History of Williamsburg, Virginia
Prior to the arrival of the English colonists at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia in 1607, the area that became Williamsburg was largely wooded, and well within the territory of the Native American group known as the Powhatan Confederacy.
The Natives had abandoned their villages nearby, such as Kiskiack (also spelled "Chiskiack"), and settled in more remote locations, but continued to intermittently attack the colonists.
Its exact route is unknown, but archaeologists recently discovered remnants of it on the Bruton Heights School property, adjacent to the site of the house of Governor John Page, while working on a Colonial Williamsburg archaeological research project.
Immediately after Governor William Berkeley regained control, temporary quarters for the functions of the seat of government were established about 12 miles (19 km) away on the high ground at Middle Plantation while the Statehouse at Jamestown was rebuilt.
A village was laid out, and Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III of England, befitting the town's newly elevated status.
At the time the main street was rechristened after the Duke of Gloucester, it was a simple horse path that veered through a set of swampy ravines and was obstructed at one point by houses and an oven.
[3] Alexander Spotswood, who arrived in Virginia as lieutenant governor in 1710, had several ravines filled and the streets leveled, and assisted in erecting additional college buildings, a church, and a magazine for the storage of arms.
The act, which intended to, "Make Provision for the Support and Maintenance of Ideots, Lunaticks, and other Persons of unsound Minds," authorized the House of Burgesses to appoint a fifteen-man Court Of Directors to oversee the future hospital's operations and admissions.
During the War, in 1780, the capital of Virginia was moved again, this time to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack.
He successfully used ruse tactics to bluff the invaders as to the size and strength of his forces, and intimidated them into a slow movement up the Peninsula, gaining valuable time defenses to be constructed for the Confederate capital at Richmond.
[citation needed] In early May, 1862, after holding the Union troops off for over a month, the defenders withdrew quietly from the Warwick Line (stretching across the Peninsula between Yorktown and Mulberry Island).
[citation needed] At the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, the defenders were successful in delaying the Union forces long enough for the retreating Confederates to reach the outer defenses of Richmond safely.
On September 9, 1862, drunken soldiers of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the College Building,[6] purportedly in an attempt to prevent Confederate snipers from using it for cover.
This aided passenger travel and shipping for local farmers, but the railroad had been built primarily for through-coal traffic destined for the coal pier and export at Newport News.
Some local lore indicates that the residents were satisfied with it that way, and longtime Virginia Peninsula journalist, author and historian Parke S. Rouse Jr. has pointed this out in his published work.
On June 26, 1912, the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper ran an editorial which dubbed the town "Lotusburg," for, "Tuesday was election day in Williamsburg but nobody remembered it.
[1] However, even if such complacency was common, a dream of one Episcopalian priest was to expand to change Williamsburg's future and provide it a new major purpose, turning much of it into the world's largest living museum.
However, upon returning to Williamsburg in 1923 after serving a number of years in upstate New York, he began to realize that many of the other colonial-era buildings also remained, but were in deteriorating condition, and their longevity was at risk.
Just a little more after Dr. Goodwin's work began, the effort to maintain and improve this corner piece of Virginia and United States history remains a remarkable work-in-progress.
In addition to the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg, the city's railroad station was restored to become an intermodal passenger facility (see Transportation section below).
1908 C&O Railway combination passenger and freight station at Norge was preserved and after donation by CSX Transportation, was relocated in 2006 to property at the Croaker Branch of the Williamsburg Regional Library.
The third of three debates between Republican President Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter was held at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at the College of William and Mary on October 22, 1976.
At the end of the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz read to the press a statement confirming the deployment of American Pershing II-nuclear rockets in West Germany later in 1983.
