Margaret Hunter Shop (Pender's Grocery)

Exterior of the Margaret Hunter Shop, once known as Pender's Grocery, as viewed from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935.  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 grocers operated small food markets in restored or reconstructed structures.  Pender's Grocery offered a place for town residents and tourists to pick up refreshments.

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).