Discover Williamsburg Lodge, located in Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, one of the finest and most complete community restorations in the world.

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Beginning in the late 1920s, renowned philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. wanted to open a brilliant boutique hotel in downtown Williamsburg, Virginia. He had hoped the business would entertain the hundreds of tourists that had already started to arrive and experience the ongoing renovations taking place in the city’s colonial district. Rockefeller and this team of architects eventually opened a beautiful holiday destination known as the “Williamsburg Inn” roughly a decade later. Situated along the border of Williamsburg’s “Historic Area”—now the heart of today’s Colonial Williamsburg—the inn featured some of the finest amenities and services of the day. Nevertheless, the 61 guestrooms located inside were still not enough to accommodate the rising number of people who traveled to Williamsburg every year. As such, Rockefeller began planning to open additional lodgings near the Williamsburg Inn, with the greatest being a marvelous hotel he planned to name as the “Williamsburg Lodge.” Construction on the lodge began under the watchful eye of architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in 1937. The work took nearly two years to complete and was a massive undertaking. Still, Underwood managed to craft a brilliant structure that reflected the colonial design aesthetics of the surrounding Williamsburg Historic Area—just like the Williamsburg Inn before it.

 

Meanwhile, Rockefeller instructed his main architectural team to begin transforming several historical structures within the Historic District into rustic guest cottages. In total, Rockefeller’s team selected some 27 unique buildings for the project. All of the structures were developed around the mid-18th century, with the earliest dating to 1750. Most of the buildings had also operated as outdoor kitchens or tiny shops, although some had been established as residences, too. For instance, one such structure—the Richard Crump House—was once inhabited by the Carter family, whose patriarch, James Carter, worked as a respected prominent surgeon. Another home—the Orlando Jones House—had actually served as the residency for the first rector of Williamsburg’s historic Bruton Parish Church. While Jones himself was only well-known throughout his local community, his granddaughter, Martha Washington, would later rise to prominence as the inaugural First Lady of the United States. And the Nicholas-Tyler Office was even owned by John Tyler, a future U.S. President. In fact, Tyler had allegedly learned of his elevation to the presidency from inside the building! (He had then been serving as the Vice President under William Henry Harrison, who unexpectedly died in April 1841.)

 

The Williamsburg Lodge opened just before America’s entry into World War II. Like the Williamsburg Inn, both destinations quickly endeared themselves among the tourists who had begun flocking to Colonial Williamsburg Actor Cary Grant even stayed inside in one of the Colonial Houses in Colonial Williamsburg—The Quarter—while filming the Howards of Virginia on-site. (The movie itself followed the fictional story of a local Williamsburg family as they navigated the tense political currents of the American Revolution.) Each destination exemplifies exceptional hospitality and upholds its reputation as a premier vacation retreat. The Williamsburg Lodge is part of Marriott International’s distinguished Autograph Collection, a designation that reinforces its enduring prestige. As members of Historic Hotels of America, the Williamsburg Lodge provides an enchanting experience for every cultural heritage traveler who steps inside.