Guide Book to Williamsburg Old and NewEwing, William Clinton
History
Guide Book to Williamsburg Old and New
Ewing, William Clinton
Williamsburg (Va.) -- Guidebooks
As early as 1701, while meeting in the Wren Building, the Virginia
Assembly enacted legislation specifying details not only for the Capitol
but also for a Gaol (pronounced gail, not goal) to be erected on the
north side of the square which was reserved for these buildings and the
office of the Secretary of the Colony. Parts of the Gaol were torn down
after the removal of the state court to Richmond, for Williamsburg has
always been quite law-abiding. The portions thus destroyed have now been
re-added to the surviving building, as also the stocks and pillory
outside the wall. So the whole may now be seen as it stood when
Blackbeard’s men were imprisoned and hanged here.
The final restoration of Bruton Parish Church was made during the last
days of Dr. Goodwin and he was able to visit it during all but the last
stages. At the first service held in the completed edifice his body was
buried beneath the floor of the church by the side of great men of
colonial times. It has been suggested that an appropriate epitaph,
referring not alone to the church but to the community, would be: If you
would see his monument, look about you.
[Illustration: THE COLE SHOP]
The Cole Shop (D) is believed to be the oldest store in America, having
opened for business shortly after 1750. It was built by Charles
Taliaferro, a coach and chair maker. Originally consisting of only one
room, prior to 1782 another small building was moved up and joined to it
on the west as a sort of lean-to, the roof-line which had theretofore
been a symmetrical dormer being extended to cover the addition. At a
later, but still early, date two rooms were added in the rear and the
street elevation was finished off with a false front. In 1804 the shop
was sold to Dr. Jesse Cole in whose family it remained until the death
of his grandson in 1936.
There is no record of the type of goods carried under the Taliaferro
management; but in 1827 a professor newly arrived in Williamsburg wrote
thus of the Cole Shop: “I reached the Post Office which stands in the
Center of Main St. It is one of the Curiosities of this Place.... There
is not an Article whatever in the World which could not be found in it.
It is a Book Seller’s Store in which you will find Hams and French
Brandy; it is an Apothecary’s Shop in which you can provide yourself
with silk Stockings and shell Oysters; it is a Post Office in which you
may have Glisters and chewing Tobacco & in a Word it is a Museum of
natural History in which we meet every Afternoon to dispute about the
Presidential Election and about the Quality of Irish Potatoes.”
[Illustration: OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE COLONY]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account