COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG, DAY 2

TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012                Learning from our mistakes (a novelty), we loaded up with rain gear for the scoot trip to CW.  As it turned out, it never rained while we were on the scoot, but we did get a few showers as we walked around.  Today we wanted to see the interiors of the various period buildings and we started out with the gunsmith shop and a basket-making place.  The latter are doing it from scratch: the woman in the upper photo is stripping bark to get at the fiber for the baskets. 

These kinds of things can be seen at other historical recreation communities around the country (like Conner Prairie in Indiana, near where Mom lives), but the difference here is that much of this is original, not a reproduction.  This gunsmithy was built back in the 1700’s and operated for decades by the same family.

Next up was the Thomas Everhard House, built in 1717!  We milled about a while (Loni in yellow slicker), waiting for our genial, if geriatric guide (right).

What we found over and over in these colonial homes was the use of bright colors for the painted walls  and bold wallpaper elsewhere.  This green was really startling, and I don’t think we could live with it.

Next up was the Governor’s Palace, initially constructed in 1722, destroyed by fire in 1781, and later rebuilt.  It was the home of seven royal governors and the first two elected governors of the new Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.  It’s furnished today as the home of Lord Dunmore, the last British governor.  Lots of dark wood and zillions of swords, pistols, and rifles intertwined on the walls and doorways.

It wasn’t all dark and gloomy.   I liked the stove venting right through the window pane.  And note the bright blue paint.  Sherwinn Williams run amok.  Down in the kitchen, the ladies were rolling out some chocolate concoction, but no samples were on offer.

The artisans throughout the town are the real deal.  We particularly enjoyed the woodworking shop where they were laboring with period tools to build exquisite pieces.  Don’t know where they ended up.  Didn’t see any for sale.  Perhaps they are installed in the various exhibit houses?

We were pretty much done after a full day of wandering around, but we decided to go literally across the street to the campus of the College of William & Mary.  School must have been out for the summer as we didn’t see a soul as we walked around.  Pretty campus, with tons of green, brickwork galore, but not many “vistas” other than this sunken green on the other side of the ironwork fence.

And then we saw a rare sight for these parts, also green of a sort.  We tried to wave them down to say hello but they never saw us.

 

We weren’t ready quite yet to say adios, Williamsburg.  We came back the next day after spending the morning at Jamestown (next post).  I’ll finish up with Williamsburg here to keep it all together.

 

What we were after on the final day was to get a peek inside Bassett Hall, which was the home of the Rockefellers when they were in this area to honcho the preservation.  Built around 1760,

the house is decorated as they had it in the 1940’s.  It actually looks very homey, without a lot of straight-laced furniture posturing around.  I could live there.   Yeah.

It was the end of the day by the time we finished with Bassett House, and we had to hustle a goodly distance to get to the final program of the day, already underway, the review of the troops, fife and drum corps, and some musket and cannon firing.  The “review” was over before we got there, but they were still firing off their guns.

They tried to “organize” the kids in the audience to form ranks and march about.  A mild degree of success, followed by the local Jr. High fife corps.  A good time had by all.