Aerial View of Blocks 8, 17, and 27
Aerial photographs - Virginia - Williamsburg
African American neighborhoods - Virginia - Williamsburg
Capitol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 08. Building 11.
Aerial view of Capitol site and Block 8 looking NW towards Blocks 17 and 27, Robert Lowell Warner Aerial Photographs of Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S. Naval Reserve Photographic Squadron, May 1945.
This view of the Capitol site looking towards Block 17, housing the Raleigh Tavern, and Blocks 27 and 28 along east Nicholson Street, is significant for its visual documentation of an entire neighborhood now disappeared that once served Williamsburg’s hospitality employees and African American community during the era of segregation. Today the area encompasses Colonial Williamsburg’s Franklin Street administrative buildings, bus operations, archaeological collections building, millwork shop, laundry, commissary, and warehouse. Two churches, Mount Ararat Baptist Church, on Franklin Street, and Union Baptist Church, on Botetourt Street, served the spiritual needs of residents. Along Raleigh Lane, extending off of Nicholson Street near the Public Gaol, stood the Odd Fellows Hall, also known as the Morninglight Lodge, the Hillside Café/Wallace and Cook’s Beer Garden restaurant, and the Thomas Confectionary, all of which provided venues for social and philanthropic activities during the era of segregation. The Toby Scott restaurant and store across Botetourt Street from Mount Ararat Baptist Church gave neighbors another place to shop and congregate.
As part of its effort to attract and retain well-trained hotel and restaurant workers from larger cities to work at hospitality properties, Colonial Williamsburg constructed a row of six white clapboard houses along East Scotland Street in the 1930s. They offered comfortable and up-to-date homes with a living room, full kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and screened porches. Known as “White City” due to the painted white clapboard siding used on all six dwellings, they became the residences of chefs, bellmen, dining room captains, chauffeurs, and housekeepers for the Williamsburg Inn and Lodge. A large white clapboard dormitory building visible on the site of today’s Franklin Street Office Building provided additional lodging for single employees during a period when wartime housing pressures pushed Williamsburg to convert all useable spaces into extra accommodations. Today’s only remainder of this once vibrant neighborhood is Mount Ararat Baptist Church which still stands on Franklin Street next to the Franklin Street Office Building.
Warner, Robert Lowell
1945
jpeg
Image
D2020-COPY-0917-2003
Public Gaol
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of the Public Gaol, Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, Virginia
Barrows, John A.
Circa 1930
jpeg
image
Bar-440
Public Gaol
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of the Public Gaol, Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, Virginia
Barrows, John A.
Circa 1930
jpeg
image
Bar-439
Mary Christian and Friends
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Women - Virginia - Williamsburg
Mary Christian, fiance of architectural draftsman John Barrows, sitting on the steps of the Public Gaol with two friends, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Barrows, John A.
Circa 1930
jpeg
image
Bar-402
Public Gaol
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of the exterior of the Public Gaol, Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, Virginia. Despite its grim role, the northern section of the colony’s Public Gaol survived into the twentieth-century. Built between 1701 and 1705, it served as a secure place to hold individuals awaiting trial at the nearby Capitol building, as well as debtors, occasional pirates, runaway slaves, and the mentally ill. The City of Williamsburg continued to use the building as a jail until 1910. By the time this photo was taken, the structure had fallen into disrepair. Only a small portion of the complex remained standing
Bullock, Orin Miles Jr.
Circa 1920
jpeg
Image
Bull-007
Judy Merriweather at Public Gaol
African American women - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 27. Building 02.
An African American woman identified as Aunt Judy Merriweather sits on the steps of the structure that once housed the Public Gaol in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, Virginia.
Bullock, Orin Miles Jr.
Circa 1920
jpeg
Image
Bull-006. See also Cole-078 and 1956-RV-1973.
Judy Merriweather at Public Gaol
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
African American women - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 27. Building 02.
An African American woman identified as Aunt Judy Merriweather stands in front of the structure that once housed the Public Gaol in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, Virginia.
Bullock, Orin Miles Jr.
Circa 1920
jpeg
Image
Bull-005. See also Cole-078 and 1956-RV-1972.
Aerial View of Public Goal
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Aerial view of Public Goal, Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, Virginia
Todd and Brown Inc.
jpeg
image
TB709
Public Goal
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of the Public Goal, Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, Virginia
Todd and Brown Inc,
jpeg
image
TB708
Aunt Judy Merriweather at Public Gaol
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
African Americans - Virginia - Williamsburg - Photographs
Block 27. Building 02.
An African American woman identified as Aunt Judy Merriweather sits on the steps and poses in front of the structure that once housed the Public Gaol in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, Virginia.
jpeg
Image
Cole-078
Public Gaol
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of the front elevation and end gable of the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia,
Beckwith, Edward A.
1926
jpeg
Image
Be88 (see also Bec-133)
Public Gaol
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
View looking along Nicholson Street towards the pillory and stocks outside the Public Gaol soon after its restoration, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1940.
Nivison, Frank
Circa 1940
jpeg
Image
N5224
Public Gaol
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Pre-restoration view of south and east facades of the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1928.
Holmes, Clyde
Circa 1928
jpeg
Image
H136 Print Hol-274
Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Jails - Virginia - Williamsburg
Museum docent - Virginia - Williamsburg
Recto and verso of postcard with an illustration of costumed interpreters standing in front of the of the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia. Back of card reads: After 250 years, this "strong sweet Prison" remains grim evidence of crime and punishment in colonial America. Debtors, criminals, and pirates were imprisoned here, including brigands from "Captain Blackbeard's" infamous crew.
Official Colonial Williamsburg Card
H. S. Crocker Co. Inc.
jpeg
Image
AVPC-589-R
AVPC-589-V
Public Gaol
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Pre-restoration view of the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1928.
Davidson, D. N.
Circa 1928
jpeg
Image
D-48
see also 1950-W-1335
Nicholson Street
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Streets - Virginia - Williamsburg
Booker Tenement (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 04.
Pre-restoration view looking east along Nicholson Street towards the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1928. The Booker Tenement, formerly known as the Redwood Ordinary, is the third structure from the left.
Davidson, D. N.
Circa 1928
jpeg
Image
D-68
see also 76-2322
The Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Jails - Virginia - Williamsburg
The Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia. Back of card reads: "The Gaol was built, it is believed, soon after 1715. With the removal of the Capitol to Richmond, the old gaol was given to the city of Williamsburg. "Debtors, criminals and offenders" found that stone walls could and did make a prison in Williamsburg during the greater part of a century."
Tichnor Bros. Inc.
jpeg
Image
AV-97-05-01-R
AV-97-05-01-V
Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Garrison, Richard
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Jails - Virginia - Williamsburg
Museum docents - Virginia - Williamsburg
Costumed nterpreters stand next to the pillory outside the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1930's
Garrison, Richard
Circa 1930's
jpeg
Image
Garr-019
Stocks at the Public Gaol, Wiliamsburg, Va.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Recto and verso of postcard featuring a view of the stocks and pillory when they were located outside the Public Gaol. The platform provided a popular photo opportunity for early tourists to Colonial Williamsburg, Now re-located to Market Square, the replicas of 18th-century methods of punishment remain a favorite camera subject.
Back of postcard reads: "The Public Gaol, 1701-1704. This building dates from the beginning of the eighteenth- century and has been restored on its original foundations. It includes part of the original structure. The findings of archaeological and documentary research furnished a very complete record for guidance for restoring this unusual structure."
Tichnor Bros. Inc.
jpeg
Image
AV-2000-02-77-R
AV-2000-02-77-V
Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02
Pillories - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Lantern Slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Exterior view of the Public Gaol and pillory. Opened as an exhibition building in April 1936, the Public Gaol is one of eighty-eight original buildings in the Historic Area that have been restored to their eighteenth-century appearance. Criminals ranging from debtors to pirates were confined in the cells to await their trials. Punishments for more minor offenses included time spent in the pillory or stocks outside where bystanders could heckle the offenders.
The pillory and stocks have since been moved to a more centralized location outside the Courthouse on Market Square.
A D Handy Company
jpeg
Image
HLS-73