Governor’s Palace
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"Top Notch Tour"
Visiting this palace was one of the reasons we payed the fee to visit inside the buildings of Colonial Williamsburg. My family visited Williamsburg in late August and we had heard that this was worth the money. We took our kids, ages 10, 8 and 4 and went on the tour. It was raining outside, so we didn't feel like we were missing anything.
A guide meets you at the door at the start of the tour. You go through the palace and learn about Lord Dunmore and his family and what the colonists thought of him during his reign as Governor of Virginia. You can see the palace and what it must have been like at the time he stayed here. They take you through many of the rooms and let you know who slept where and which rooms were used for entertaining and sleeping and other purposes. You can appreciate the space these people had compared to the average colonist of the time.
My kids listened to the information -- even my 4yr old. I would recommend it for the older kids, though, as it's a lot of information that the smaller guys won't really process. It is definitely one of the best buildings on the street to visit and worth the time to tour, especially with school-aged kids. You spend enough time in there to really get a feel for the place and to understand a bit about what things were like back then. You also walk around a bunch so it's not as boring as just sitting and listening to a presentation. There's a lot to see in the palace. I learned things, and hearing my kids talk about it afterward convinced me that they did too. The gardens are also a terrific refuge and a nice way to relax after walking thru Colonial Williamsburg all day.
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"Fun with the Family"
Decorated with bayonets, muskets, swords, and rifles to reinforce the sense of the Crown’s power, the twenty-five-room palace is a highlight of any tour. The finery includes gilt mirrors, black-walnut paneling, marble floors, hand-tooled leather wall coverings, and mahogany and cherry furniture. Guides talk about the last governor, the Earl of Dunmore, and the life he, his wife, and six children led. The governor sent his family back to England after just two years in Williamsburg because of the brewing revolution. The tour ends in the ballroom. Thomas Jefferson once danced here and didn’t leave, reports say, “until the sun came up in the garden.” Be sure to allow time to walk through the palace garden. Kids especially like the holly maze. Families are encouraged to join in playing hoops, lawn bowling, pickup sticks, tops, checkers, and other colonial-era games.
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