Detail of the 1781 Berthier
map of the camp at Williamsburg, Journal 9, no. 39; Louis-Alexandre
Berthier Papers. Manuscripts Division, Princeton University Library
This detail of an 18th-century map, with the College at the bottom and
the Capitol at the top, shows the rational grid in which the streets were
laid out by Gov. Nicholson and the extent to which the ravines cut their
deep paths into the backyards just off Duke of Gloucester street in the
center. Parts of Nicholson St. to the north were not completely leveled
until the late 19th century. What appears to be a two dimensional plan
is in reality a 3-D, fractal landscape.
This interpenetration of country and city gives the Historic Area bucolic
pockets of countryside in the midst of what was once the politically charged
capital of the largest and most important English colony of the Georgian
Age.
While the city certainly relied on outlying farms
and market gardens to provide it with necessities, distances in
the Williamsburg area were short, and pasturage, orchards and
kitchen gardens in the immediate vicinity supplied the most immediate
needs of the city's residents.
Historic Triangle