Structures

Raleigh Tavern, Colonial Williamsburg’s first
exhibition building.

The structures in the architectural collection include the various structures located within the Historic Area, the ancient campus of the College of William and Mary, the Carter’s Grove complex, the Bassett Hall complex, and six eighteenth-century buildings outside the Historic Area. The collection contains 88 structures dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and another 512 reconstructed buildings. The architectural collection of structures is regarded as permanent. Existing structures will be preserved in their present form unless new research demands change, or there are overriding programmatic reasons for change. New permanent structures may be reconstructed as funding and interpretive requirements allow. Impermanent ancillary structures may be constructed when pertinent to the interpretation of a specific site and scholarly research suggests that such structures may have existed. The collection of structures serves a variety of uses, compatible with the long-term preservation of each building. Buildings are open for public exhibition, rented as residential property, or used for support services.

Grissell Hay privy, smokehouse, and dairy.

Eighty-eight structures in Williamsburg survive largely intact from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The prospect of preserving Williamsburg’s colonial structures captured the imagination of Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin and Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. These visible symbols represent a broad range of Tidewater structures and include modest outbuildings such as dairies, privies, and smokehouses, as well as dignified residences and stately public buildings. The original structures include thirty-eight residences, eight public buildings, thirty-six outbuildings, two taverns, and four shops. This list was the topic of a book published in 1971 entitled Legacy from the Past: A Portfolio of Eighty-eight Original Williamsburg Buildings. It is important to note that even though a building may not appear on this list it does not mean that surviving eighteenth and/or early nineteenth century architectural elements have not been incorporated into the reconstructed building. For example, many of the reconstructed buildings were built on original foundations which still survive below grade. In addition, other eighteenth and early nineteenth century structures have been identified that were not inside the boundaries of the Historic Area at the time the list was prepared (i.e., Cogar Shop).