Milford chronicle., 1930-05-23

5 NlOAlS lAhC WillAdlliSDuA 81 anu a
Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall
where George Washington ant
George Mason lived and were neigh
bors. Mary and William College
campus carries with great dignit!
many evidences of age and cOlonia
grandeur, and its huge live oaks
sycamores, locust, maple and elm
trees fit perfectly into the admirable
setting.
The main street of Williamsburg
is Duke of Gloucester Street." hav-
ing been named in 1905 in honor Of
Queen Anne's eldest son. In this
same year the General Assembly met
for the first time in the new Capitol
building.
William and Mary College has
been the connecting link that has
held old Williamsburg together, and
preserved its legends, traditions
history, and most of all-sentiment
Beginning in 1900 the first College
building was used as headquarters
of the Colonial Government, and the
General Assembly met in the build
ing until the Capitol was finished in
1905.
The main Building" of the Col
lege of William and Mary, started in
1895, has been burned three times
but it's thick walls have never fallen.
The Presidents house was erected in
| 1882 and since that time it has
housed every president of the Col
lege. Lord CORVALLIS had his head
quarters here in 1881 on his way to
Yorktown. Brefforton Hall was Or
iginally built in 1882 and used as an
Indian school, for those "barbar-
ions" whom King James I wanted
educated These three buildings, no
BILE with age, and rich in their rec
ord of service, are powerful remin-
ders of the character and sturdiness
that belongs to Williamsburg. The
College has prospered in recent
years under the very able guidance
of Doctor ]. A. c. Chandler, and in
the ten or eleven years since he be-
came President the enrolment has
increased from $50 students to more
than $500.
William and Mary College stands
at one end of Duke of Gloucester
Street. Three quarters of mile
away, at the end of the same street,
was the old Colonial Capitol, the re-
building of which has begun. 1t will
be as near a replica as possible Of
Virginia's Colonial Capitol under the
British.
In Colonial days there was only
one great college in the South
with Harvard in the North. All the
men whose names are illustriOus in
Southern history of that period had
been sent to William and Mary Col
lege, and they also attended BrutOn
Parish Church. Washington, Jeffer-
son, John Marshall, George Wythe,
James Monroe, Henry Clay, John
Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund |
Randolph, and hundreds of others
were educated here.
How much Mr.. Rockefeller will |
give to Williamsburg no one knows,
except that it will amount to several |
million dollars. Most of the build |
ings and sites of old Williamsburg, !
nearly all of the buildings !
which line both sides of the three
quarter mile thOroughfare of Duke
of Gloucester Street, have been pur-
chased for the Restoration" Both
sides of the street will be restored.
That is only part of the story, as
hundreds of thousands of dollars
will be spent in the improvements
and the restoration in the rest of
this city of $500 inhabitants.
Even the poles erected to carry
and electric light wires
will be removed and the wires put
A new highway will be
built to relieve the Duke of Glou-
cester Street as the main artery of
travel, so that it will become a nice
Did Colonial street, once more.
The Virginia Gazette was founded
N Williamsburg by William Parks,
August 6, 1876. But like other ne
,essities the newspaper passed into
| long slumber following the decis-
on of Thomas Jefferson, when he
became Governor of Virginia in 1879
% move the State Capitol to Rich
nond. This change was carried into
,ffect the following year. But the
Virginia Gazette has been restored,
Ind when 1 called to pay my re-
pects, its editor, ]. A. Osborne, gen.
rously presented me with hand
omely printed and ably edited copy
# volume 1, Number 1, new ser
es," of the Gazette, dated January
0, 1880. Late copies of the Gazette,
nd changed conditions of Williams [
,urg indicate that it's presses will
ever again fail to supply the paper
o the people of this part of old +
Imerica.
jamestown, Williamsburg and ,
'orktown contributed the highest !
pots in Colonial history, outside of I
lew England, where other chapters i
the great adventures of our fore J
lthers were engraved in the heart J
f America. Fortunately Williams '
urg just "pegged along" for more S
nan hundred years as a small ed
catiOnal town, which makes it pos '
ible to restore it in the way in G
-hich it existed in Colonial days.
was first. Yorktown wit c
essed the fulfillment of the vision b
new people who triumphed ov- i
r their OppressOrs. Williamsburg f
as 1T in Colonial Days. Three Col h
nial Governors were buried here. F
or more than hundred years be- Il
IRE the United States was created, S
was the seat of Colon S
j Government. s
So, as we have seen with our own S
yes the great plan under way for