Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city served as the capital of the colonial era Colony of Virginia. The district includes 17th-century, 19th-century, Colonial Revival, and more recent structures and reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets, which are designed to represent how Williamsburg existed in the 18th century. Costumed employees work and dress as people did during the colonial era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
In the late 1920s, the restoration of colonial Williamsburg was championed as a way to celebrate patriots and the early history of the United States. Proponents included W. A. R. Goodwin and other community leaders, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Colonial Dames of America, United Daughters of the Confederacy, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
