Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
William Archer Rutherfoord Goodwin was an Episcopal priest, historian, and author. As the rector of Bruton Parish Church, Goodwin began the 20th-century preservation and restoration effort which resulted in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He is thus sometimes called "the Father of the Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg."
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. These styles are associated with the houses, churches and government buildings of the period from about 1600 through the 19th century.
Carter's Grove, also known as Carter's Grove Plantation, is a 750-acre (300 ha) plantation located on the north shore of the James River in the Grove Community of southeastern James City County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States.
Thomas Everard (1719–1781) served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia from 1766 to 1767. He was a clerk at the House of Burgesses and lived in the Brush-Everard House in Colonial Williamsburg. He supported the fight for independence from the British Empire, including serving on the committee that selected delegates from Virginia for the Continental Congress.
Bassett Hall is an 18th-century farmhouse located in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the home of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
The buildings and architecture of New Orleans reflect its history and multicultural heritage, from Creole cottages to historic mansions on St. Charles Avenue, from the balconies of the French Quarter to an Egyptian Revival U.S. Customs building and a rare example of a Moorish revival church.
Vernon Meredith Geddy Sr. was an attorney based in Williamsburg, Virginia. He attended the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia, and served W&M as the head coach for the William & Mary Tribe men's basketball team for the 1918–19 season.
The Colonial Williamsburg Courthouse was constructed from 1770 to 1771 in the Georgian style. The courthouse is located facing Market Square with Duke of Gloucester Street running directly behind it. The property was acquired by Colonial Williamsburg in 1928, and was added to the National Register as a contributing property to the Williamsburg Historic District on October 15, 1966.
William Dering was an American dancing master and painter active primarily in Virginia. Very little is known about his life or career; what few details have been established are known primarily from newspaper advertisements, court records, journal entries, and ledgers and from his few surviving paintings.
Philip Rundell (1746–1827) was a highly prosperous English jeweller, fine jewellery retailer and master jewellery makers' business proprietor, known for his association with royalty. With John Bridge, he ran and co-owned Rundell and Bridge, a firm with widespread interests in the jewellery and precious metal trades.
Lucy Burwell Page Saunders was an American author.
The Williamsburg Bray School was a school for free and enslaved Black children founded in 1760 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Opened at Benjamin Franklin's suggestion in 1760, the school educated potentially hundreds of students until its closure in 1774. The house it first occupied is believed to be the "oldest extant building in the United States dedicated to the education of Black children".
Ann Wager was a teacher and schoolmistress in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
The President's House is the residence of the President of the College of William and Mary in Virginia in Williamsburg, Virginia. Constructed in 1732, the building still serves its original purpose and is among the oldest buildings in Virginia. Since its construction only one of the college's presidents, Robert Saunders Jr., has not moved into the building, which is let for free to the president. The President's House is the College's third-oldest building and the oldest official college presidential residence in the United States.
The Brush-Everard House, also known as the Everard House and Thomas Everard House, was built by John Bush ca. 1718. One of the oldest houses in Virginia and in Williamsburg, it is located on the east side of Palace Green and next to the Governor's Palace. It is a "five-bay, timber framed, story-and-a-half house of hand-split weatherboard".
Gowan Pamphlet (1748–1807) was an American Baptist minister and freedman who founded the Black Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. He was one of the first, and, for a time, the only ordained African American preacher of any denomination in the American Colonies.
Edith Cumbo was a free mixed-race Black woman and entrepreneur who lived in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her life story is taught in American history curriculum to illustrate the challenges that free African Americans faced during the period of the American Revolution.
Lydia "Liddy" Broadnax was a free Black woman, former enslaved person, and businesswoman who lived in Williamsburg and later Richmond, Virginia. Broadnax has been regarded by some historians as the possible concubine of her former owner and later employer, Founding Father of the United States George Wythe. She was denied the right to testify in the trial regarding his murder because of her race.
