Williamsburg claims a long and fascinating history. In its three centuries, Virginia’s former capital enjoyed both periods of great fortune and dramatic decline before reinventing itself through an unprecedented restoration process that began in the mid-1920s.
This successful effort at re-creating Williamsburg’s past in a way it can be enjoyed in the present is what draws vast numbers of visitors to the 18th-century buildings and brick-paved streets of the city. Most find themselves moved and inspired by seeing this re-creation of early American life spread out in front of them. In town in the late ’90s to discuss his well-known documentary on Thomas Jefferson, filmmaker and historian Ken Burns called his visit to Williamsburg “the highlight of my professional life.”
Speaking at a convention at the College of William and Mary several years ago, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough said exploring the past is “an antidote to self-pity” because no matter how bad off we might think ourselves now, “others have had it worse.”
Of course, we don’t think for one minute that you’re here in Williamsburg to gloat over your forefathers’ misfortunes. We do believe, however, that if you have come to town to seek a little respite from the cares and speed-of-light pace of 21st-century life, you’re in the right place.