The Wythe House is a historic house on the Palace Green in

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location a ...

, in

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is ...

, USA. Built in the 1750s, it was the home of

George Wythe George Wythe (; December 3, 1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from ...

, signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

and father of American jurisprudence. The property was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on April 15, 1970. and

History

The Wythe House once belonged to George Wythe's father-in-law,

Richard Taliaferro Richard Taliaferro ( ; –1779) was a colonial architect and builder in Williamsburg, Virginia, in what is now the United States. Among his works is Wythe House, a Georgian-style building that was built in 1750 or 1755. It was declared a U. ...

. The house was constructed between 1752 and 1754 and was conceived as a whole with no additions made to the rectangular two story structure. The house was built during a period of time when the Governor's Palace was being renovated. The house remained as the sole household of Taliaferro when his daughter Elizabeth married George Wythe in 1755. The couple received the house as a wedding present from Taliafero and they received a life tenancy upon his death in 1779. Elizabeth lived here until her death in 1787, and George moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1791 to serve as a judge. The house served as headquarters for General

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

– September 14 to 17, and 22 to 28, 1781 – prior to the

Siege of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. The house saw several subsequent owners. In 1926 the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, Rector of adjoining Bruton Parish Church, established his offices on the second floor after the Parish acquired the building for church use. Dr. Goodwin is known as the "Father of Colonial Williamsburg." Colonial Williamburg officially obtained the property in 1938, and in 1939 the interior was restored to the form and appearance the Wythe family would have known.

Exterior

The house

The facade is constructed of red brick with white woodwork and is perfectly symmetrical, with the first floor having two windows on each side of the door, and five windows in alignment with the bottom windows on the second floor. The hip roof has brick chimneys rising from the side slopes of the roof. The roof is supported by a modillion cornice. The lighter-colored bricks framing the windows and doors are called "rubbed bricks," as the masons would rub one side of the bricks against each other until a rosy color became evident. The house has a beveled

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

and the walls are laid in

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

. The entrance is reached by a small flight of steps with a large door with raised panels and a transom window.

The property

The property has fine conjectural gardens and several outbuildings including a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

, external kitchen, laundry, poultry house, lumber house, well,

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

, and a stable. The gardens consist of brick paths and hedges with several small shrubs dotting the landscape. The property is contained by a simple white fence with hedges trimming the edges of the gardens.

Interior

The house is a standard center-passage, double-pile plan. A staircase rises on the left side of the passage. The hall contains four door lead to the various rooms. The room interpreted as a parlor by Colonial Williamsburg is to the left before the staircase. A bowfat, a china cupboard, is built into the corner to the left of the fireplace. The dining room is across from the parlor, which it mirrors. A fireplace and bowfat are in the inside wall. Wainscot lines this room; there is a

crown molding Crown moulding is a form of cornice created out of decorative moulding installed atop an interior wall. It is also used atop doors, windows, pilasters and cabinets. Historically made of plaster or wood, modern crown moulding installation ma ...

. A bedroom is located behind the dining room, with a door connecting the two rooms. A white chair rail divides the walls with a black base board. The floors are pine. The bedroom has another doorway leading into the main hall to the rear of the house. The room interpreted as Wythe's office is located behind the parlor. The room contains a fireplace with a blue mantel and plastered firebox. The floors are pine. The second floor is similar in layout to the first. A central hall runs the length of the house with four bedrooms in the corners of the house. Each of these rooms has a fireplace. The windows on this upper floor are actually slightly smaller than the first floor windows but contain the same amount of panels (18) and a double sash. WytheGeorge

References

External links

George Wythe House, 101 Palace Green Street, Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA
10 measured drawings at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Colonial Williamsburg website for the Wythe House
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Historic Landmarks in Virginia Museums in Williamsburg, Virginia Houses in Williamsburg, Virginia Historic house museums in Virginia Houses completed in 1750 Colonial Williamsburg Biographical museums in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Williamsburg, Virginia Taliaferro family of Virginia Homes of United States Founding Fathers