English colonists established Middle Plantation on high ground between the James and York Rivers in 1632. In 1698 it was renamed Williamsburg, after King William III of England. It served as the capital of the Colony and Commonwealth of Virginia during the 18th century and is the site of William and Mary College, founded in 1693. Williamsburg was at the center of political events in Virginia, leading to the American Revolution. Located between Richmond and Newport News, it is near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Williamsburg forms a historic triangle of early colonial-era settlements with its neighbors, Jamestown and Yorktown. As the 18th-Century colonial capital and the site of William and Mary College, the architecture of Williamsburg was substantial for the period. English pattern books and builders manuals guided the design of simple, well-proportioned, red brick buildings and simpler wooden houses with slate and shingled roofs. The removal of the capital to Richmond in 1780 led the city into a long period of economic stagnation and decay, ironically protecting much of its 18th-century urban fabric from redevelopment.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum, restored and recreated as a way to celebrate the early history of the United States. W.A.R. Goodwin, The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, The Colonial Dames, with substantial contributions by Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Rockefeller Jr., preserved and created what we see today. The Williamsburg “style” is a subset of the Colonial Revival, popularized in the 20th century with examples found across the United States.
