Program Schedule Wednesday, June 28 2:00-4:00 pm Program Check-in--Lobby-Woodlands Hotel and Suites 6:00 pm Bus to Shields Tavern-Shuttle Stop 6:15-7:00 pm Opening Reception-Shields Tavern 7:00-8:00 pm Opening Dinner Shields Tavern 8:00-9:00 pm The James River Plantations: An Introduction- Camille Wells 9:15 pm Bus Returns to Woodlands Thursday, June 29 7:00-8:00 am Breakfast-Woodlands Hotel and Suites Dining Room 8:00 am Bus Departs for Shirley Plantation 9:00-11:00 am Shirley Plantation 11:00 am Depart Shirley 11:15 am-12:15 pm Berkeley Plantation 12:30-1:00 pm Lunch at Westover 1:00-2:00 pm Westover 2:15-3:30 Belle Air 4:00-5:15 pm Eagle's Nest 6:15 pm Arrive Back at CW-Dinner on Your own and Free Evening Friday, June 30 7:00-8:30 am Breakfast-Woodlands Hotel and Suites Dining Room 8:30 am Virginia's Colonial Elite 1680-1750: The Origins, Plantations, and a Way of Life; Emory G. Evans; Woodlands Conference Center 9:30 am Cutting a Figure Inside and Out: Role of the Virginia Plantation House; Camille Wells; Woodlands Conference Center 10:30 am Refreshment Break 11:00 am Sense and Sensibility: The Colonial Past Rediscovered and Recreated; Betty Leviner; Woodlands Conference Center 12:00 noon 1:00 pm Lunch-Woodlands Conference Center 1:00-2:00 pm Origins and Endings: Architecture and Social Identity and Green Spring Plantation; Virginia Price; Woodlands Conference Center 2:00 pm Free Afternoon: Optional Tours Colonial Williamsburg-Robert Leath 2:30 pm Peyton-Randolph House 5:30 pm Governor's Palace 6:00 pm Dinner on Your Own-Free Evening Saturday, July 1 7:00-8:00 am   8:15 am Breakfast-Woodlands Hotel and Suites Dining Room Depart for Brandon 9:30-11:30 am Brandon 11:30 am Depart Brandon 11:45-1:00 pm Upper Brandon 1:00-2:00 pm Lunch 2:30-4:00 pm Bacon's Castle 4:00 pm Depart Bacon's Castle Colonial Williamsburg 7:00-9:00 pm Closing Reception and Dinner Sunday, July 2 7:00-9:00 am Breakfast-Woodlands Hotel and Suites Dining Room 7:00 am-11:00 am Free Morning-Checkout time is 11:00 am Schedule Highlights will include: Lodging and most meals at the at the Woodlands Hotel and Suites at Colonial Williamsburg Opening Dinner and Reception at Shields Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg Visit to Shirley Plantation Visit to Berkely Plantation Visits to sites not normally open to the public Sessions on the Origins of Culture, the Role of the Great Gentry House, Material Culture, Colonial Revival Guided Tours of Colonial Williamsburg

2006 Virginia Architecture Seminar

Cradles of Culture: The James River Plantations

June 28-July 2, 2006
Woodlands Hotel and Suites
Williamsburg, Virginia

This program sold out.

Program Information | Faculty | Registration

Program Information

Colonial Virginia--and indeed early America itself--took its life's blood from the waters of the James River. Tobacco plantations along the James River were settled during the early decades of the seventeenth century and throughout the colonial period, they stood in proximity to colonial Virginia's seat of government. Thus they always played a major role in the colony's political and social world. One testament to this primacy survives in the grand river mansions that many of the wealthiest planters constructed.

Today, the great plantation houses of the James River still bear the imprints of pride and presumption, wealth and influence that spanned many generations. Even after the world to which these houses belonged had vanished, the houses themselves retained such a capacity to communicate that they never became irrelevant to those who assigned a place for Virginia's colonial past in their values and priorities. Long standing tales and traditions about the great houses of the James River emphasize a grandeur and nobility of origin that owe a great deal to popular and affective commitments to Virginia's colonial legacy. All of this amounts to a postcolonial significance for these great houses that is quite different from the symbolic roles they were built to play. The new values for which they stand, however, are equally complex, nuanced and worthy of thoughtful attention.

During the the 14th Annual Virginia Architecture Symposium we will take an in depth look at the world of which these colonial river houses once were a part. We also will consider the ways in which these houses have continued to play a role of significance in the ideals and imaginations of those who admire and study the colonial past. Based at the Woodlands Hotel and Suites at Colonial Williamsburg, this symposium will be directed by Camille Wells, who, with a team of other scholars, will take us on a journey of discovery both in the classroom and on the sites of surviving James River plantations. Expect to hear about the best and most recent discoveries concerning the culture of the James River from archaeologists, historians, architectural historians, and experts in the field of material culture. Expect special tours not usually available to site visitors. Most of all, expect to enjoy yourself in good company and learning environment that incorporates comfortable quarters, fine dining, and opportunities to explore the many attractions of Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area.

Program Highlights Include: (subject to change)

• Lodging in a modern hotel with all conveniences within walking distance of Colonial Williamsburg.
• Opening dinner and reception at Shields Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.
• Thought-provoking lectures by Camille Wells and other noted scholars that place the James River architecture in historical perspective.
• A day-long tour of the north shore of the James River that includes visits to Shirley, Berkeley, Westover, and Eagle's Nest.
• Patriot pass for access to all Colonial Williamsburg has to offer.
• Visit Bacon's Castle, the only surviving Virginia plantation house to date from the seventeenth century.
• Visit Brandon and Upper Brandon.
• A ferry trip across the James River within sight of the original Jamestown settlement.
• A day-long tour of the south shore of the James River with visits to rarely available colonial plantation houses.

Who Should Attend?
Our Travel and Learn programs offer unsurpassed value, rich content, and a history of exceptional participant satisfaction. This program is perfect for anyone who enjoys travel and learning opportunities that provide intellectual stimulation in a welcoming and congenial environment. By program's end you will find yourself thinking in new ways about this period in American history.

Colonial Williamsburg
Your home for the program is historic Colonial Williamsburg, capital of colonial Virginia and crucible of American democracy. The architecture and history of the city presents a view of life in 18th century Virginia. Today, the 173-acre Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area appears as it did on the eve of the American Revolution, bringing the colonial era to life. You will have time, and a special pass to the Historic area, which will allow you to explore and enjoy Colonial Williamsburg during the program.

Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia is 150 miles south of Washington, D.C., midway between Richmond and Virginia Beach on Interstate 64. Frequent air, airport shuttle, rail, and bus connections make it very easy to travel to Williamsburg. Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport are each less than 50 minutes away and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport is 20 minutes from Williamsburg. Shuttle services provide convenient transportation between these nearby airports and Williamsburg. Williamsburg is also served by direct AMTRAK rail service from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Greyhound/Trailways provides bus service to Williamsburg from many points.

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Program Information | Faculty | Registration

Program Faculty

Camille Wells returns as faculty director for the 2006 Virginia Architecture Seminar. She led the 2002 program "Upstairs, Downstairs, Inside, Out: Public and Private Life in Early Virginia Houses" and the 2003 seminar "Exploring a Plantation Landscape: Virginia's Northern Neck." Camille earned a master's degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in early American history from the College of William and Mary. She also has worked as an architectural historian for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and for the state historic preservation offices in Kentucky, Maryland, and North Carolina. Before her affiliation with the History Department at the College of William and Mary, she held faculty positions at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and in the Historic Preservation Program of Mary Washington College. Author of several essays on the landscapes and buildings of early Virginia, she also founded the series Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture and edited its first two volumes. She is a frequent contributor to the annual Jefferson Symposium sponsored by the University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Emory Evans is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland-College Park. A distinguished historian of colonial American history, he is author of Thomas Nelson of Yorktown: Revolutionary Virginian and numerous articles on the origin and character of Virginia’s colonial gentry.  He is now completing a book-length manuscript entitled “Topping People: The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Political Elite, 1680-1790.”

Robert Leath is Curator of Historical Interiors for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where he has implemented new furnishing plans for fourteen exhibition buildings.  Prominent among his projects is a reinterpretation of the Governor’s Palace.  Mr. Leath has held curatorial positions at George Washington’s Fredericksburg Foundation and Historic Charleston Foundation.  His scholarly writing focuses on the role of imported goods in colonial American material culture.

Betty Leviner has worked with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for over twenty-five years, and she has become well known for her perceptive studies of the furnishings and social use of architectural space in colonial Virginia.  She has served as an advisor for other colonial sites, including Tryon Palace, the John Carlyle House, Stratford, and Rosewell.  Among her specialties is an understanding of the way the Colonial Revival has affected understandings of early American buildings.  

Virginia Price is an historian with the Historic American Buildings Survey, a division of the National Park Service. In this capacity, she has completed and supervised projects based primarily in the southeastern United States.  Her own research focuses on the colonial architecture of the Chesapeake region, and her most recent essay, drawn from her master’s thesis, examines Green Spring, one of the greatest of the James River plantations.

Program Staff

Jim Baker is the University of Virginia Oxford Seminar Program Director and Associate Director of the University Center of the University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Ashleigh Edwards is the program administrator for the Virginia Architecture Seminar.

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Program Information | Faculty | Registration

Registration

This program sold out.

Printable Registration Form

Per Person Program Fee: (Reserve your spot with a $300 deposit)
$1,745 in a double room, Woodlands Inn, Williamsburg (mutual requests only)
$1,895 in a single room, Woodlands Inn, Williamsburg
$565 companion fee-payable by check only. (Available for guests of full registrants only.) Includes lodging in a shared double room, breakfasts, opening and closing receptions and dinners, and Colonial Williamsburg pass.

Register by fax, 434-982-5297, or by telephone, 800-346-3882 or 434-982-5252, using VISA or MasterCard; or by sending us your form by mail with a check or credit card information. Send your completed registration form with credit card information or check to:

The Virginia Architecture Seminar
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400764
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4764
If you register prior to May 17, 2006: please return the registration form with a $300 per person deposit (or the full fee if you choose). The balance of your program fee is due by May 17, 2006.

• If you register on or after May 17, 2006: please return the registration form with your full program fee.
• Withdrawal: If you withdraw in writing before May 17, 2006, you will receive a full refund, minus a $150 per person administrative fee. In the event withdrawal is necessary after May 17, 2006, there will be no refund but you may substitute another person to attend the program in your place. We strongly recommend you purchase travel insurance. Useful travel insurance information can be found at the Trip Insurance Store Web site or 888-407-3854.