You are here

Grissell Hay Lodging House

-A A +A
c. 1760, c. 1840, addition. 1930–1931, restoration. Nicholson St. and N. England St.
  • (Photograph by Jeffrey E. Klee, courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
  • Privy, smokehouse and dairy (Photograph by Jeffrey E. Klee, courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

In 1768, the widow Grissell Hay advertised this carefully ordered, frame Georgian-plan house facing Market Square as offering “very commodious lodgings to be let for a dozen gentlemen.” Its size and regularity suggest a 1760s date, though both archaeological excavations and dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, appear to support the long-held belief that it is an early eighteenth-century house. The porch is a Greek Revival addition, and the four rear outbuildings date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These are the most recognized ancillary buildings in Williamsburg, largely because of the picturesque use of deepcoved eaves above the ventilation louvers on the dairy.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "Grissell Hay Lodging House", [Williamsburg, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-HR11.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,