Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is a combination of a historical landmark and a living history museum. The Historic Area includes buildings dating from 1699 to 1780 the period when the city was the capital of Colonial Virginia. The Historic Area is an interpretation of a Colonial American city, with exhibits including dozens of authentic or re-created buildings related to colonial and American Revolutionary War history. Rather than an effort only to preserve antiquity, the combination of restoration and re-creation of the entire colonial town attempts to re-create the atmosphere and the ideals of 18th-century American people and revolutionary leaders. The motto of Colonial Williamsburg is "That the future may learn from the past". Interpreters work and dress as they did in the era, using colonial grammar and diction  Prominent buildings include the Raleigh Tavern, the Capitol, the Governor's Palace,  the Courthouse and Bruton Parish Church.

History The statehouse in Jamestown, Virginia burned on October 20, 1698. The legislators found themselves meeting at Middle Plantation. In 1699, in a meeting held by the colonists, a group of students from The College of William & Mary submitted a proposal to move the capital to Middle Plantation, to escape malaria and mosquitoes that plagued the Jamestown Island site. The capital of the Virginia Colony was relocated to Middle Plantation. Middle Plantation was renamed "Williamsburg" by Royal Governor Francis Nicholson, proponent of the change, in honor of King William III of England. The new site was described by Nicholson as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil" and was seen as a vision of future utopia. He had the city surveyed and a plan laid out by Theodorick Bland taking into consideration the fine brick College Building and Bruton Parish Church. The main street was named Duke of Gloucester after the eldest son of Queen Anne.
For most of the 18th century, Williamsburg was the center of government, education and culture in the Colony of Virginia. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others molded democracy in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States here. During the American Revolutionary War, in 1780, the capital of Virginia was moved to Richmond, about 55 miles west, to be more distant from British attack.