From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South

All Come to Look for America

All Come to Look for America In 1780, the state of Virginia moved its capital from Williamsburg to Richmond. For the next century and a half, time passed Williamsburg by and it deteriorated. In February 1924, the rector of the local Williamsburg Episcopal Church attended a Phi Beta Kappa dinner in New York City. The rector met John D. Rockefeller Jr. there. The rector from that small southern town, Reverend W. A. R. Godwin, inquired whether Mr. Rockefeller might be interested in providing funds to build a Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall in Williamsburg. (Williamsburg is the home of the College of William and Mary, the site of the society’s founding.) From that first pledge through 1966, the Rockefeller interests supported what has become known as Colonial Williamsburg. It’s estimated that they contributed $70 million restoring Williamsburg to its glory days in Colonial America when, as the capital of Virginia, it was one of the most important cities in North America. When Mr. Rockefeller first took an interest in Williamsburg, it was a sleepy southern town. Significant buildings, such as the Capitol and the Governor’s Place, already had been lost to decay. But almost ninety Colonial-era structures remained. Complicating the re-creation was the presence of more recent buildings: houses, gas stations and commercial structures. Other Colonial capitols—New York, Philadelphia, or Boston—had become major modern cities and had shed their Colonial past. Downtrodden Williamsburg was the only remaining place in America where the Colonial days could be authentically recreated. 39 Undertaking this grand task, the Rockefellers created what has now come to be called heritage conservation in America. Williamsburg cannot be considered “historic preservation” because old buildings were destroyed and reproduction Colonial-era structures built. This creative destruction was necessary to meet the larger goal of creating a narrative of this country’s founding. Williamsburg is a living museum, a place where modern Americans can see how their ancestors lived. Williamsburg is fantasy land. Tourists tour buildings as they would have looked during the 1700s. Re-enactors create Colonial-era characters such as a chicken thief or a felon held in the Colonial gaol. Artisans can be found brick-making, coopering, and shoemaking using methods pre-dating the Industrial Revolution. Colonial Williamsburg is the center of one of the premier historical attractions in the United States, America’s Historic Triangle with Visitors line up to tour a building in Colonial Williamsburg. 40 Jamestown and Yorktown. The Colonial Parkway connects these three sites of American history. As it might today, the attention and investment by a prominent family such as the Rockefellers in an altruistic venture attracted the attention and assistance of the federal government. After the Rockefellers got involved in Williamsburg at the height of the Great Depression, Congress funded the Colonial Parkway. The Parkway is twenty-three miles long, starting at the Yorktown Bridge and ending at the James River in Jamestown. The National Park Service describes the Parkway as a national monument linking the three sites into a “single coherent reservation free of modern commercial development.” With limited access and a 500-foot right-of-way, the Parkway maintains continuity from one historic site to another. The Colonial Parkway provides a wooded, non-commercial introduction to Colonial Williamsburg. The road, canopied by large trees and coupled with the complete lack of development, creates the impression Colonial Parkway between Williamsburg and Yorktown 41 that one has left modern America. Even though a modern interstate is available only a few miles away, locals use the Colonial Parkway when traveling between Williamsburg and Yorktown, especially during rush hour. Many prefer the leisurely forty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit of the three-lane Colonial parkway with its views of the James River to the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate. The Rockefellers intended to create an idealized view of the colonial era and this country’s founding. Creating jobs was not their motivation. But in recreating Williamsburg, the Rockefellers recast the economy of the Tidewater peninsula between the James and York Rivers, which attracts many tourists. Many immigrants serve these tourists. The fiddler who plays nightly at the Chowning Tavern immigrated some thirty years ago to Williamsburg from the Isle of Argyle. Calling him a fiddler is misleading because he plays any number of stringed instruments—along with playing the bagpipes. His official title is senior tavern entertainer, which sounds too corporate...