Colonial Williamsburg: The First 100 Years

As more automobiles hit the roads, Williamsburg’s landscape began to change. Some of the city's historic buildings were converted into gas stations and garages. Medians lined with telephone poles and fire hydrants sprang up in the center of the newly paved Duke of Gloucester Street. By 1924, there were plans to run a highway from Richmond to Norfolk down this main street. Many embraced these new conveniences while others saw them as threats to the city’s historic fabric.

Blacksmith Ferrante “Fred” Ferrari created much of the ironwork for the Palace, including the weather vane and balcony railing. This pattern for the balcony, which appears throughout the Historic Area, is based on a railing in England. Ferrari, who was born in Italy and settled in Newport News, produced metalwork for the 1926 restoration of the George Wythe House.

As early as the 1930s, Foundation painters tracked paint colors throughout the Historic Area. They painted wooden panels with historic colors on one side and, on the reverse, wrote specific pigment mixing instructions. This paint sample board was the first of 10 mounted in the paint laboratory in the early 1950s. The lab also contained keys to paint boxes, stepladders and ladder racks. Along with the other nine boards, over 1,000 samples document paint use throughout the Historic Area.

An eye-catching sign looked as if liquid was pouring into this tankard. 18th-century signs often used imagery rather than words in a society where literacy was limited.

After the success of the Travis House, Colonial Williamsburg opened more eateries on the sites of 18th-century taverns. Visitors enjoyed dishes based on 18th-century recipes tailored to modern appetites in spaces decorated with reproduction furnishings and tableware. In 1941, Chowning’s Tavern opened as a casual eatery with an alehouse atmosphere.

Lord Botetourt’s estate inventory lists “60 Plates,” but what did they look like? Archaeological evidence offers a clue. Fragments in a pattern known as “Liverpool birds” were found at the Palace site, suggesting there had once been a large set on the site there. The pattern dates to around the time Botetourt occupied the Palace. Curators purchased intact 18th-century examples and furnished the building with reproductions.

The Governor’s Palace reopened in 1981 after a 3-year closure. For the first time, it reflected the occupancy of a single royal governor, Norborne Berkeley, fourth Baron de Botetourt.

The installation brought the building to life using furnishings, architecture, landscape and interpretation to discuss the governor's role and the daily routines of free and enslaved household staff.

This coat of arms was surrounded by a display of swords and guns in the front hall, which was based on similar sites in England.

The discovery of Wolstenholme Towne, a lost 17th-century settlement adjacent to Carter’s Grove, was one of the most important events in American archaeological history.

Among the notable finds were two intact face-covering helmets (known as “close helmets”) — the first of their kind discovered in the New World. Close helmets were worn with suits of armor, parts of which were also found. Conservators worked with NASA to create this 3D-printed replica, which documents the condition and helps preserve the original.

Opened in 2013, the tin shop is the only example of a practicing preindustrial tinsmith’s operation in a museum setting. Tinsmiths make a variety of objects, including coffee and chocolate pots, tinderboxes, camp kettles and even speaking trumpets.