View of Alexander Purdie House from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935. "The reconstructed Alexander Purdie House serves as the east wing of the King's Arms Tavern. In 1774, the Scottish-born Purdie founded the third of three Williamsburg newspapers named the Virginia Gazette. All three papers competed for readers as the Revolution drew near."

(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 60).

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This view, looking south along Duke of Gloucester Street at Block 9, bordered by Blair and Botetourt Streets, shows a number of businesses and residences. Depicted are the Kerr House and Kitchen (now the Palmer House and Kitchen), Walthoe House, English Coffee House (now Shields Tavern), Tilledge House (now the John Coke Office), Purdie's Dwelling (now part of the Kings Arms Tavern), the King's Arms Tavern and Barber Shop, Charlton's Inn (now the Charlton House), the Bland House (now Wetherburn's Tavern) and Tarpley's Store.

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The caption reads: "King's Arms Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. Meals served in the seven dining rooms of the King's Arms, a reconstructed colonial tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street, are prepared from eighteenth-century recipes. Costumed hostesses and waiters enhance the charm of an authentic early American setting."]]>
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Description reads: "A Visit in Pictures to Virginia's Colonial Capital. This is Williamsburg, the restored capital of the eighteenth century colony of Virginia. Here is the little city as it was for nearly a century when Williamsburg was the home of the Royal Governor and the center of a proud society.
Today the twentieth-century visitor walks the same shaded streets where men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and George Mason began their march into history. And here once more is the Capitol, where Patrick Henry roared his defiance of the Stamp Tax, and where Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights become law. Here are the stately town houses, the modest dwellings of the townspeople, the taverns, shops, and public buildings.
Here craftsmen help to re-create the everyday life of the past. You can see the smiths, wigmaker, weaver, printer, bookbinder, baker, cabinetmaker, cobbler, apotheary, and silversmith making articles which for beauty and utility can take their place with the finest of the present day.
Here carriages drawn by spirited steeds still draw up before the gate of the Palace of the Royal Governors of Virginia, once the social center and symbol of royal authority in the colony. Formal gardens reflecting the influence of English taste upon the colonists still surround the Palace - gardens of boxwood, clipped hedges, pleached arbors, tulips, marigolds, hollyhocks, daylilies, crape myrtle, and magnolias.
Here in the evening by flickering candlelight one may tour the Capitol - visit the General Courtroom, the Governor's Council Chamber, and the Hall of the House of Burgesses - or sit in graceful surroundings at the Governor's Palace to enjoy a concert of eighteenth-century music played on instruments of the period.
Here is the College of William and Mary, founded in 1693, and Bruton Parish Church, where Washington and other patriots worshipped. Here is Williamsburg - seat of culture, center of learning, birthplace of freedom."

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