Williamsburg, Virginia, A City Before the State 1699 -1999 A 300th Anniversary History Signed by Robert Maccubin and Dennis P. Blandon kk AS NEW

Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. In exceptionally good condition/In exceptionally good condition. Demy folio, [27.75cm/11inches], full gilt-embossed Cumberland-blue cloth with mylar-protected dust jacket, pp. xvi, 301. Illustrated with b-w halftones, colour plates &ct. Please feel free to ask for particulars and/or additional photographs. ... Williamsburg was one of America's first planned cities. Laid out in 1699 under the supervision of Governor Francis Nicholson, it was to be a "new and well-ordered city" suitable for the capital of the largest and most populous of the British colonies in America. A succession of beautiful capitol buildings became home to the oldest legislative assembly in the New World. The young city grew quickly into the center of political, religious, economic, and social life in Virginia. The Capital was moved in 1780, this time up the James River to Richmond, where it remains today. Williamsburg reverted to a quiet college town and rural county seat. In retrospect, Williamsburg's loss of capital city status was its salvation as many 18th century buildings survived into the early twentieth century.
The Restoration of Williamsburg began in 1926, after the Rector of Bruton Parish Church, the Reverend Doctor W A. R. Goodwin, brought the city's importance to the attention of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who then funded and led the massive reconstruction of the 18th-century city we see today. National attention soon focused on the restoration effort. During a landmark visit in 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed its main thoroughfare, the Duke of Gloucester Street, the most historic avenue in America.