Colonial Williamsburg is a trip back into the founding of the United States
Travel around the country, and you will find many places that offer “historical recreations.” Places where you will find actors in costumes demonstrating the manner in which people lived in a place, at a particular time. The grand-daddy of them all is Colonial Williamsburg , in Virginia. Williamsburg was the second capital of the Colony of Virginia, after the statehouse on Jamestown Island burned down in 1698. It was already home to William & Mary College, the second oldest college in the United States, so it was a natural choice. Williamsburg served as the capital for eighty-one years, until Thomas Jefferson moved the legislature to Richmond. The Royal Coach For the next one hundred and thirty years, Williamsburg was a sleepy, backwater, college town. It sat away from the major rivers and railroads in the state. The main businesses were the college and the Eastern Lunatic Asylum. Over time some colonial era buildings had been modernized, but many had been abandoned or h...