George Wythe House

An original 1750s brick house on Palace Green, and one of the few buildings in the historic area that needed no reconstruction. George Wythe was Virginia's leading legal mind, the first American law professor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and tutor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Henry Clay.

Washington used the house as his headquarters in the weeks before marching on Yorktown in 1781, and Rochambeau took it over after the siege. The interiors are unusually well documented and the outbuildings behind — kitchen, laundry, smokehouse, stable — are among the most complete surviving urban work yards of the period, which makes this one of the better places in Williamsburg to grasp how much labour a household of this class actually required.

Requires a Colonial Williamsburg ticket. Quieter than the Palace next door and, for many visitors, more rewarding.