As Solomon did not build a house for himself until he had completed the Temple, so the colonial Virginians finished the building of the Capitol before beginning, in 1706, a residence for the Royal Governor. Like most great houses of the period, The Governor’s Palace was not built all at once. In 1706, £3,000 was appropriated for the erection of a “house” for the Governor. What with additions and furnishings, by 1718 it had become a “palace” and the House of Burgesses was complaining of the high-handed manner in which the Governor was “lavishing away the country’s money contrary to the intent of the law.” As in the case of many another public building, the extravagance of construction cost was forgotten by later generations in their pride in the product. A traveled Englishman considered this the finest building in America and exceeded by few in England, an opinion which has never required revision. From its completion, it was occupied by all the Royal Governors down to the Revolutionary War; and then by two Governors of the Commonwealth, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. After the removal of the Capital to Richmond in 1779, the Palace was used by the army as a hospital. [Illustration: THE GOVERNOR’S PALACE] After providing a residence for the Governor, the next public building erected by order of the Assembly was a Public Magazine, familiarly called The Powder Horn. From 1714 to 1775 this octagonal brick structure was used for the storage of ammunition; and for reasons of safety it was placed in an open square. This building saw the beginning of the Revolutionary War, so far as Virginia was concerned. On the 20th of April, 1775, just one day after the Battle of Lexington, in Massachusetts, Governor Dunmore removed the powder so that it might not fall into the hands of the populace. Thereupon, Patrick Henry brought troops toward Williamsburg and secured the payment of £330 from the King’s Receiver General, with which substitute powder was purchased. The Governor withdrew to the comparative safety of a British warship and thus ended forever foreign dominance in Williamsburg. [Illustration: THE POWDER HORN] While the Public Magazine was under construction the Colony and the Parish were proceeding with the erection of a fine new building to take the place of the antiquated structure of The Bruton Parish Church. The then-existing building, whose foundations are still in place under the sod of the churchyard, was adequate only for a small rural community. With the influx of large numbers of people for court seasons and with the necessity for dignity, if not grandeur, in the edifice of the Established Church of the Colonial Capital, the Governor, the Assembly and the Parish united in building a church which, from its completion in 1715 to the present time, has been one of the prides of Virginia, whether Colony or Commonwealth. [Illustration: BRUTON PARISH CHURCH]