George Wythe House (original) (raw)

Perhaps the most handsome colonial house in Williamsburg, the two-story brick residence is believed to have been designed in the mid-1750s by George Wythe's father-in-law, the surveyor, builder, and planter Richard Taliaferro (pronounced "Tolliver"). Taliaferro built the addition to the Governor's Palace about the same time.

The George Wythe House on Palace Green belonged to George Wythe (pronounced "with"), a leader of the patriot movement in Virginia, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Virginia�s first signer of the Declaration of Independence. The house also served as General George Washington's headquarters just before the British siege of Yorktown, and French General Rochambeau made the home his headquarters after victory at Yorktown. In 1776, the house accommodated Virginia General Assembly delegate Thomas Jefferson and his family.

Structural details:

• Four rooms on each of two full stories
• Floors centrally divided by large stair passage
• Two great chimneys between the paired rooms afford a fireplace in all eight rooms
• Ratio of 1:2 between height and breadth of façade
• Masonry features Flemish bond brickwork with rubbed jambs, corners, and water table, and gauged-brick belt course and splayed brick arches
• Second-floor windows shorter and narrower than first floor windows; but contain the same number of window panes as those on the first floor giving illusion of larger structure

Colonial Williamsburg obtained the property in 1938. The home has been furnished to look as it might have when George and Elizabeth Wythe resided in it.

- Text source: George Wythe House - Official Home Page