Charlton’s Coffeehouse Opening

Next Friday, November 20th, 2009, will be the official opening of Richard Charlton’s Coffeehouse in Williamsburg, Virginia. The reconstruction of this building and the interpretive planning have been an intense two-year project involving people across the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The results are indeed spectacular, so be sure to visit if you’ll be in the area. I understand that the coffee is pretty tasty, too.

There are piles of information on the project at the official CWF website. Start with the announcement here.

Punk-Ass Squirrels of Williamsburg

This past weekend, my wife came home to find three suspicious squirrels having a confab under my 1995 Volvo 850 T5-R, a lovely, lovely car that was parked in the driveway. They bolted when she pulled in, as squirels will do when they’re up to no good.

Later that day, when she started the Volvo, gas came pouring out from underneath, so she shut it down–this was not just a little leak but a rivulet of gasoline, flowing out onto the driveway, her shoes, etc. So we had the car towed to our mechanic, who told me, with amazement, that the gas line looked like an animal had chewed a huge hole in it and that there was no sign of any other damage, as there would be if I’d driven over something that cut the line.

So maybe it’s finally time to get a cat, or a dog we can train to go after critters with gas on their breath. Those stupid things think they can get away with anything because they have fluffy tails but they’re really just mooching, punk-ass rodents. Or maybe we can work something out with the local hawks.

2009 CWF/William and Mary Field School in Architecture

Prospective scholars of early American architectural history, take note:

College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Architectural Field School, History 490/590

July 6-August 7, 2009

Williamsburg, Virginia

 

Carl Lounsbury, Instructor

 

            The Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Research Department in conjunction with the College of William and Mary’s National Institute of American History and Democracy offers a five-week course this summer that is open to undergraduate and graduate students as well as those with a special interest in early American architecture. This field school introduces students to the methods used in the investigation and recording of buildings.  On-site examination of structures in the Historic Area of Williamsburg and visits to buildings in the surrounding Tidewater region follow several introductory lectures on building technology and architectural features.  The program is intended to help students distinguish the form, fabrication, and assembly of materials and building elements and understand their chronology. They will learn how to apply field evidence to answer larger questions concerning architectural and social history.

            The fourth week is devoted to investigating and recording buildings on location away from Williamsburg.  The field school will return to Beaufort, South Carolina, to assist the Historic Beaufort Foundation in recording town houses and plantation sites. Back in Williamsburg for the last week, students will convert their fieldwork into measured drawings using a CAD program and write reports on their sites.

            This class will meet four days a week from 10:00 to 4:30.  It will require travel (in a van) and some physical exercise—mainly climbing and squeezing.  Students must be enrolled for the course through the College of William and Mary. The cost of travel and accommodations in Beaufort will be covered by the program. For more information, please email Carl Lounsbury at clounsbury@cwf.org or call (757) 220-7654.

For more information about past field schools, including finished reports, see here.

For images from previous field schools, see here.

Colonial Williamsburg gets Blogged!

As an employee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, on the one hand, and a digital hack, on the other, I often feel like I live in two very separate worlds: one deliberately off the grid; the other utterly dependent upon it. Occasionally, they collide, as in our Ravenscroft blog, covering our archaeolgical field school in 2007 and 2008, and this post, by Adam Crymble. Adam writes approvingly of CW’s Historic Trades staff, and rightly so. They are one of the highlights of any visit to the Historic Area, and consistently reward the curiosity of visitors with their depth of understanding about their craft.

So thanks, Adam, for the good press. Tell all your friends.