WILLIAMSBURG AFTERNOON
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007
A darker pink crape myrtle on Richmond Road as we headed out again from the B&B
This time we crossed Richmond Road and went into the campus of William and Mary as
we made our way toward the Colonial section. William and Mary is a lovely, lovely
campus, well-tended and all of it no matter how new made to reflect its origins.
An angel's trumpet in front of Charles Hall.
The back of the Wren Building, which is the original, Colonial building of the college. This is the
oldest academic structure still in use in America. Construction on it began in 1695 and among
the students who studied here were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler and John
Marshall. The chapel on the right was added in 1729, making the building's shape into a "U".
The Wren Building has caught fire three times but still looks much like it did around 1732.
During and after the battle of Yorktown, the building was used as a French hospital.
Looking down the front walkway toward the entrance of the Wren Building.
This is the opposite side of the new market area on the west end of Duke of Gloucester
Street from the lighted windows one I took the evening before. I think they've done very
well with the "look" of this area.
Thomas Jefferson resting on a bench in the new market area.
We crossed to the north side of DOG and headed back east toward Bruton Parrish.
This is the Blair herb garden again with the pasture just beyond.
The inside of the entrance to the Bruton Parrish churchyard that faces the Palace Green.
Again a marvelous tree.
Washington's pew. The sides were high both for privacy and to help protect from the cold.
Looking toward the pulpit.
The governor's pew. He rather had a throne to sit upon, did he not!
Heading back to the side gate I was attracted by the way the tree limb reflected the arch of
the gateway. That's the Palace Green just beyond.
As we left the gateway in the picture above this one, Carl said he'd like to go back to a
big bookstore he'd seen in the new shops area. I told him I'd meet him at the palace and
continued alone back down the western side of the Palace Green toward the brick
Wythe house, which, alas, was closed. But the flag meant its gardens were open, so just
me and my camera spent a while back there with not another soul in sight.
Just before I went into the Wythe gardens, I took this shot across the Palace Green of a
carriage coming down Nicholson Street.
There are several sections to the Wythe gardens, all framed in boxwood, of course.
This is the Wythe herb garden with fig trees along the wall on the left. That wall is the side
wall of Bruton Parrish.
Standing with my back to the herb garden area, looking north across the other gardens
with the house itself there on the right.
The central garden directly behind the house.
The gate on the north side of the Wythe gardens as another carriage passed by.
Some of the Wythe outbuildings.
Another coach and the Wythe pickets.
I crossed Prince George again to the Elkanah Deane house, attracted by its well.
Looking east up Prince George toward the Palace Green. The Wythe house would be to
my right.
Mossy roof of one of the Wythe outbuildings.
Looking toward the back of the Wythe house from among its outbuildings.
Passing the front of the Elkanah Deane House getting closer to the palace, whose bricks are just
visible through the trees.
An apple orchard just past the Elkanah Deane House.
The Palace
Just before arriving at the Palace, I was waylaid by another well, another walkway, another
garden.
Sometimes it was just simply hard to believe how perfectly green and white and peaceful
and quiet everything was.
A truly interesting tree by a lovely covered walkway to McKenzie's Store near the Palace.
McKenzie's store
Approaching the Palace
Looking back up the west side of the Palace Green toward the Wythe house
I went inside a gate to the left of the main palace building where the mossy kitchen and the
scullery are.
Then back outside to the main gate to see what might attract my camera lens.
Carl rejoined me and we began the tour of the inside of the Palace. The entrance hall is completely
coated in arms arranged in artful display. It was thusly arranged so the power of the King across the
sea would be clearly kept in the mind of the Colonial folk. They, however, ripped the weapons off
the walls to use in the Revolution. So much for that! Only the two lower muskets are not originals
to the period.
This is Vena, a marvelous gal who absolutely delights in telling about the Palace.
Governor Botetourt had made a detailed inventory in 1770 of the furnishings of the Palace, but he was a
bachelor and so the Palace was decorated in a reflection of that. But in 2006 it was decided to replace
that look with the one during the time of Governor Dunmore who had six children with him.
The central receiving room on the second floor had its walls covered in gilded leather.
A stove from the Netherlands in the ballroom of the rear wing which was added by Dinwiddie
in 1752.
The supper room in the new wing just beyond the ballroom. George Washington liked this
color green and had his dining room at Mount Vernon painted like it, saying that it was
good for the digestion.
Rear of the Palace looking past giant boxwood cylinders. The green supper room is just
inside those doors with the ballroom beyond. Seven royal governors lived here and two
American, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson only lived in it a short time as
the capitol was moved to Richmond during his term. The Palace served as a hospital for
American soldiers wounded in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. In December of that year,
a fire started and they had to decide whether to save the building or the wounded soldiers.
They chose the soldiers and only one person died in the fire, but the building was destroyed.
For a while two school buildings stood on the site, but in 1930 during the restoration of
Williamsburg, the original footings, cellars, debris from the fire and a section of original wall
were discovered. Jefferson had drawn floor plans of the building and they were used to
faithfully reconstruct the Palace.
I was in these gardens in the summer of 1971 but all I recall was heat and people. As I
walked out into them this September, I was and remained in complete and absolute
shock that not a soul was there, the air was perfect, and I could photograph to my
heart's content. It was nothing less than amazing to me. And, man, did I ever
appreciate it !!!
There is one of these on either side of the central garden.
The canal on the western side of the gardens.
Pomegranates
Outbuildings on the east side of the Palace. The white-edged brick steps there on the
right were for ladies to mount side-saddle in their long gowns.
Crape myrtle looking almost Japanese in form outside a wall of the Palace.
Just off the eastern side of the Palace Green as we headed back toward the Duke of
Gloucester Street.
Bean poles in a garden on the eastern side of the Palace Green
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