Historic Williamsburg

14. Roscow Cole House

Williamsburg, VA

Book Now

The Roscow Cole House, also called the Norton-Cole House or Peachy-Rogers House, was built around 1812. This two-story home replaced an earlier, run-down structure that was constructed around 1719. It is two stories tall, with Flemish bond brickwork on the exterior. When Colonial Williamsburg began restoring buildings during the 1920s and 1930s, they often used materials that were salvaged from eighteenth-century buildings. The bricks on the house's wing came from the old Turner Farm, which was located on the Chickahominy River. The outbuildings were renovated to show how they would have looked during the eighteenth century. The house is located on Market Square. This was a good location for business, and many different owners lived and worked here during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dr. John Baker, a surgeon and dentist who took care of George Washington's teeth, lived on the premises. Other owners included William Hornsby, a merchant, James Geddy, who was a gunsmith, John Hatley Norton, for whom the house was originally named, and James Patterson, a local clock and watch maker. Roscow Cole owned the property from 1809 to 1854, but he actually lived in New York and rented the building to several business owners. He sold the home to Peter Powell in 1854. Powell owned the home before and after the Civil War. The house eventually came into the possession of Mary Peachy, who was a member of the prominent Peachy family. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin of Bruton Parish Church purchased it in 1927 for John D. Rockefeller's Williamsburg restoration campaign. The house itself was repaired and modernized in 1929, but not restored. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation currently uses the structure for office space.