Monday, May 4, 2009

The Lord's Day in Williamsburg

The Lord's Day found us at Bruton Parish Church for worship, but our seats were not condusive for photographs so we'll have to get photos of the interior of the building later in the week. After worship we toured three other important structures in the town.

Here's Elizabeth, Karen, Heather, and Tim strolling through the working gardens of the George Wythe House. Vegetables to the left, matching outhouses on the right.

The Wythe House from the west end of the formal gardens.

To the north of the formal gardens are stables and several other buildings where trades are demonstrated today. Here's the weaver and his assistant constructing blanket cloth based on an 18th century pattern. The weavers in this building produce replicas for CW using 18th century techniques for use in other locations at CW. The weaver explained that it would take 22 years of 40 hour weeks using the loom in this photo to equal 8 hours of production of a modern loom.

In addition to practicing law in Williamsburg, George Wythe also trained Thomas Jefferson and several other young men in that field. This room served as Mr. Wythe's office and study, so it's likely he and Jefferson studied together in this room. You'll also notice evidences of Mr. Wythe's interest in science scattered about the room. Any guesses what's in the glass jars on the table?

Gretel and Elizabeth pretending to take tea in the parlor of the Wythe House.

This map shows up frequently around the city, and I believe it represents the boundaries of the colonies around 1750. If you look carefully you'll notice we live in Virginia, and our friends on the west side of the Illinois River live in New France, or Canada.

The receiving hall in the Governor's Palace includes enough weapons for a small army, and the crests of Queen Anne (who reigned when the palace was built) and the Kings George (the third of which was reigning at the time of our Declaration of Independence).

Close view of one of the swords.

The crest of King George showing the lion for England, and the unicorn for Scotland.

This shot was captured in one of the bedrooms in the Palace and is for all my friends that are familiar with the cost of building materials. Look at all that molding!

On to the Capitol Building where the Governor's Council meets in this chamber on the second floor above the General Court.

The Burgesses had this committee room above their assembly hall.

Although the Capitol Building is a reproduction of an earlier building, many of our nation's founding fathers represented their Virginia counties in a room like this on this spot. Patrick Henry's "Caesar-Brutus" speech was delivered on this site in 1765, along with many others that forged our determination to be an independent state.

One of our favorite shops to visit is the Millinery where Mr. Hutter is the Master Tailor. His work is equisite as evidenced by this quilted double-breasted jacket. His techniques are limited to those in practice in the 18th century (i.e. no sewing machines), and one can often find him sitting cross-legged on a table doing his work by the light of the window at his back.

Our home away from home. Thanks for visiting!

1 comment:

  1. that coat is exquisite... oh how i would love to visit here someday!

    For now I am certainly enjoying these pictures ( i think you'll have to change the name of your blog though;))

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