5 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in Williamsburg - Atlas Obscura

Unusual Attractions in Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Virginia

President Heads

Giant busts of 42 U.S. presidents are sitting in a field in Virginia.

Williamsburg, Virginia

Eastern State Hospital

America's first public mental health facility.

Williamsburg, Virginia

The Archaearium

This museum explores the grim reality of life in the earliest British colonies in America.

Williamsburg, Virginia

Lord Botetourt

Affectionately known as "Lord Bot," this historic statue has a cult social media following and rightly claims to be “the most metal inhabitant of the Wren Yard.”

Williamsburg, Virginia

Presidential Pets Museum

The "first cat," "first dog," and even a presidential pygmy hippo all get their due in this museum.

Are we missing something unusual in Williamsburg?

Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia

The Rosewell Plantation Ruins

This once-palatial plantation may have been the site where a draft of the Declaration of Independence was written.

8 miles from Williamsburg

Surry, Virginia

Bacon’s Castle

Rowdy rebels fortified this home during the first popular uprising in United States history.

11 miles from Williamsburg

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Stories About Williamsburg

Podcast: President Heads

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

by The Podcast Team

New menu items made for a tasting—held at a different venue due to renovations—before the reopening.

The Colonial Tavern Dishing Up 18th-Century Vittles

A new menu at Williamsburg's living-history museum offers carrot puffs and hunters game pye.

by Kayla Stewart

“Desire is nothing new,” says Michael Bronski, a historian at Harvard University.

Excavating a Queer History of Colonial Williamsburg

A new committee digs into the lives of 18th-century colonists who may have lived outside the norm.

by Sabrina Imbler

December 18, 2019

The Governor’s Palace dining room in Colonial Williamsburg filled with fake jellies, candied ginger, chocolate almonds, pies, and marzipan fruits and animals.

How Museums Make Their Fake Foods Using Real Recipes

At Colonial Williamsburg, creating historic food scenes is a team sport.

by Stephanie Burt

August 12, 2019

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