Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum and private foundation that serves part of the historic district of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Williamsburg Colonial Historic 301 acre estate includes buildings from the 18th century (as part of the city is the capital of Colonial Virginia), as well as the 17th century, 19th century, and the structure of the Colonial Awakening as well as the newer reconstruction. The Historic Area is the interpretation of the colonial city of America, with exhibitions of dozens of buildings that have been restored or remade associated with the history of the Revolutionary War and its American War. Colonial Williamsburg's historic columns of restoration and recreation of parts of the three main streets of the colonial city and the roads linking them try to show the atmosphere and state of an 18th century American. Colonial Williamsburg's motto is: "That the future can learn from the past".
In the late 1920s, Williamsburg's colonial restoration and reinvention was championed by Reverend Dr. WAR Goodwin, other community leaders, organizations such as the Virginia Antiquities Preservation Association (now called Preservation Virginia), the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rockefeller family, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, to celebrate the rebel patriots and the early history of the United States.
One of the country's largest historical projects and tourist attractions, it is part of the Historic Historical Triangle of Virginia, which includes Jamestown and Yorktown, connected by the Colonial Parkway. The site was once used for conferences by world leaders and heads of state, including the US president. It was designated as the Historic National Historic District in 1960.
Costumed employees work and dress like the people of the day, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction (though not colonial accents). Prominent buildings include the Raleigh Tavern, the Capitol, the Governor's Palace (all reconstructed), as well as the Courthouse, George Wythe House, Peyton Randolph House, Magazines, and the independently owned and functioning All-Bruton Parish Church. The Colonial Williamsburg section of the Historic Area begins just east of College of William & amp; Mary's College Yard.
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Colonial Williamsburg is a historic building and a living history museum. The point runs along the Duchy of Gloucester and the Green Palace that extends north and south perpendicularly. The area is mostly flat, with ravines and streams branched at the edges. The wisdom of Williamsburg City, Duke of Gloucester Street and other historic sites was closed for motor vehicles during the day, for pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, dog walkers, and animal-drawn vehicles.
Surviving colonial structures have been restored as close as possible to their 18th century appearance, with later building footprints and repairs removed. Many of the lost colonial buildings were rebuilt on their original site from the 1930s. Animals, gardens, and addictions (such as kitchens, smokehouses, and privies) add to the environment. Some of the buildings and most of the gardens are open to tourists, except buildings that serve as residence for Colonial Williamsburg employees, large donors, sometimes city officials, and sometimes College of William and Mary associates.
Four bars have been reconstructed for use as a restaurant and two for lodging. There are several craftsmen workshops for period trades, including printing shops, shoemakers, blacksmiths, cooperatives, cabinet makers, gun makers, wig makers, and silversmiths. There are merchants selling tourist souvenirs, books, reproduction toys, pewterware, pottery, and tchotchkes. Some houses, including Peyton Randolph House, Geddy House, Wythe House, and the Everard House are open to tourists, as are public buildings such as Courthouse, Capitol, Magazines, General Hospital, and Gaol. Public Gaol served as a prison for the colonists. Formerly famous inmates include Blackbeard pirate crew who were held in jail 1704 as they awaited trial.
Colonial Williamsburg's operation extends to Merchants Square, a Colonial Revival commercial area designated as a historic district in its own right. Nearby are the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, operated by Colonial Williamsburg as part of its curatorial efforts.
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History of Williamsburg
Statehouse Jamestown, which housed the Virginia administration at the time, was set on fire on October 20, 1698. The legislators then moved their meetings to College of William and Mary in Virginia in Middle Plantation, ending the 92-year-old Jamestown operation as a capital Virginia invader. In 1699, in a graduation practice, a group of College of William and Mary students delivered a speech to endorse a proposal to move the capital to Middle Plantation, as if to escape from malaria - and the mosquitoes that transmit them - from the Jamestown Island site. The landholders interested in Middle Plantation donate a portion of their ownership to advance the plan, and to get the results.
Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg by Governor Francis Nicholson, the first among the proponents of change, to honor King William III of England. Nicholson said that in Williamsburg "crystal clear springs and crystal exploded from the land of champagne". With "champagne," meaning good or fertile. Nicholson owns the surveyed cities and grids arranged by Theodorick Bland taking into account the Brick College Building and the rotten Bruton Paruh Church building that day. The network seems to have wiped out all but the remnants of the previous plan that laid the streets of the monogram of William and Mary, W superimposed on M. The main street was named Duke of Gloucester after Queen Anne's eldest son. Nicholson named the street north of Nicholson Street, for himself, and on the south of Francis Street.
For eighty-one years in the 18th century, Williamsburg was the center of government, education, and culture in the Virginia Colony. Here, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others advanced the British form of government at the Commonwealth of Virginia and then helped to customize the preferred features to the needs of the new United. Union. During the American Revolutionary War, in 1780, under the leadership of Governor Thomas Jefferson, the government moved to Richmond, on the James River, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) west, becoming more centralized and accessible from western countries, and less vulnerable. British attack. It still exists till now.
Colonial Williamsburg's History
With government seats removed, the Williamsburg business flounds or migrates to Richmond, and the city enters a period of slow and slow stagnation and decay. Bumped by progress, in isolation the city retains most aspects of the 18th century. Taken by General George McClellan in 1862 and headed by the Union for that period, Williamsburg escaped the Civil War damage, even though federal soldiers set campus burning and others looted private homes. The site stands on high ground and away from the waterways and is not reached by early railways, whose construction began in the 1830s, and was only reached by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railways in 1881.
Williamsburg relies on work at The College of William and Mary, Courthouse, and Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital); it is said that "500 Crazies" from asylum support "500 Lazies" from campus and city. Colonial-era buildings are alternately modified, modernized, protected, ignored, or destroyed. The construction that accompanied the construction of a World War I rifle cotton factory near Peniman and the arrival of cars ravaged the public, but the city never lost its interest in tourists. At the beginning of the 20th century, many older structures were in poor condition, and were no longer used or occupied by squatters, but, as Goodwin said, it was the only colonial capital still capable of restoration.
Goodwin and Rockefeller
The Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin became rector of the Bruton Church of Williamsburg Parish for the first of two times in 1903. Born in 1869 in Richmond to a Confederate veteran and his wealthy wife, and grew up in the county of Nelson County in Norwood today, Goodwin was educated at Roanoke College, University of Virginia, University of Richmond, and Virginia Theological Seminary. He first visited Williamsburg as a seminarian sent to recruit students of William and Mary. Back as an energetic 34-year-old, he became rector of the Bruton Parish Church split by factions. He helped align the congregation, and took over the leadership of the marking campaign to restore the 1711 church building. Goodwin and the New York ecclesiastical architect J. Stewart Barney completed a church restoration in 1907 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Anglican Church of America (Episcopal) in Jamestown, Virginia. Goodwin travels to the East Coast to raise money for projects and build philanthropic contacts. Among the 1907 anniversary guests were J. Pierpont Morgan, president of the Episcopal Church General Assembly that year in Richmond.
Goodwin receives a call from St. Episcopal Church. Paul was wealthy in Rochester, NY in 1908, and shepherded there until he returned in 1923 to Williamsburg to become a William and Mary fundraiser and professor of religious studies, as well as a Yorktown Episcopal church clergyman and chapel in Toano. He has defended his Williamsburg ties, regularly visiting his first wife's place and the grave of their first son, using William and Mary's library for historical research, and on vacation. What he saw in the colonial era's decline grieved and inspired him. He renewed his relationship with the Virginia Antiquities Preservation Association - his membership includes the well-known and rich Virginians - and helped protect and improve the 18th-century octagonal Horn Powder, a structure now called Magazine. Along with other professors William and Mary, he saved John Blair's House from demolition to pave the way for a petrol station - and turn it into a faculty club. In 1924, when colleges unveiled buildings and fundraising, he adopted Barney's proposal to save other houses in the historic part of town for use as student housing and faculty. After working for two years to attract people like Henry Ford and organizations like Dames of Colonial America to invest in his expectations, Goodwin earned the first, limited and complete (and major financial commitment) support from John D. Rockefeller Jr. , the rich son of the founder of the Standard Oil monopoly. Rockefeller's wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, also plays a role. In addition to working as a Rockefeller agent, Goodwin returned to the Bruton Parish rostrum in 1926, retaining his college position.
Rockefeller's first investment at Williamsburg's home has been a committed commitment to Goodwin's acquisition of George Wythe House for the Bruton Church parish next door. The second and better known Rockefeller was the almost simultaneous authorization of the purchase of a secure Ludwell-Paradise home early in 1927. Goodwin persuaded Rockefeller to buy it on behalf of college for housing if Rockefeller had to decide on city restoration. Rockefeller agrees to pay for campus restoration plans and drawings. He then considered restricting his restoration involvement to the campus and exhibition enclave area. He was not committed to the restoration of the larger city until 22 November 1927 - the birthday of the now-capitalized Restoration. As Goodwin said: "Mr. Rockefeller then declared that he would associate himself with an attempt to restore colonial Williamsburg!" Until then, Rockefeller always talks in terms of "if" he gets involved, though while getting property and proposals.
Concerned that prices might go up if their goals are known, Rockefeller and Goodwin initially kept their acquisition plans secretly, quietly buying houses and more and taking empty measures. Goodwin took Williamsburg lawyer Vernon M. Geddy, Sr. into his belief, without exposing Rockefeller, the silent partner and Geddy doing a lot of research titles and legal work related to the property in the place that will be the restored area. Geddy then compiled a Virginia company document for the project, filed it with the Virginia State Company Commission, and briefly served as the first president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. That many properties that changed hands were noticed by the courthouse crowd and by newspaper reporters. After eighteen months of increasingly vibrant rumor, Goodwin and Rockefeller revealed what had been a public secret - their plan, at regional and municipal meetings on 11 and 12 June 1928. The aim was to gain the consent of citizens widely and registered. they are in the project. No African Americans attend the meeting, or are officially consulted about the future of their city. The city and county properties are controlled for the necessary restoration projects - a new high school and two common green, among them. The city retains possession of its streets, an arrangement that prevents later proposals to increase revenues by closing the Historical Area for travelers who are not pinched.
Some townspeople were skeptical. Major SD Freeman, retired Army officer and school board chairman, said, "We will reap the dollars, but will we have our town? Will you not be in a butterfly position pinned on the card, or like a mummy dug in Tutankhamun's tomb? "
To gain cooperation from people who are reluctant to sell their traditional family home to the Rockefeller organization, the restoration immediately offers free entertainment and maintenance in exchange of ownership. Freeman sold his house directly and moved to the Central Peninsula of Virginia.
Recovery and reconstruction
The Rockefeller Management decided not to grant custody of the project to state-run colleges - as if to avoid political control by Virginia's Byrd Machine in Virginia - but returned the Wren House, Brafferton House and Presidential House. Colonial Williamsburg pursued a partial re-creation of part of the rest of the city. It featured shops, taverns and open-air markets in a colonial style.
The first major architect in the project was William Graves Perry of Perry, Shaw & amp; Hepburn, with Arthur Shurcliff as the main landscape architect. After consulting with Perry with Fiske Kimball, additional architects were brought in to serve as the Architectural Advisory Committee intended to review the plan and protect the project from criticism.
During the restoration, the project destroyed 720 outdated buildings from 1790, many of which dates from the 19th century. Some of the 18th-century nursing homes were destroyed, some unnecessary. The Governor's palace and the Capitol building were reconstructed on their site with the help of period illustrations, written descriptions, early photographs, and informed guesses. The grounds and gardens are almost all done in an authentic Colonial Revival style.
The Capitol is a 1930s art estimate of the 1705 building at the eastern end of the Historic Area. It was designed by architect Perry, Shaw & amp; Hepburn, which had been rebuilt as they thought it should be, was not like that, despite opposing objections and archaeological evidence. Its 1705 native, a H-shaped brick state with a double-faced south-faced, circular oarsmen, was burned in the 1740s, and replaced by a H-shaped building. The reconstruction is not central, the skew is tilted, and the interior is too complicated. In the second building, Patrick Henry, who protested the Stamp Act, first spoke against King George, George Mason introduced the Virginia Bill of Rights, and from him, the Virginia government instructed his delegates to the Second Continental Congress to propose national independence. The resemblance exists only in periods of logging and in architectural rendering is considered but kept by the Restoration. This building is dedicated to the ceremonial meeting of the Virginia General Assembly on 24 February 1934. Virginia state lawmakers have reassembled for a day each year on the Capitol
Of the approximately 500 buildings that were reconstructed or restored, 88 were labeled original. They include other buildings such as smokehouses, privies, warehouses. The Foundation reconstructed the Capitol and the Governor's Palace on their eighteenth-century foundation and preserved several bricks underground in the 18th century, classifying it as a reconstruction. It rebuilt the William and Mary's Wren Building, which burns four times in 230 years and is heavily modified, on its original foundations, also, saves some bricks on the ground, and classifies the results as genuine. At least one historic home area that Colonial Williamsburg descended into the basement and replaced its superstructure is also classified amongst 88. A few buildings, also handled, are defined as reconstructions.
On the western side of the city, beginning in the 1930s, retail stores were grouped under the name Merchants Square to accommodate and appease local traders, abandoned Restitals. Advancing rent and business driven by tourists ultimately drives all old community businesses but clothing stores. One of the latter was forced out, a popular local drug store with lunch table, replaced by Williams-Sonoma.
Outlying landscape and visibility
Beginning in the early period of the Restoration, Colonial Williamsburg acquired land in Williamsburg and two adjacent districts, mainly to the north and east of the Historic Area to preserve the natural landscape and facilitate as much experience as late as the 18th century environments possible. It is described as a "rustic, wooded sense of arrival" along the corridor to the Historic Area.
In 2006, announcing an environmental preservation north of the Visitors Center, Colonial President and Colonial President Colin G. Campbell said the restrictions protect views and retain other features: "This visibility helps set the stage for visitors on their journey from modern day-to-day life. into an 18th century environment.At the same time, it preserves the natural environment around Queen's Creek and protects important archaeological sites. This is a real and vital example of how the Foundation protects the vital greenbelt that surrounds Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area for future generations ".
The entrance to the Historic Area is carefully planned. The Colonial Parkway is planned and maintained to reduce modern intrusion.
Near the main highway approach planned for Colonial Williamsburg, the same design priority is used for the US 60 Routes that are relocated near the intersection of Bypass Road and North Henry Street. Before the restoration, Route 60 US ran to Duke of Gloucester Road through town. To divert traffic from the Historic Area, Bypass Road is planned and built through farmland and forests about a mile north of the city. Shortly afterwards, when Route 143 was built as the Merrimack Lane (originally called State Route 168) in the 1930s, the protected vista extended along Route 132 in York County to a new road, and two new bridges were built across Queen's Creek.
Goodwin, serving as a liaison with the community, as well as with state and local officials, was instrumental in the effort. Nevertheless, some in the Rockefeller organization, regarded him as a fighting man, gradually pushed Goodwin to the edge of the Restoration and at the time of his death in 1939 Colonial Williamsburg administrator Kenneth Chorley of New York, recklessly disagreed with the local priest. Goodwin's relationship with Rockefeller remains warm, and his interest in the project remains sharp. Colonial Williamsburg dedicated its headquarters in 1941, renaming it The Goodwin Building.
About 30 years later, when Interstate 64 was planned and built in the 1960s and early 1970s, from the designated "Colonial Williamsburg" exit, additional land along the Merrimack Trail to Route 132 was also protected from development. Today, visitors do not find any commercial properties before they reach the Visitor Center.
Not just highway travel is considered. Although the brick Williams Chesapeake and Ohio Railway passenger stations are less than 20 years old and one of the newer along the rails, it was replaced with a larger new one in Colonial style which is located just visible and within walking distance of the historic area.
Furthermore is Grove Carter Plantation. It was started by the grandson of the rich planter Robert "King" Carter. For over 200 years, he has passed a series of owners and modifications. In the 1960s after the death of his last inhabitants, Ms. Molly McRae, Grove Carter Plantation is under the control of the Sealantic Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, which gave it to Colonial Williamsburg as a gift. Archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume finds in his yard the remains of the 1620s Wolstenholme Towne, a downstream post from Jamestown. The Winthrop Rockefeller Archeology Museum, built just above the site, showcased the artifacts from the excavations. Colonial Williamsburg operated Carter's Grove until 2003 as Colonial Williamsburg satellite facility, with interpretive programs. The property was sold to millionaire dot.com who declared bankruptcy before completing a purchase and a vacant facility remained in limbo for over a decade.
Kingsmill
Between Carter's Grove and the Historic District is an empty Kingsmill channel, as well as a small military outpost at Fort Eustis known as Camp Wallace. In the mid-1960s, CW had land stretching all the way from the Historic District to the Skiffe Creek, on the edge of Newport News near Lee Hall. Away from the Historic Area and not along carefully guarded sight lines, it was developed in the early 1970s, under the leadership of CW Winthrop Rockefeller.
Rockefeller, Abby's son and John D. Rockeller Jr., traveled frequently and loved Carter's Grove in the late 1960s. He became aware of some expansion plans elsewhere on the St-Neighboring Peninsula. Louis, August Anheuser Busch, Jr., head of Anheuser-Busch. By the time Rockefeller and Busch completed their discussions, the biggest change in the Williamsburg area was under way since the Recovery began 40 years earlier. Among its goals is to complement Colonial Williamsburg's attractions and boost the local economy.
Large channels consisting mainly of Kingsmill land were sold by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to Anheuser-Busch for planned development. Anheuser-Busch's investment includes building large breweries, Busch Gardens Williamsburg themed parks, the planned resort community of Kingsmill, and McLaws Circle, an office park. AB and related entities of the development plan consist of the largest employment base in the region, beyond the Colonial Williamsburg and local military bases.
End of the 20th century
Colonial Williamsburg has become one of Virginia's most popular tourist destinations. With its historic significance for American democracy, the region and its surroundings were the venue of the world leaders summit, the first World Economic Conference in 1983, and the host visited royalties, including King Hussein of Jordan and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Queen Elizabeth II has paid two royal visits to Williamsburg, most recently in May 2007 during the 400th anniversary of the founding of nearby Jamestown.
Colonial Williamsburg today
Colonial Williamsburg is a collection of open buildings inhabited by historical reenactors (translators) whose job it is to explain and demonstrate aspects of everyday life in the past. The reenactors worked, dressed, and talked as they did in the colonial period.
Although there are many living history museums (such as Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, Old Salem in Winston-Salem, or Castell Henllys in England), Colonial Williamsburg is unusual since it was built from a city whose inhabitants and post-colonial era buildings have been removed. Also unlike other living history museums, Colonial Williamsburg allows anyone to walk through the historic district for free, every hour of every day. The fee applies only to visitors who want to enter the historic buildings to see art and craft demonstrations during the day, or attend scheduled outdoor shows such as the Revolutionary City program.
The Visitor Center near Colonial Parkway features a short film, Williamsburg: The Patriot Story , which debuted in 1957. Visitors can park at the Visitor's Center, as the car is restricted from the restored area. A wheelchair-accessible shuttle bus service is provided for stops around Williamsburg Historic District, as well as Jamestown and Yorktown, during the height of summer.
Costumed interpreters do not always wear Colonial clothes. As an experiment in anticipation of Bicentennial, in the summer of 1973 the hostess wore a special red, white, and blue polyester knitwear. This confused and disappointed visitor, so the experiment was dropped in late summer, and for Bicentennial, the guides wore costumes.
Many reenactments by the Colonial historians of Williamsburg wear the period costumes posted online. In addition to simple period reenactments, Colonial Williamsburg, at various times, featured certain themes, including the founding of Williamsburg, occupation by British troops, or visits from Colonial leaders that day, including General George Washington.
The Grand Illumination is an outdoor ceremony and a mass celebration involving the simultaneous activation of thousands of Christmas lights each year on the first Sunday of December. The ceremony, the idea of ​​Goodwin, began in 1935, loosely based on colonial traditions (and English) putting candles burning in the windows of houses and public buildings to celebrate special occasions, such as winning wars or birthdays. the ruling king. The Grand Illumination has also included outstanding fireworks, based on 18th century practice using fireworks to celebrate important events.
Educational reach
In the 1990s Colonial Williamsburg implements the Institute of Teaching in Early American History, and Electronic Field Trips. Designed for elementary and high school teachers, the Institute offers workshops for educators to meet with historians, character interpreters, and to prepare teaching materials for use in the classroom. Field Trip Electronic is a series of multimedia class presentations available for schools. Each program is designed based on a specific topic in history and includes lesson plans as well as classrooms and online activities. Monthly live broadcasts at local PBS stations allow participating classes to interact with historical translators via phone or internet.
In 2007, Colonial Williamsburg launched iCitizenForum.com. Mixed historical documents and user-generated content such as blogs, videos, and message boards, the site aims to encourage discussion about citizen's roles, rights and responsibilities in democracy. Preservation of the Founding Fathers' ideals in the light of recent world events is the specific focus of this site.
CW hired former NBC reporter Lloyd Dobyns to produce early podcasts for the museum. He usually interviews staff about their specialties. The podcast interview was passed on to the other hand after he retired.
Merchandising
American Colonial Handicraft items and souvenirs, some produced overseas, are sold in historic area stores. Many souvenir shops sell items such as floral and herbal soaps, knitted hats, and handmade toys made of wood and clay.
Management
Colonial Williamsburg is owned and operated as a living museum by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a nonprofit entity originally endowed by the Rockefeller family and for many years by others, especially Founder Reader's founders Lila and DeWitt Wallace, and Philadelphia publisher Walter Annenberg.
The main purpose of the Restoration is to recreate the physical colonial environment and to facilitate education on the origin of American ideas, conceived for decades before the American Revolution. In this neighborhood, Colonial Williamsburg seeks to tell the story of how diverse societies, having different ambitions and sometimes contradictions, evolved into a society that respects freedom and equality.
Mitchell Reiss, former president of Washington College, is the current President and CEO. Thomas F. Farrell II is Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Attendance
Attendance at Colonial Williamsburg peaked in 1985 at 1.1 million visitors. After years of lower attendance, it began to rebound somewhat with the 2007 Jamestown festivities and the Revolutionary City of direct and interactive street theater program between re-enactors and spectators, which began in 2006.
Since coming out in 2004, attendance has increased by about 10 percent of the total over the past few years, according to a report in July 2008. Over the past years, the increase in CW hotel revenues by 15 percent is far stronger than the increase in ticket sales from 5 percent, reflecting how hospitality money does not always come from the CW Historic Area's tourists, according to an official.
The official presence number of the foundation is best read in context. Until the 1990s, they only reflected the common admission tickets sold, and the amount was sometimes artificially backed up by internal year-end sales and a new year's buyback between non-profit foundations and fully owned wholly owned subsidiaries. After that, the foundation estimates the number of tourists walking down the street without buying tickets, and adding it to attendance figures. In the 2000s, the number of heads was adjusted to reflect the tourists who boarded the bus foundation, who visited his museum, which bought the train ride, which went to the evening program, and the like. These numbers are reported as the number of "revolving doors". From the old annual report, it seems that general admission sales never reached one million.
Financial challenge
A continuing operating deficit challenges the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Income comes from attendance, merchandising, but is lost in the hospitality property. Other funds come from waqf investments, and fundraising operations that occupy half of the four-storey headquarters of the foundation. Focused efforts financially in recent years are mainly concentrated on cost control and stimulate hotel attendance and revenues. The foundation has also sold some property assets that were decided to be no longer important to its core mission, including most of the earlier properties held at nearby Peacock Hill, which have local differences since it used to be the home of Georgia O'Keeffe, Major Polly Stryker. , and Dr. Donald W. Davis, founder of the Virginia Institute of Oceanography.
In 2017, due to a loss, Colonial Williamsburg President Mitchell Reis transferred the management of their hotel's commercial operations, 19 retail stores, and three golf courses.
Divestment of land
In 2003, as CW's presence and operating income continued to decline, Carter's Grove was closed to the public while its mission and role in the CW program was redefined. After the sale, officials late determined that Carters Grove paid for itself, one of the bright spots in its troubled balance sheet. Then in 2003, Hurricane Isabel seriously damaged Carter's Grove Country Road, which connects the land with the Historic Area, which is 8 miles (13 km), past commercial and public highways. Colonial Williamsburg shifts some interpretive programs to locations adjacent to the Historic Area in Williamsburg, including a large agricultural plantation, the Big Hopes Plantation next to the Visitor Center.
The foundation announced in late 2006 that Carter's Grove would be sold under strict conditions. In a front-page article on December 31st, The New York Times reported that the foundation, struggling with reduced attendance and lack of funds for maintenance, would offer Carter Grove homes and yards for sale to the private. buyers, probably as soon as January 2007. The Foundation justifies the sale, in part, by saying it wants to concentrate on its essence of the 18th century - as opposed to attractions such as the 17th century village reconstruction on the site- - a position contrary to its later decision, and then canceled , to assume the management of Historic Jamestowne of the 17th century. The Times says that the dilemma of museums and historic homes is that too many of them, maintenance costs are too expensive, and fewer people visit them.
In December 2007, a Georgian mansion and 476 acres (193Ã, ha) were purchased for $ 15.3 million by CNET founder Halsey Minor, who announced plans to use the property as a private and central residence for a pure breeding program. The luxury of conservation at the mansion and 400 of 476 acres (193Ã, ha) is shared by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and Virginia Historical Resource Department. Some locals regretted CW's decision to sell Carter's Grove; others expressed relief that it would remain intact, no small matter in one of Virginia's fastest growing districts. There is general agreement, however, that the transaction is a disaster for the management and reputation of the foundation. In 2011, Halsey Minor stopped making payments, and was seized by CW after a long legal battle and some damage to the house and yard. In 2014, CW, bought back Carter's Grove from a bankruptcy court, and sold it to a new private investor.
In addition to the large sale of land of the old Kingsmill plantation surplus to Anheuser Busch in the 1970s, and more recent sales from Carter's Grove, the foundation also sells land outside the land that is not considered important for its mission.
One is a 360-acre (150-acre) channel along the historic Quarterpath Road north of State Route 199 and south of Route 60 on the east of the Historic Area. In 2005, it was the largest channel in the undeveloped City of Williamsburg under sole ownership. â € Observers have noted that, while most of the Quarterpath lands will be developed, vacant lots that will previously include parks and recreational facilities, and Redoubt Park, dedicated to preserving some of the battlefields of the Williamsburg Battle that took place on 5 May 1862 during the Campaign American Civil War Peninsula.
Some of the 437-acre (177Ã, ha) Carr's Hill Tract in York County, north and west of Bypass Road and State Route 132, are also on sale. The developments there are limited under terms of sale so as not to negatively impact the available vista for motorists approaching Colonial Williamsburg. In February 2007, the developers announced that 313 houses are planned to be built on 65 hectares (26 ha) of 437 hectares of historic land (177Ã, ha). CW has previously announced that it has donated three conservation environments to the Williamsburg Land Conservancy at 230 acres (93Ã, ha) from the Carr Hill channel land west of Route 132 in York County.
Transportation
The nearest commercial airport is Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport 25-30 minutes long distance drive. Williamsburg is located between two major commercial airports, Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport, each about one hour away.
Amtrak offers passenger rail service stops in Williamsburg, as do Greyhound and Carolina Trailways with intercity buses.
Williamsburg is adjacent to the east-west Interstate 64 and the US parallel. Route 60 pass through town. The third road, State Route 143, also extends eastward to Newport News and Hampton, ending at Fort Monroe. From Richmond, Interstate 295, and other points to the west, many visitors come through State Route 5, a scenic highway that passes through many of the James Plantations River, or from the south via State Route 10, State Route 31 and Jamestown Ferry. Virginia Capital Trail is available for bicycles and pedestrians along Colonial Parkway and Virginia Route 5.
Williamsburg offers good non-car driving alternatives for visitors. The area has a central intermodal transportation center and the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority (WATA), a public transit bus system that operates a local route network. The public bus system of society, has its center in the transportation center. Color-coded routes, accessible to disabled buses, serve Williams hotels and motels, restaurants, shops and non-colonial attractions.
Colonial Williamsburg operates its own bus fleet by stopping close to attractions in the Historic Area, although no motor vehicles operate during the daytime at Duke of Gloucester Street (to preserve the colonial era). At night, all the way the historic area is open for cars.
Criticism and controversy
The 1920s and 1930s
Some residents of Williamsburg, including Major S.D. Freeman and Cara Armistead, questioned the transfer of public land in 1928 (compared to private property). In January 1932, a large monument of the Civil War The marble confederation was moved from the Green Palace, where it stood since 1908, and was moved at the Cedar Grove Tomb, on the outskirts of the city. Some residents, though supporting the Colonial reconstruction, feel this is too much. The case was brought to justice, and eventually the monument was moved to a new site east of the new courthouse. Today, the memorial is housed in Bicentennial Park, just outside the Historic Area.
Problem "accuracy" and "authenticity"
The approach to recovery and preservation taken by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has long been the subject of criticism.
Goodwin was troubled by what he regarded as an encroachment of commercialization. Among his farewell words of advice to Colonial Williamsburg's management are: "If there is one clear word of guidance and control that must be passed on to those who will be responsible for future recovery, that one word is integrity." The departure of the truth here and here and there will inevitably result in cumulative damage to the genuineness and consequences of the loss of public trust.Loyalty demands that this principle of integrity be obeyed.
One in-house publication of the foundation acknowledged that "Colonial Williamsburg carries the burden of criticism that the restored city looks too neat and clean, too 'spick-and-span', and too well-maintained to be trusted." There is Louise Huxtable, an architectural critic, writes in 1965: "Williamsburg is an extraordinary, meticulous, and costly exercise in history where real treasures and copies and modern copies are arbitrarily puzzling in everyone's mind. very good, the final effect is to undermine the authenticity and degrade the original heritage of the less beautiful periods in which an era and people give life ".
All houses restored in the 19th and 20th centuries, and later by Colonial Williamsburg, repaired with electricity, plumbing, and heating and by current residents or foundations equipped with stoves, air conditioners, refrigerators and bathrooms. Plaster, wood, floor, walls, and roof replaced.
In 1997, anthropologists Eric Gable and Richard Handler discuss Colonial Williamsburg as an attraction, serving the wealthy middle to upper class economic class. Their report mentions instances where some Colonial Williamsburg employees often straddle the hope of maintaining the originality of the museum program while still creating original products for sale at museum gift shops. A harsher interpretation is that Virginia University Architecture History Professor Richard Guy Wilson, author of the Virginia Building: Tidewater and Piedmont, which describes Colonial Williamsburg as "a remarkable example of the American suburbs of the 1930s, -the roads made of antique trees, the houses of the Colonial Revival, and the fragmentary trade.These reproaches have caused many critics to label Colonial Williamsburg and the Foundation as "Republican Disneyland".
Among the answers to these criticisms is that "Williamsburg Colonial Historic Area is a compromise between historical authenticity and common sense, between brutal realism and gentle ambience, between being the exact moment in the 18th century and nearly three hundred years." Criticism asserts that the setting of "historical reality" to "common sense" is a false dichotomy and that commercial and ownership factors are what are really at issue. Of course archaeological and historical research is an ongoing process at Colonial Williamsburg, and as the surface of new information, reconsideration is often demanded and changes are made.
In March 2016, the new president and chief executive of the foundation, Mitchell Reiss, told Richmond Times-Dispatch that Colonial Williamsburg aims to be "accurate-ish."
At Appalachian State University, graduate level classes focus on the preservation and restoration of Colonial Williamsburg as part of the General History program.
African Americans
Colonial Williamsburg has been criticized for neglecting the free African-American role in Colonial life, in addition to those who are slaves. When it first opened in 1930, Colonial Williamsburg had separated the dormitories for its reenactors. African-Americans fill the historical role of servants, rather than free people as they are today. In a separate state, Colonial Williamsburg allows blacks to enter, but hotels in the Williamsburg area reject their accommodation, and state law prohibits blacks eating with whites in public facilities such as refurbished taverns and from shopping at shops -Nearest store. In the 1950s, African-Americans were only allowed to visit Colonial Williamsburg one day a week until after the decision of the United States Supreme Court the decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 began to disarm the law and practice of segregation.
Colonial Williamsburg offers several previously integrated public accommodations. In the 1970s, in reaction to the increasingly scornful portrayal of one side of colonial life, Colonial Williamsburg increased the number of African-American interpreters who played slaves. It's parodied by a skit that airs on Saturday Night Live, which shows the reenactor misuses its accuracy by being racist to employees. In 1994, he added a slave auction and a slave marriage; The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference then protested. In 1981, Colonial Williamsburg added a program to explain slavery and his role in Colonial America, but this "Half Day Tour", compiled by the African Program and Interpretation of American Programs (AAIP) Foundation, provided a different form of historical interpretation than his counterpart, "The Patriots' Tour," thus creating a marked dichotomy between how visitors are expected to interpret history in the museum.
In recent years Colonial Williamsburg has expanded its 18th century African American depiction to include free blacks and slaves. This example of depiction is expanded in the Revolutionary City program including Gowan Pamphlet, a former free landowner and Baptist minister, Edith Cumbo, a free black woman, Matthew Ashby, a free black man who finally bought freedom of his family, and a host of other enslaved men and women who were part of the Williamsburg community during the revolution. The large-made Plantation of Hope is a medium-sized plantation, not the wealthy, where working-class farmers work with their slaves. Their lives were more typical than the colonial Virginia people in general than the lives of wealthy planters, their families and their slaves.
See also
- Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
- DeWitt Wallace Decorative Art Museum
- William Hunter (publisher)
- Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt
- William Parks (publisher)
- Potemkin Village
- Joseph Royle (publisher)
- St. George Tucker House
- Tayloe House (Williamsburg, Virginia)
- Christiana Burdett Campbell, namesake of Christiana Campbell's Tavern
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Virginia
- List of National Historic Sites in Williamsburg, Virginia
- Plimothine Plantation
- Westville (Georgia)
References
Source
Further reading
External links
- Colonial Williamsburg in 1936
- Official website
- Colonial Williamsburg Architect: William Graves Perry , by Will Molineux
- Historic Colonial Times from Colonial Williamsburg
- (an article from Colonial Williamsburg Journal , 2004)
- "The Very Backward City" Popular Mechanics , July 1935 pp.88-90
- Colonial Williamsburg at Wayback Machine (archived May 17, 2001)
- Old Courthouse, Courthouse Green, Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA: 1 photo and 11 measurable images at the American Historic Buildings Survey Magazine
- , 103 Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA: 1 photo and 7 measurable images in the Historic American Buildings Survey
- Governor's palace (reconstructed), Green Palace, Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA: 4 photos and 5 pages of data in the Historic American Buildings Survey
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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