WILLIAMSBURG - AUGUST 1984

COLONIAL VIRGINIA

Colonial Williamsburg is the historic district of the independent city of Williamsburg and was the centre of Government, Education and Culture in the colony of Virginia. It consists of many of the buildings that formed the original colonial capital of Williamsburg in James City County from 1699 to 1780, and was built around four main buildings: the Raleigh Tavern, the College of William and Mary, the Governor's Palace, and the Bruton Parish Church. 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 for families and groups.


"CAPITOL - The reconstructed building, located at the eastern end of the Duke of Gloucester Street, was the seat of Virginia's General Assembly from 1704 through 1780"


"GENERAL COURTROOM was the Capitol's room where the most important Virginia civil and criminal cases were heard"


"PUBLIC GAOL (JAIL) - Virginia's General Assembly ordered a "substanciall Brick Prison" to be built in Williamsburg soon after it decided to make the city the colony's new capital. Known as the Public Gaol, the building's construction was authorized by an act of August 1701"


"RALEIGH TAVERN - Established about 1717, the Tavern was named for Sir Walter Raleigh, who had attempted the first colonization of Virginia in 1585. Balls were held there. Jefferson, a student at the College of William and Mary, attended one with Rebecca Burwell (he called her "Belinda") on October 6, 1763"


"KING'S ARMS TAVERN, «The finest food, beverages, etc. both foreign and domestic». Opposite Raleigh Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street, the King's Arms was known in colonial times as the restaurant where the elite met and ate"


"COURTHOUSE - Williamsburg's citizens assembled at the Courthouse at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, May 1, 1783, to celebrate the end of the war with England – just as they had gathered seven years earlier to hear lawyer Benjamin Waller proclaim from its steps the Declaration of Independence"







"WILLIAMSBURG COLONIAL HOUSES"


"AMAZON"


"CALECHE"


"DR. McKENZIE'S APOTHECARY, a store by the Governor's Palace, where one can buy items like those sold in the 18th century, such as herbs, spices, and apothecary jars"


"GOVERNOR'S PALACE - Home to seven royal governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson drew a floor plan of the Palace in 1779, perhaps with a view to remodelling. The government, however, moved the next year to Richmond, and nothing came of the plans. On December 22, 1781, a fire that may have begun in the basement destroyed the building"


"PALACE ENTRANCE HALL"


"PALACE - Butler"


"PALACE - DINING ROOM. From the 1930s until 1980 the reconstructed Palace was elegantly furnished with fine British and American antiques arranged in what is now recognized as the Colonial Revival style. Subsequent research confirmed that the rooms, though handsome, bore little resemble to their 18th-century counterparts. In 1981, the detailed 1770 estate inventory of Governor Botetourt's furnishings enabled curators to replicate the interior decor of the 18th-century with precision"


"PALACE FORMAL GARDENS"


"THE WILLIAMSBURG THEATRE - The rich history of The Kimball Theatre dates back to January 12,1933 when the doors opened to players from the College of William and Mary performing the play «The Recruiting Officer», which records indicate was the first play staged in the first theater in British North America just a few blocks away on Palace Green"