This is the third post of a new travel series. In this series, we are headed east starting in Wisconsin and going all the way to Virginia to see the home of George Washington and Colonial Williamsburg. To start at the beginning, go HERE where we stop in Indiana to celebrate Easter with my daughter, son-in-law, and our grandchildren.
I have wanted to see Colonial Williamsburg my entire life. I know it isn't on everyone's bucket list, but as a lover of old homes and history, it was on mine. I could not believe I was finally here and we had picture perfect weather to enjoy our day!
We only spent one day in Williamsburg because we did the "Historic Triangle" which required two extra days. We may not have been able to walk up and down every single street in the Historic District in one day, but we did see all its major attractions like the Palace, the Capitol, and the Courthouse. To keep my post on Williamsburg from becoming too lengthy, I'm going to divide it into three posts, with one major attraction in each post. This week's post will cover the Governors Palace, which was my favorite part of Williamsburg and I am standing in front of in the photo below.
Colonial Williamsburg is the world's largest living history museum. It encompasses 301 acres and 88 original 18th century structures. There are hundreds of houses, shops, and public buildings reconstructed on the original foundations. There are also museums, farms, gardens, and live characters re-enacting life in the 18th century in Williamsburg.
It is free to walk around Colonial Williamsburg and see any outdoor demonstrations, but if you want to go inside any of the buildings, you need an admission ticket. We first stopped in their beautiful Visitor Center to purchase a ticket where we got a "lovely" tag to wear all day long 😀. I actually recommend getting a physical ticket even though the tag ruins all your photos, because if you purchase them on line you have to constantly bring up your ticket on your phone to show to an employee anytime you want to enter any building, which seems to take time as then you have to stand in line. Whereas with a physical ticket, you just walk right past the line.
There are many ticket options available, including a three day Historic Triangle pass which allows you to see Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Even though we were doing all three towns, we chose a one day pass for $34.00 because we already had an America the Beautiful pass which got us into the national historic sites in Yorktown and Jamestown for free.
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Colonial Williamsburg Visitors Center |
Parking at the Visitors Center is plentiful and costs $10 for the day. We stayed at a hotel in Williamsburg, not Colonial Williamsburg, which is much cheaper. Once we purchased our tickets, we caught a free shuttle from the Visitor's Center to Colonial Williamsburg. This shuttle runs all day and stops at various points in Colonial Williamsburg if walking gets to be too much for you. However, it is a very busy and under-scheduled shuttle so we only used it once, and that was early in the morning. After that, we could never get on the shuttle, and we ended up having to walk all the way back to our car at the end of the day. The lack of shuttles would be my one and only complaint about Colonial Williamsburg, and we weren't the only ones there complaining about it. Everyone was complaining about the shuttle service, or lack thereof. Cars are not allowed in Colonial Williamsburg so it's either walk or take a shuttle. There are scooters for rent, but we never checked into the price of that as we're both capable of walking.
We got off at the very first stop on the shuttle route: The Governors Palace. We were a little early for the very first tour of the day, so we decided to walk the grounds first.
I was awestruck of the Palace gardens. I thought it was brilliant how they created a vegetable garden on a hillside. My entire yard is a hill, so I'm always looking for new ways to get more use out of it.
It was finally time for our tour to begin. All the buildings that we went into were tours. You couldn't just walk in by yourselves and look around, unless it was a carpentry shop or something like that, but even then there were always employees in period costumes giving demonstrations and answering questions.
The Palace is a reconstruction of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. The main residence burned down in 1791. It was the official residence of the royal governors of the Colony of Virginia. The reconstruction that we toured was built on the original site in 1930.
The first room the tour guide takes you in is the magnificent foyer or "Entrance Hall". This was my favorite room in the house. The walls of the foyer are adorned with weapons: swords, knives, and muskets all arranged in an ornate fashion. These arms were taken down and used during the French and Indian War and in the Revolution.
On one side of the Entrance Hall is the Parlor. The parlor was used as a waiting room, a place of business, and a setting for "polite entertainment".
On the other side of the Entrance Hall is the Pantry. This is a room that was used by the butler or housekeeper to provide a secure place to carry out their responsibilities. Supervision and security of valuables were kept here. The door was usually closed as the room was used as a base for the staff to coordinate their daily activities.
The First Floor Hallway. There is a casual dining room on the right where visitors would often gather to meet with the governor after waiting in the parlor.
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The Dining Room |
This gorgeous stairwell is across from the Dining Room.
The Second Floor Hallway
The Study/Dressing Room adjacent to His Lordship's Chamber may have been used by Lord Dunmore as both a library and a dressing room.
His Lordship's Chamber
The bedchamber above the dining room was interpreted as the Daughter's Room, where two of the Dunmore daughters might have slept.
Her Ladyship's Chamber
The Upper Middle Chamber was originally intended as a State Room. By the 1750's this room had been combined with the study and the chamber over the pantry to form a private suite of rooms. This room is referred as a "dressing room". Lady Dunmore likely used this room to spend time with her daughters and lady friends.
Our Tour Guide was wonderful. He told such interesting stories of the history of the home and its occupants, and he spoke in character at all times. Even his posture was in character! I should mention, he was our second tour guide. My husband didn't care for our first tour guide at all and to my embarrassment asked an employee if we could switch tours. They kindly let us do so, and I must admit, he was a 100% improvement. The first tour guide was dressed in period costume but didn't act like a character from the past. She also spoke so rapidly and didn't share interesting facts about the house, but seemed to talk about a lot of nonsense. We weren't the only ones in her tour group that felt that way. One man said to my husband "Geez, did she have to many cans of Red Bull this morning?" 😀
The Ballroom and Supper Room, the two grandest rooms in the house were added in the 1750's. Musical instruments were housed here including three organs, a harpsichord, and a piano forte.
I found this old wood stove and the way it ventilated so interesting.
A painting of Queen Charlotte graces one side of the doorway and a portrait of King Charles III is on the other.
The Supper Room. I loved the bright green paint on the walls. Our tour guide shared that this color was hard to create and signaled wealth and that was why it was popular among the elite.
Is he the coolest tour guide or what? 💖
After our tour of the Palace we decided to explore more of the grounds. The gardens in Williamsburg are just beautiful. I couldn't believe all the flowers they had in April! Everything was still brown and mud in Wisconsin, so it was so nice to come here and not only experience warmth and sunshine, but beautiful flowers! I am sitting in front of the Evergreen Maze. You would need to see an aerial shot to get an appreciation for the maze. There is one on their website HERE.
Flowers and vegetables grow right next to each other to create beautiful, harmonious, and practical outdoor spaces.
I loved this tree lined walk way.
The evergreen maze could be seen from the upper stories of the Palace.
I loved the white wrought iron in the garden.
Gorgeous paths and interesting brick architecture enhance the garden beautifully.
You can take a horse and carriage ride in Colonial Williamsburg. It was always fun watching them go by and seeing all the different styles of carriages.
Here is a far away shot of the Governor's Palace. The center building is the main house, the one we toured. The property is enormous, in addition to the main house and kitchen outbuildings there were stables, a coach house, laundry, pasture, dairy, farm, park, and extensive gardens.
A view from across The Palace Green. The nice thing about getting to Colonial Williamsburg early and leaving late, is getting beautiful photos like this without people in them. This was taken at the end of the day, after we had dinner at The Merchants Square when Colonial Williamsburg was officially closed. The Historic Area is open from 10:00 to 5:00 but you can walk around the neighborhood anytime so after closing is the best time for photography.
I hope you enjoyed my very first post of Colonial Williamsburg. Next week I'll cover The Capitol along with some other fun highlights in the Historic Area.
Have A Great Day! Amy
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