Merchants Square and Resort Historic District | |
Location | Boundary St., Duke of Gloucester St., S. England St., Francis St., Henry St. Prince George St., Williamsburg, Virginia |
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Coordinates | 37°16′14″N76°42′6″W / 37.27056°N 76.70167°W |
Area | 49 acres (20 ha) |
Built | 1927 |
Architect | Perry, Shaw & Hepburn et al. |
Architectural style | Colonial, Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 06000365 [1] |
VLR No. | 137-5027 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 3, 2006 |
Designated VLR | December 7, 2005 [2] |
Merchants Square is a 20th-century interpretation of an 18th-century-style retail village in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [3]
Conceived in 1927 by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Reverend W. A. R. Goodwin, [4] Merchants Square is considered to be one of the first planned shopping districts in the United States, if not the first. [4] Small shops throughout Williamsburg would move into a centrally located area that used architecture that was in harmony with the restoration's character. William G. Perry, chief architect of the Williamsburg Restoration, designed the shopping district. [5]
Most of the stores and shops are located on Duke of Gloucester Street (DoG St.) right across from The College of William & Mary’s campus. [4] To keep the area as close to historical accuracy as possible, all telephone wires were placed underground, and modern day technologies such as air-conditioning ducts and garage equipment were hidden with shrubs and plantings. [4]
Today there are over 40 shops and restaurants located in Merchants Square. [6] The area is also used for other purposes, such as seasonal concerts, a farmers' market, and special movie screenings. [6]
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the home of the Harrison family of Virginia, after Benjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the ancestral home of two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, who was born there in 1773 and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
York County is a county in the eastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in the Tidewater. As of the 2020 census, the population was 70,045. The county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown.
Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.
James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg.
Montross is a town in Westmoreland County, Virginia, United States. The population was 553 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Westmoreland County. Located in the historic Northern Neck of Virginia, Montross is near the George Washington Birthplace National Monument and the Stratford Hall Plantation. The town's slogan is return to the village.
Yorktown is a town in York County, Virginia. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while York County's population was 66,134 in the 2011 census estimate.
Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It also gave its name to the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater Region.
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.
The Strand Historic District, also known as the Strand District, in downtown Galveston, Texas (USA), is a National Historic Landmark District of mainly Victorian era buildings that now house restaurants, antique stores, and curio shops. The area is a major tourist attraction for the island city and also plays host to two very popular seasonal festivals. It is widely considered the island's shopping and entertainment center. The district includes properties along the south side of Harborside Drive and both sides of The Strand and Mechanic Street from 20th Street westward to 26th Street.
Bruton Parish Church is located in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It was established in 1674 by the consolidation of two previous parishes in the Virginia Colony, and remains an active Episcopal parish. The building, constructed 1711–15, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved early example of colonial religious architecture.
St. John's Church is an Episcopal church located at 2401 East Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Formed from several earlier parishes, St. John's is the oldest church in the city of Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1741 by William Randolph's son, Colonel Richard Randolph; the Church Hill district was named for it. It was the site of two important conventions in the period leading to the American Revolutionary War, and is famous as the location where American Founding Father Patrick Henry gave his memorable speech at the Second Virginia Convention, closing with the often-quoted demand, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" The church is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
The Wren Building is the oldest building on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, which is the "nation’s second oldest seat of higher learning" in the United States. Situated in Old College Yard—of William & Mary's "Ancient Campus", near the more contemporary Merchants Square east of campus—the frequently visited Wren Building anchors that Campus, with its forecourt defined by two further old structures, Brafferton and the President's House. It's architecture is considered Georgian, and as a building in use by The College, and with a cornerstone laid in 1695, it is the oldest of academic buildings still standing and in use in the United States, and among the oldest buildings in Virginia. The Wren Building was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 9, 1960, and has appeared in the Virginia Landmarks Register since September 9, 1969.
Toano, formerly Burnt Ordinary, is an unincorporated community in James City County, Virginia, United States. It is in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District.
Waterford is a unique place of historic significance. The entire village and surrounding countryside is a National Historic Landmark District, noted for its well-preserved 18th and 19th-century character. It is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the Catoctin Valley of Loudoun County, Virginia, located along Catoctin Creek. Waterford is 47 miles (76 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., and 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Leesburg.
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.
Williamsburg Area Transit Authority (WATA) is a multi-jurisdiction transportation agency providing transit bus and ADA Paratransit services in the City of Williamsburg, James City County, York County in the Historic Triangle area and Surry County, VA of the Virginia Peninsula subregion of Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia.
Merchant's Hope was the name of a plantation and church established in the Virginia Colony in the 17th century. It was also the name of an English sailing ship, Merchant's Hope, which plied the Atlantic bringing emigrants to Virginia in the early 17th-century. The Merchant's Hope was owned by a man named William Barker who was a wealthy English merchant and mariner who patented land in Virginia.
The Peyton Randolph House, also known as the Randolph-Peachy House, is a historic house museum in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Its oldest portion dating to about 1715, it is one of the museum's oldest surviving buildings. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 as the home of Founding Father Peyton Randolph (1721–1775), the first and third President of the Continental Congress.
The Colonial Annapolis Historic District is a historic district in the City of Annapolis, the state capital of Maryland, that was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1965 and was geographically further expanded in 1984.
The Old Isle of Wight Courthouse was built in 1750-51 and was used as the main courthouse for Isle of Wight County, Virginia until a new courthouse was built at Isle of Wight, Virginia in 1800. It is located in the Historic District in the town of Smithfield.
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