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DATING AND PRESERVATION

AT Colonial Williamsburg

And How Hints Lead to Change

By Dani Jaworski, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Manager of Architectural Collections, and
Jenn Wilkoski, Shirley and Richard Roberts Architectural Historian, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

he early years of the restoration of While inspecting one of our reconstructed buildings, The Red Lion,
Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic we noticed that the stair seemed to be older than the building. Looking
TArea set a new precedent for how through a 1951 architectural research report on the Red Lion, the
historic buildings were studied and General Notes noted, “The main stair occurs in this hall, and was
treated. Historic materials and building originally in the two-story colonial house which was wrecked to clear
techniques were closely examined so that the site for the new Williamsburg Inn.” Amazingly, this meant that a
work was properly conducted. Elements in portion of the St. John House stairs had been reused in one of our
surviving 18th and early-19th century reconstructed buildings. While paint analysis showed that the stair rails
buildings in the Historic Area and and balusters had been stripped of all antique paint, the sole baluster in
throughout eastern Virginia guided the our collection retains some of the original colors from the colonial
restoration of the buildings you see in the house that is no longer here. This baluster shines a light on the fact that
Historic Area today. while we have 88 original buildings that we closely monitor, we also
have 20th century buildings that contain 18th and 19th century
A Discovery of Hints elements that deserve the same protection.
A Single Baluster – Fragments from
early buildings that were either moved or The arches in Belle Farm
demolished during that time were collected
and became vital pieces of the project.
Many fragments are believed to be the lone
survivors from early domestic structures.
One such object is a baluster from a
late-18th-century house known as the
St. John House that was deemed unusable
and demolished in 1937. While no interior
images of the St. John House have been
found, detailed drawings of the stairway
and all its corresponding parts survive in
St. John House Baluster, the Foundation’s architectural drawings
ca. 1775, AF-2.37.3 beside collection.
1930s detailed drawing.

Wood board with architectural
design drawings from Belle Farm,
ca. 1775-1800, AF- VA22560.1.1.

18 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles