The Colony of Virginia's government was moved to Williamsburg in 1699 from Jamestown and it was here that the House of Burgesses met. The Capitol was the site of many historic events in the forming of our nation. It was here that Patrick Henry gave his famous Stamp Act address and later where the Fifth Virginia Convention voted unanimously for independence from Great Britain � the first colony to do so.
Both of the two original Capitol buildings that stood on this land burned � the first in 1747 and the second in 1832. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities deeded the grounds the Capitol stood on to Colonial Williamsburg in 1928. In 1934 the reconstructed Capitol of 1705-1747 was built. The first Capitol was chosen because its architecture was more interesting as well as being better documented. |
