## COLONIAL PROGRESSION

The color diagram overlaid on the Frenchman's map of Williamsburg of 1782 here emphasizes the greatness of the design composition of this city, and reminds us that the principles it embodies are at the root of the American tradition.

Starting at the left, at the gate of the group of buildings of William and Mary College (shown in black), the Colonial politician attending a meeting of the State Assembly would have proceeded eastward toward the H-shaped State House (three-quarters of a mile away), which was the other visual terminus of Duke of Gloucester Street, the main street of the city. Leaving the college, he would pass along two blocks bordered by houses, to the churchyard on the left, and the church building with its spire which provides the pivot to the cross thrust of the tree-lined mall, extending the space of the street north to the focal Governor's Palace with its symmetrical outbuildings, also in black.

A small block separates this linear cross-space from the square with its central court house on the north and octagonal powder magazine on the south side of the main street. South of this is an open space which formerly led to Tazewell Hall, with its outbuildings, once the architectural terminus to this vista. The rhythmic progression proceeds along the contained space between the next two blocks with their dense development of buildings, to the State House, which dominates the space that opens up around it.

In this simple, unselfconscious composition, the architecture and the space-planning are one, although done by many different people at different periods. The great act of reconstruction of Williamsburg by the Rockefeller family has brought about a revival of interest in the details of American Colonial life. Not to be forgotten is the lesson of the design of the city as a whole.

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## COLONIAL PROGRESSION

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