OpenHistoricalMap/Projects/Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Virginia has a long and unique history. First established as Middle Plantation in 1632, the town developed into a busy city center, and was the capital of Virginia until 1779. In the late 1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought up and financed a "reconstruction" of the town, demolishing many of the existing buildings and rebuilding those known to have existed in colonial times.

The College of William & Mary, chartered in 1693, lies just west of Merchant's Square in Williamsburg. It has expanded significantly over the past century, and has changed the landscape with buildings, ponds, a farm, etc. over the years.

Reference Maps

• One of the earliest surviving maps of Williamsburg is called the Frenchman's Map, thought to have been a draft completed on May 11, 1782. You can view it here.
• There are four fire insurance maps in the Library of Congress digital archive created by the Sanborn Map Company in 1904, 1910, 1921, and 1933. You can find them here.

William & Mary-specific

• The second photo in this gallery is of a drawing of campus "circa 1922-1935." Copyright status of this image is unknown, so please verify before using to map.
• This 1958 student handbook includes a map of campus on page 26 (warning, racist depictions of indigenous people appear throughout this document). The copyright status of this document is unknown, so please verify before using to map.