Exploring Virginia's Historic Triangle, Then and Now

Few places blur the line between past and present quite like Virginia’s Historic Triangle. The places now known as Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg witnessed the arrival of the first British ships on Virginia’s shores, the rise of revolutionary ideals, and the battle that secured a new nation. But these events don’t just live in the past—they continue to shape American life, including how these iconic towns are experienced today.

Here, you can stroll through the former British royal governor’s neatly trimmed palace gardens as 18th-century leaders once did, or wander the modern wilds of the Williamsburg Botanical Garden. Climb aboard replicas of the 1607 Settlement Ships, then cruise the same waters on Yorktown Sailing Charters’ Schooner Serenity. Or step into the eclectic world of folk art at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum before discovering works by O’Keeffe, Rembrandt, and more at one of the oldest university-based art collections in the country.

From Monarchs to Meadows

Developed in the 1710s under Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, the Governor’s Palace Gardens were as much about the plants as they were a symbol of royal power.

The sprawling 10-acre complex looked like a meticulously crafted tapestry, following the kind of highly-controlled, geometrical garden shape popular in the Tudor-Stuart period. It had “falling gardens,” canals, and fish ponds, and was specifically crafted to be admired from the palace windows. Guests would find a diverse array of imported plant species, a testament to the governor’s reach and wealth, that were tended to by enslaved laborers.

The Governor’s Palace Gardens are still walkable today, having been restored to their original grandeur in the 1930s, allowing visitors to experience the same vistas once meant to impress colonial elites.

Two centuries later, Williamsburg’s Botanical Gardens have a different purpose: one grounded in modern principles of sustainability, biodiversity, and community-driven conservation.

Found within Freedom Park, the 2-acre Williamsburg Botanical Garden includes more than 150 woody species, most of them native to the Virginia Coastal Plain. Paths wind down through both manicured gardens and more natural wild spaces, with special areas such as the Pollinator Palace for native bees, a Fairy Garden for interactive children’s experiences, a Therapy Garden designed for people with disabilities to grow their own vegetables, and a Meadow that hums with pollinators during late summer.

This volunteer-run garden is free to visit. Designed as a living classroom, it prioritizes wildlife support and sustainable practices typical of the Virginia Peninsula.

Tavern Time Travel

In 18th-century Virginia, taverns were the social and intellectual heart of the colony, where politics were argued over roast meats, card games and the free flow of ale. None proved more influential than the Raleigh Tavern. Built sometime before 1735, it hosted auctions, elegant balls, and lavish reception dinners for arriving Royal Governors.

But it was in the Apollo Room, with its paneled walls and banqueting halls, that the tavern cemented its place in history. In 1769, after Virginia’s royal governor dissolved the elected assembly, its members reconvened here as the “late representatives of the people.” There, they pledged to boycott British goods in protest of new taxes, one of the first organized rebellions against royal authority. The Raleigh became a gathering place for revolutionaries, where figures like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry debated ideas that set the stage for the American Revolution.

The tavern was the first building reconstructed in Colonial Williamsburg. Since 1932, visitors have stepped inside this restored landmark to imagine the fiery conversations that helped launch a nation. Guided tours, live reenactments, and occasional participatory events invite guests to discover the people and moments that shaped this place.

Virginia’s tavern tradition carries on at King’s Arms Tavern, where guests can travel back in time in this living-history ale house. Located in a recreated 1700s tavern that bore the same name, servers in period attire present 18th-century recipes with a modern twist. While savoring signature dishes like peanut soup or colonial game pye, visitors are entertained by balladeers playing traditional songs and townsfolk sharing “the news of the day.”

Step Aboard and Into the Past

The Mayflower and its Plymouth-settling crew may steal the spotlight, but it wasn’t the first English ship to reach what is now the United States. History buffs know that three ships—Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery—arrived 13 years earlier.

In 1607, after surviving four rough months at sea, the ships finally anchored in a marshy peninsula along the James River. On board were 144 men and boys who would go on to establish the first permanent English settlement on the continent: Jamestown, named after their King James I.

Right from the moment they set foot on the ground, life was harsh. The area was swampy and plagued by mosquitoes, with brackish water unsuitable for drinking. The settlers struggled with food shortages and disease, and attacks from the local Powhatan tribes. By the end of the first year, nearly half the colonists had died. Still, the settlement endured and eventually became the first capital of colonial Virginia.

Visitors can now step aboard exact replicas of two of the three ships at the Jamestown Settlement. On the Godspeed and Discovery, interpreters share stories of the sailors’ challenges and daily routines, and demonstrate knot-tying, sail-raising and 17th-century piloting and navigation, bringing their seafaring journey to life. Back on land, visitors can step inside the re-created 1610-14 fort where colonists first lived, or explore a reconstructed Paspahegh village. They can also learn more about the people and cultures that shaped 17th-century Virginia in the site’s interactive exhibits.

For those who want to sail the same routes as the early settlers, the Yorktown Sailing Charters and Jamestown Discovery Boat Tours offer modern excursions along the James and York Rivers. Visitors can follow the path of Captain John Smith when he was trading with the Powhatan along Yorktown’s Schooner Serenity, or cruise near Jamestown Settlement while hearing stories of the colony’s early years–keeping an eye out for dolphins or osprey along the way.

Defending Freedom

Strolling around its gently rolling hills, visitors could almost forget Colonial National Historical Park was once the site of a bloody battleground. That is, unless you happen to visit when saber-brandishing men on horseback gallop through the field.

Nearly 250 years ago, these very grounds rumbled with the thunder of cannons. The British, led by General Cornwallis, found themselves in the tobacco port of Yorktown, encircled by American troops and their French allies, and cut off from any escape routes. By October 19, 1781, Cornwallis had surrendered, marking the conclusion of the last major battle of the American Revolution.

Today, you can explore the Yorktown Battlefield, its earthworks and historic buildings where American independence was won. Driving around the siege lines and encampment areas, you’ll want to keep an eye out for original cannons and mortars positioned along the earthworks.

For a deeper understanding of the Revolution, visitors can head about a mile away to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. There, you can experience the Siege of Yorktown through a 180-degree surround screen, rumbling seats, and even the smell of gunpowder.

With indoor galleries and outdoor living-history areas, the museum traces the nation’s founding from the colonial period to the signing of the constitution, told through the personal stories of citizens, soldiers, and pivotal events. Inside are 500 period artifacts, including a 1776 broadside of the Declaration of Independence.

Outdoors, revolutionary-era life is vividly depicted in a re-created Continental Army encampment and farm. Guests can muster with troops, learn military drills and musket firing, squirm over 18th century medical practices, or even pitch in with chores on the farm.

Stories From the Earliest Schools

Few universities can say they’ve had their classes canceled because the British were coming. Such is the legacy of the Sir Christopher Wren Building at William & Mary, the oldest college building still standing in the U.S.

Constructed between 1695 and 1700 after a successful petition by the Church of England in Virginia, the Wren Building predates even Williamsburg. At the time, colonial Virginia’s capital was still located at Jamestown.

It began with three schools: grammar, philosophy, and divinity. The Wren Building, known then simply as “The College” was the first to open its doors to students.

Since then, the Wren Building has survived fires and wars, and its campus has hosted four U.S. presidents. Now in its fourth century, the building still hums with daily life, its classrooms and offices carrying forward the purpose it was built for more than 300 years ago.

On the same campus once stood Bray School, one of the earliest institutions in North America dedicated to educating Black children.

Founded in 1760 at the urging of Benjamin Franklin, the school’s purpose was to convince enslaved students to accept their circumstances as divinely ordained. A number of records show the children resisted the intention of those lessons.

The Bray School’s sole teacher, Ann Wager, instructed hundreds of enslaved and free students until her death in 1774, after which the school closed.

After going unrecognized for 250 years, the original school building, used from 1760 to 1765, was rediscovered on campus in 2020. A year later, it was moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area for restoration, with much of its original material preserved.

Today, visitors can explore the Bray School as an exhibition site. It is also used as a focal point for research and dialogue about the intertwined history of race, religion and education in America through the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative, a partnership between William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Collecting the Arts Through Time

Walking around the galleries of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM), visitors step into a colorful world of carved figures, carousels, and portraits created by self-taught artists.

The basis of the museum comes from Abby Aldrich Rockefeller’s pioneering collection of folk art, begun in the 1920s and donated to Colonial Williamsburg a decade later. It opened in 1957, and is now the oldest continuously operating institution in the U.S. devoted solely to folk art.

Guests can wander its 11 galleries, divided into distinct folk art categories such as paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, and toys, featuring rotating exhibitions. Located within the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, AARFAM sits alongside the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, together comprising more than 70,000 examples of folk, fine, decorative, and mechanical arts under one roof.

A mile away is the Muscarelle Museum of Art, home to one of the oldest university-based art collections in the U.S.

It dates back to 1732, when William & Mary received its first gift, a portrait of physicist Robert Boyle. Over the centuries, the university received numerous donations, including American and English colonial works, as well as modern pieces such as White Flower by Georgia O’Keeffe, gifted by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller herself.

For years, these valuable artworks were spread throughout campus. It wasn’t until they were cataloged in 1970 that the university realized the true scale of the collection found within its walls, and the need for a museum. The Muscarelle Museum of Art was formally established in 1983, featuring works spanning European Old Masters, American icons, and modern and contemporary creators.

With the recent opening of the Martha Wren Briggs Center for the Visual Arts, the Muscarelle has tripled in size, showcasing nearly 8,000 works, from Michelangelo and Rembrandt to Henry Ossawa Tanner and Margaret Bourke-White. It also hosts workshops, lectures, and community events. Admission to the permanent collection is free.