The card's caption reads: "The Cabinetmaker and his assistant work with hand tools of the eighteenth century to produce fine chairs, tables, smaller items such as tea caddies and trays, and other superb examples of craftsmanship. This shop is one of the operating Craft Shops of Colonial Williamsburg open to the visitor."]]> AVPC-170-V]]>
When Colonial Williamsburg first opened as a museum in the 1930s, Duke of Gloucester Street consisted of a combination of exhibition buildings and commercial establishments, and several retail establishments rented space in restored or reconstructed structures. The Golden Ball offered a selection of silver and pewter objects for sale. A neighboring structure, the James Craig House, houses today's Golden Ball, where visitors can watch silversmiths at work.

This building, "...an original structure, occupies a favorable spot on the busy 'downtown' end of the main street. Typical of commercial buildings, it has a gable-end facade, and its interior is divided between a large unheated storefront and a smaller counting office with a fireplace in the rear. Like many buildings, this one served as both workplace and home for its occupants." The first occupant (and later owner) of the building was Margaret Hunter, a milliner, who both "...imported and...made diverse and stylish accessories for men, women and children."

(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 57).
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