LUDWELL-PARADISE HOUSE
WILLIAMSBURG.
Shortly after the College began to function, a fire at Jamestown destroyed the government building. As that location was quite malarial, it was deemed best to establish a new capital on higher ground and it was decided to locate it near the College at Middle Plantation. Legislation was enacted setting off for such purpose approximately what is now known as The Restoration Area, together with approaches through Capitol Landing Road from Queen Mary’s Port on Queen’s Creek and through South Henry Street from Princess Anne Port on Archer’s Hope Creek. Since the receipt of the College charter in 1693, Queen Mary had died, leaving William III to reign alone; so the newly planned city was called Williamsburg.
This, the second planned city in America, was laid out in 1699 with the main street named for Princess Anne’s son, Duke of Gloucester Street. The center line of the street was laid out from the middle of the doorway of the Wren Building in an easterly direction so far as to make the whole length of the street exactly three-fourths of a mile long. The street’s width was fixed at six poles (99 feet) and all buildings were to be kept back six feet from the street. Governor Nicholson named two of the streets for himself: Francis and Nicholson. Other streets had such significant names as England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Nassau, Prince George and York. Williamsburg being on the crest of the York and James watersheds, there were many brooks or dry ravines crossing all the east-west streets. For years Duke of Gloucester Street spanned these ravines on bridges.
THE RALEIGH TAVERN
The first public building to be erected after the laying out of the city was, naturally, The Capitol. This was located on the easterly extension of the center line of Duke of Gloucester Street, thus balancing the Wren Building on the west. Until the completion of the Capitol, the General Assembly held its meetings in the Blue Room of the Wren Building. After the completion of the Capitol it became for three-quarters of a century, the center of public activity in the Virginia Colony, the training-school of democracy, the place where Americans contended against autocracy. Here Patrick Henry made his famous “Caesar-Brutus” speech; here George Washington received the thanks of the Colony; here Thomas Jefferson secured religious freedom for his State; here George Mason presented the first Bill of Rights. The rooms in this building are indeed hallowed for every lover of liberty!
BLAND-WETHERBURN TAVERN
Repeatedly, when the Royal Governor felt obliged to prorogue the Assembly for impertinence to the King, the entire membership withdrew to The Raleigh Tavern where rump sessions were held. In such gatherings, and in frequent less formal meetings at this famous tavern, many important decisions were reached in the growing contest between the Crown and its colonial subjects. This tavern appears to have been the most important informal social center in Virginia in the later years of the 18th century. In the earlier years of that century, certainly as early as 1709, this service was performed by the Bland-Wetherburn Tavern, directly across the street. This is the third oldest building now standing in Williamsburg. It was probably built by Richard Bland, Sr., about the year 1700 and was a meeting place for leading citizens after the completion of the Capitol. At various times the famous host, Henry Wetherburn, ran this hostelry and the Raleigh, opposite.