THE TRAVIS HOUSE
It is somewhat difficult in this generation to realize the unity of church with state in Colonial Virginia when the legislature might order sermons on special subjects. A most notable case was the setting apart by the Assembly of June 1, 1774, the day when the British were forcibly to close the Port of Boston, as a day of fasting and prayer. The enactment closed with these words: “Ordered, that the members of this house do attend in their Places, at the Hour of ten in the Forenoon, on the said first Day of June next, in order to proceed with the Speaker, and the Mace, to the Church in this City, for the Purposes aforesaid; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read Prayers, and the Reverend Mr. Gwatkin, to preach a Sermon, suitable to the Occasion.”
GALT HOUSE
THE RESTORATION.
During the first tenure of Rev. W. A. R. Goodwin as Rector of Bruton Parish, in 1905, the restoration of the church building to its early condition was begun. While no great alteration had ever been made to its exterior, the interior arrangements had been modified to such an extent as to make it scarcely recognizable. The entire arrangement, both within and without, was now returned, as nearly as available information permitted, to its condition after an enlargement that had been made in 1751.
During his second incumbency in Williamsburg, Dr. Goodwin became increasingly impressed with the possibility of preserving this old capital city as it was in its first period of importance. Only a few other cities in America had the importance of Williamsburg in the founding of our nation; and the others—Boston and Philadelphia—had long since been swallowed up in great commercial cities. Williamsburg, on the other hand, had remained for two hundred years very much the same both in spirit and in physical appearance. Through the years it had continued as the county-seat of an agricultural county and the trading center of another similar one; no industries, no skyscrapers, no conflagrations had changed it. To be sure, a few modern buildings would have to be removed and a considerable number of ancient ones rebuilt. But, at that, it remained the only center of colonial political importance where a thorough restoration was thinkable.
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