterprises

Notwithstanding the successful efforts to provide a non-commercial atmosphere at the three Historic Triangle areas (and on the Colonial Parkway between them), there are many hotels, motels, campgrounds, restaurants, shops and stores, gasoline stations, and amusements close by. Several major attractions are: Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a major theme park located just east of Williamsburg in adjacent James City County on U.S. Route 60.

• Williamsburg Pottery Factory is also nearby on U.S. Route 60 a few miles west of Williamsburg in James City County.
• Water Country USA is a water park located on State Route 199 just east of Exit 242 on Interstate 64 in York County.

[edit] Criticism and Controversy

Some residents of Williamsburg, including Major S. D. Freeman and Cara Armistead, questioned the 1928 transfer of public lands (as compared to private properties). The most painful incident was in January, 1932, when the large marble Confederate Civil War monument was removed from Palace Green, where it had stood since 1908, and relocated in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, on the outskirts of town. Many citizens, although supportive of the Colonial reconstruction, felt this was too much obliteration of their history. The case went to court, and eventually the monument was relocated to a new site east of the new courthouse. [7]

Colonial Williamsburg has been criticized for neglecting the role of African-Americans in Colonial life. When it first opened in the 1930s, it had segregated dormitories for its reenactors. White people were allowed to see African-Americans as historical servants, but not as modern free people; African Americans were permitted to visit, but not to stay in any hotel, eat in any of the restored taverns, or shop in many of the stores. [8] In the 1950s, African-Americans were only allowed to visit Colonial Williamsburg one day a week. In 1982, in reaction to increasing scorn of its one-sided portrayal of elite white life, Colonial Williamsburg added African-American interpreters as slaves. In 1994 it added slave auctions and slave marriages; the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference protested. In 1999 Colonial Williamsburg added a new program to explain slavery and its role in Colonial America.

There has been some debate in the historical community as to the wisdom of eradicating all traces of a town's recent history in favor of an idea of its earlier history, particularly if, as in this case, more buildings are invented than are restored.

[edit] See also

• John D. Rockefeller Jr
• Rockefeller family
• Carter's Grove
• College of William and Mary
• Hampton Roads
• Living history
• State Route 199 (named the Humelsine Parkway after Carlise H. Humelsine, a former curator and president of Colonial Williamsburg)

[edit] Media

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further Reading

• Coffman, Suzanne E. and Olmert, Michael, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia 2000. ISBN 0-87935-184-5
• Gonzales, Donald J., Chronicled by. The Rockefellers at Williamsburg: Backstage with the Founders, Restorers and World-Renowned Guests. McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications, Inc., 1991.
• Richard Handler and Eric Gable, The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina 1997. ISBN 0-8223-1974-8
• Huxtable, Ada Louise, The Unreal America: Architecture and Illusion, The New Press, New York 1997. ISBN 1-56584-055-0
• Scott Magelssen, Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance, Scarecrow Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8108-5865-7

[edit] External links

• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's official website
• The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry, by Will Molineux An article from the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, 2004.
• State Tourism Website - Virginia is for Lovers
• Family Vacations to Colonial Williamsburg

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.