Williamsburg came to pass subsequent to the failure of the first English settlement at Jamestown. Jamestown was first settled in 1607. It was set up to be the center of the Virginia Colony's government and commerce. However, the inhospitable swampy and insect ridden terrain at Jamestown eventually drove the settlers to higher ground to a place called Middle Plantation. Fearing the potential for epidemics and feeling the capitol of America's largest colony should be in a more grand setting a successful lobbying effort was made to move the settlement five miles inland to Middle Plantation.

The original settlement of Middle Plantation had grown up around a 17th century palisade built as a defense against Indian attack. By 1690 it was a small village composed of stores, mills, a tavern, a church, and assorted homes. In reality, there was nothing grand about it, but it sat on higher ground and had access to both the James and York Rivers. When the Jamestown Statehouse burned for the fourth time in 1698, the village of Middle Plantation became the locus for colonists who envisioned a capitol city equal to their aspirations. The name Middle Plantation, more rural that regal, was changed to Williamsburg in honor of William III, King of England, and building began.

The philosophy of urban planning at the turn of the 18th century was dominated by geometry, hence the new capitol was laid out in a pattern of squares and perpendicular avenues. The Market Square, or town commons, and a main street stretching from the Capitol Building to the newly established College of William and Mary were the key structural elements of the plan. The Capitol and the College, along with Bruton Parish Church, which lay west of the Square, represented stability and continuity to early settlers. Familiar symbols were important to the new colonists who had braved crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and faced the unknown in their search for economic advancement and a better life.

Williamsburg was a thriving center of commerce and government by the middle of the 18th Century. On the eve of the American Revolution nearly 2,000 people, half of whom were slaves, called the city home. Tailors, carpenters, bakers, gunsmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, merchants, clerks, and their slaves all worked to form the economic nucleus for the governmental system being developed by the capitol city's growing number of politicians and lawyers. In retrospect there is a strong argument that the most important institution in town was neither those of the tradesmen or the politicos. It was the taverns. Taverns were not just for drinking. They were the heart of political, social and cultural discourse.

The prominent role Williamsburg played in the events leading to the Revolutionary War is well known. In 1765 Patrick Henry delivered his rousing Stamp Act Speech at the House of Burgesses here. "Caesar had his Brutus--Charles the first his Cromwell--and George III--may he profit from their example." The First Continental Congress was called in 1774 and the Revolution ended not a dozen miles away, with the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington on the fields of Yorktown in 1781.

As the Revolutionary War wound down, Williamsburg's days of as the center of government were drawing to a close. Governor Patrick Henry moved the capitol to Richmond. Williamsburg suffered a decline of prestige and vitality. The population declined and the only institutions of note that remained were the College of William and Mary and the public hospital for the insane. The decline continued through the Civil War, but the arrival of the railroad in 1880 revived the town some and new houses sprang up near the new C&O depot. Williamsburg remained a quiet insulated college town until the mid 1920's when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was inspired by the imagination of the Reverend W.A.R Goodwin of The Bruton Parish Church, and decided to return Williamsburg to its former glory. Through his financial support and leadership Rockefeller remained closely involved in the project until his death in 1960. The Governor's Palace was reconstructed along with the Raleigh Tavern and opened to the public. Colonial Williamsburg then became the centerpiece of what is now called Virginia's Historic Triangle comprised of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. This represents the beginning, middle and end of the Virginia Colonial period.

Many special events have been organized by a wide variety of groups to celebrate the city's heritage and showcase its many resources. Annual events such as the Williamsburg Scottish Festival and An Occasion for the Arts are a part of the regional fare. Other celebrations, including First Night festivities and the Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium have been added in recent years and the list continues to grow.

Williamsburg celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1999. It was America's first planned city. Laid out in 1699 as a model capitol, Middle Plantation took Jamestown's place as the seat of colonial government. A visit to restored Colonial Williamsburg is a step back in time to a thriving 18th century community. It's a theater of living history where merchants sell their wares, craftspeople ply their trades and patriots sit in dark corners and whisper of revolution. Today, Colonial Williamsburg's authentic character and baroque town plan is the pride of the nation. This historic area covers more than 173 acres. All of the major public buildings have been faithfully reconstructed. The Colonial Williamsburg of today is a bustling community of homes, shops, taverns and exhibition buildings along with a hundred gardens and greens. The Historic area interprets the life and excitement of Colonial Virginia history.