Colonel Edward Champion Travis built the home in 1765 and it acquired several additions as successive owners occupied the site. Travis served in the House of Burgesses and was its most prominent colonial occupant. The house became a residence for superintendents of Eastern State Hospital in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Eastern State Hospital turned the building over to the Williamsburg Restoration in 1929 and this led to its temporary move to Duke of Gloucester Street to become a restaurant between 1930-1951.]]> Rights and reproductions]]>
Colonel Edward Champion Travis built the home in 1765 and it acquired several additions as successive owners occupied the site. Travis served in the House of Burgesses and was its most prominent colonial occupant. The house became a residence for superintendents of Eastern State Hospital in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Eastern State Hospital turned the building over to the Williamsburg Restoration in 1929 and this led to its temporary move to Duke of Gloucester Street to become a restaurant.]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Exterior of the John Blair House, view from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935. "The John Blair House and Kitchen on the north side of Duke of Gloucester Street was the home of a prominent family of Virginians. The Reverend James Blair (1655-1743), founder and first president of the College of William and Mary, came to Virginia in 1685....The original, easterly part of the John Blair House was built early in the eighteenth century. It is one of the oldest houses in Williamsburg. Town tradition has it that the stone steps at both doors came from the Palace Street theater. The steps were added when the house was lengthened twenty-eight feet to the west sometime during the second quarter of the eighteenth century."

(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 103-104).

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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. Several grocers operated small food markets in restored or reconstructed structures.


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Colonel Edward Champion Travis built the home in 1765 and it acquired several additions as successive owners occupied the site. Travis served in the House of Burgesses and was its most prominent colonial occupant. The house became a residence for superintendents of Eastern State Hospital in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Eastern State Hospital turned the building over to the Williamsburg Restoration in 1929 and this led to its temporary move to Duke of Gloucester Street to become a restaurant.]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Oblique view of the front elevations of the Ludwell-Paradise House and Prentis Store, looking east down Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935.  One of the eighty-eight original eighteenth-century buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the Ludwell-Paradise house (pictured to the left) played an important role in the museum's founding as the first property purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  Members of the Ludwell family resided here in the eighteenth century, and Lucy Ludwell Paradise, one of their more eccentric offspring, became a well-known socialite in both London and Virginia.  She also became a namesake for this home that is a cornerstone of Williamsburg's restoration.

The Prentis Store, pictured to the right, was built circa 1739-1740.  Another one of Williamsburg's eighty-eight original eighteenth-century buildings, "the Prentis Store is Williamsburg's best-surviving example of a colonial store.  The firm of Prentis and Company (named after the store's original merchant-shop keeper, William Prentis), operated a highly successful general store in this handsome original building from 1740 until the Revolution.  A classic example of store architecture, its gable end faces the street.  Through the door above, merchandise could easily be lifted into the loft. Windows along the sides were located toward the rear of the building to light the counting room and to leave long, blank walls for ample shelving in the sales area."

(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 52-53).

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A smaller seventeenth-century structure stood on the site from 1683 until 1715, when the larger and more elaborate cruciform-style church replaced it. Located at the edge of Palace Green on the corner of Duke of Gloucester Street and Palace Street, the church was originally designed by colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood. Bruton Parish continues to serve an active Episcopal congregation and has functioned as a site of worship for the community since the parish was first founded in 1674.

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Exterior of the William Lightfoot House, viewed from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935. "The William Lightfoot House and Kitchen on the south side of the street belonged to a Yorktown merchant whose business apparently brought him to Williamsburg so often that he felt the need for a local dwelling."

(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 52).

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> View of the exterior of Bruton Parish Church taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. A smaller seventeenth-century structure stood on the site from 1683 until 1715, when the larger and more elaborate cruciform-style church replaced it. Located at the edge of Palace Green on the corner of Duke of Gloucester Street and Palace Street, the church was originally designed by colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood.  

A series of restoration efforts began under Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's direction between 1903-1907 and continued periodically until completed in 1940. In this 1935 photo of the south facade of Bruton Parish Church, the building retains the Colonial Revival window shutters and screen doors installed by architect J. Stewart Barney during his 1906 renovation of the exterior, according to how be believed the church appeared in the eighteenth century.  The shutters and screen doors were later removed during final restoration efforts in 1939, given the availability of further research information.  

The original wooden frame of a small bull's-eye window (accession # AF-21.1.1), removed from the east end of the church around 1906, is now in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's architectural fragments collection. Otherwise, the building's exterior walls and windows are original and the interior has been restored to its eighteenth-century appearance.  Large bull's-eye windows are still visible today in the south-facing end of the church (facing Duke of Gloucester Street) and the east end (facing Palace Green).  Bruton Parish continues to serve an active Episcopal congregation and has functioned as a site of worship for the community since the parish was first founded in 1674.

 

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One of the eighty-eight original eighteenth-century buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the house played an important role in the museum's founding as the first property purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Members of the Ludwell family resided here in the eighteenth century and Lucy Ludwell Paradise, one of their more eccentric offspring, became a well-known socialite in both London and Virginia. She also became a namesake for this home that is a cornerstone of Williamsburg's restoration]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]>
Restoration work on this original eighteenth-century structure occurred between 1930 and 1931. At the time this photo was taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935, Tucker family descendants still lived in the home, as they were granted life tenancy.]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]>