Historic Williamsburg

13. The Governor's Palace

Williamsburg, VA

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Completed in 1722, the Governor's Palace was by the far the grandest building in Williamsburg and became a model for all the grand plantation homes in the colony. The square-shaped main building has three floors and roughly 3,380 square feet. One-and-a-half-story advance buildings stand perpendicular on either side of the main house. Gardens, a stable, kitchen, bathhouse, laundry building, scullery and an icehouse buried halfway underground populated the grounds directly behind the main house. The estate maintained roughly 25 servants and slaves to run the large household. As a symbol of power and grandeur within the colony, the palace was also host to elegant social events, such as balls and parties. It was the home of seven British governors while Virginia remained a colony. After the Revolutionary war, the first two governors of the Virginia Commonwealth, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, resided here. The front of the palace features the British royal coat of arms: a gilded and crowned lion symbolizing England, and a unicorn in chains representing Scotland together hold a quartered shield. The chains on the unicorn also appear on the Scottish coat of arms. Since myth described free unicorns as dangerous creatures, they were almost always depicted in chains. The fleur de lis in the second quarter represents France, while the harp in the third quarter represents Ireland. The motto of the English monarch, "Deu et Mon Droit" translates to "God and my Right." The words on the garter encircling the shield translate to "Shamed be he who thinks ill of it." Beyond serving as the seat of the governor, the Palace was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers multiple times during the Revolutionary war. Over 150 people who died at the Battle of Yorktown are buried in the garden. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were the only two governors to reside at the Palace as governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, since the Virginia capitol was moved to Richmond in 1780. Only one year later, the palace was destroyed by fire. Luckily, Jefferson had made detailed drawings of the original structure before it burned down; this allowed for an accurate replica of the palace to be built during the restoration of Williamsburg.