"Hilaritas Sapientiae et Bonae Vitae Proles"
by deecat
Painted in gold above the mantel of the Raleigh Tavern's Apollo Room is the motto, "Hilaritas Sapientiae et Bonae Vitae Proles" which means "Jollity, the offspring of wisdom and good living".
This tavern was named after Sir Walter Raleigh who himself tried to colonize Virginia in 1585! His sculptured bust stood above the door of the tavern where there often were balls (dances) held because the colonial Virginians just loved to dance. The likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington either ate here or attended functions here.
You could buy theater tickets and merchandise here at the Tavern. Unfortunately, slaves were auctioned from its steps.
The Raleigh Tavern's famed Apollo Room was where a group of College of William and Mary students founded Phi Beta Kappa in 1779. In 1859 the Raleigh Tavern was, it was said, "willfully burnt down"! The Raleigh was not rebuilt.
When restoration of Williamsburg began, there were two modern brick stores on the site where the raleigh Tavern had stood. Excavations began in 1928 and they unearthed the foundations and artifacts from the Tavern.
In addition, using drawings from Lossing's book, A Pictorial Field-Book of the American Revolution as well as insurance policy sketches, they were able to precisely reconstruct the original Tavern.
Interestingly, Raleigh Tavern was the first exhibition building reconstructed, and that took place in 1932. I enjoyed seeing the Raleigh Tavern and was enthralled to see the Apollo Room where Phi Beta Kappa was founded.
The photo shows that particular room.
Today, you can purchase cookies, bread, and other baked produce at the Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop ^b in the Raleigh Tavern Kitchen
Keeping meals hot
by matcrazy1
The oven and fireplace of the kitchen of the Governor's Palace was large. But, anyway, I can't imagine cooking on this single oven enough food for say over 50 or even 200 guests of the governor which. Did upper classes eat less in the past or maybe they accepted and ate cold dishes cooked before?
Well, they used this additional oven on my picture to keep already cooked meals hot.
Camera
by acemj
.As always, don't forget your camera. Williamsburg is very picturesque. Nat and I missed the peak fall foliage by about a week or two, but I can imagine that it would be spectacular in late October.
Cellars of the Governor's Palace
by matcrazy1
By the time the first refrigerator was built (in Pennsylvania, USA by Oliver Evans in 1805) and practically in use (since invention by Karl von Linde in Munich, Germany in 1873) upper class houses must have cellars to store food and wine/beer.
The cellars of the Governor's Palace are not at all off the beaten path but fairly easy to miss if you don't know where the entrance is. It's on the western side of the palace.
The entrance to the cellars (on my picture) was designed in a way typical for colonial houses. The stairs down to the cellars were put outside the building, by its wall and were covered by two-wing flap, exactly as on my picture. It wasn't comfortable to go to the cellars from outside especially in bad weather but they had servants and slaves. And in many upper class houses there was additional passage to cellars from inside the house (or at least a kind of freight elevator).
For the news hound
by upesnlwc about Colonial Post Office
Brush up on the news from 1774 with a copy of the Virginia Gazette, select a print for the living room, or replenish your letter-writing supplies. This store is also a United States Post Office, so you may send letters and postcards hand-canceled with a replica of the 18th-century Williamsburg postmark.
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