College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

Page 31 text:

I 11 Cf)C Colonial Ccfto, 1921 i I ■ ;■ B;. p M J ousc Just to the north of Bruton, and facing east upon the Pal- ace Green, stands The Wythe House. erected in 1760; and falling, in the year before the Revolution, to the possession of the illustrious lawyer of that name, the Colonial Cap- ital ' s foremost citizen. Signer of the Declaration. Chancellor of the State of Virginia, first professor of law in the Col- lege, and repeatedly offered by President Washington the post of justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The old house was the scene of sumptuous hospitality, and its stout walls echoed the merry voices of the leaders of social life in the colony. Cy- nics have scoffed at the innum- erable houses claiming to have been Washington ' s Headquar- ters; but the old Wythe House can read its title clear to that distinction. If one have sufficient faith, he may, in the chilly October nights, in a certain room in this old mansion, in the big old four-post tester, hover- ing between sleeping and wak- ing, hear the stately footfall of the great commander, and see his serene features pass slowlv by. n i MfiSr ' marMrt Srs iTi ' tiis tie irt trtKtfiSr».trt -trtt Page 25

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piyiMMjyiMMMMiMMMMi! Cfte Colonial Ccjbo, 1921 W5S ' -i - ' -i5A!Wi«gji3iSfiiSga35«rams Cfje Poor Debtors Prison Somewhat back from the village street stands the hum- ble little building which, time out of mind, has gone by this pathetic name. It was built in 1744 on what was then Market Square, and for ' ' ye commit- ment of Debtors, Criminals, and Offenders. Falling into increasing squalor and dilapi- dation, it was reclaimed and restored late in the eighteen nineties. The whirligig of Time brought to the Old Prison an amusing reversal of fortune. In Williamsburg ' s Days of Forty-Nine. Vi hen the Penni- man Plant crowded the old town, tourists rubbed their eyes to read over its gloomy portals the cheerful inscription : John Doe and Rich. rd Doe, Real Estate and Rentals. WALK RIGHT IN. Page 34 ' 3S '

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Ct)e l otoDer li)orn Perhaps no other ancient pile in the Old Capital so fully represents the vicissitudes of all things human as does the old powder magazine. Con- structed in 1714 — the same year as Bruton Church — of brick in Flemish bond, octa- gonal in shape, with walls twenty-two inches in thickness, it deserves national fame al- most as much as does the far more widely known powder magazine of Lexington. Mas- sachusetts. The next day after the battle of Lexington, Lord Dunmore, at the end of his patience with the rebellious colonists, removed all muni- tions of war from it to His Majesty ' s armed schooner ly- ing in York River. This was for Virginia what the fight at Concord Bridge was for Mas- sachusetts. By turns a market house, a meeting place for the newly organized Baptist congregation — for whose permanent church building its engirdling wall supplied the foundations, — a dancing school, an arsenal for Confederates and Federals alike, and, last, a stable, the old pile served faithfully the passing generations ; and now, as an interesting museum of relics of bygone stirring days, it richly deserves its dignified ease and the affection in which it is held by all who know it. : Page 26 s