The original forerunner and Mecca of the "heritage tourism" industry,
Colonial Williamsburg is a 3000-employee, 60-year-old, multimillion
dollar institution visited by over 900,000 people each year. It's the
predecessor to re-creations like Old Sturbridge Village, an outdoor
living history museum that interprets a traditional New England town,
and the Plymouth Plantation, where the Pilgrims' original landing is
continually replayed. And the industry is growing rapidly. Some 80
new projects are currently underway--from dormant copper mines in
Montana to decommissioned naval bases in Connecticut--as communities
across the U.S. turn to re-constructions and re-creations to meet a
growing commercial demand for the product of "history" itself. The
trend can also be seen in the return to prewar architecture in
fantasy communities like Disney's Celebration, and the sudden
clamor for "historic" baseball parks where only a decade ago space
age domes and Astroturf surfaces were all the rage.
Upon its opening in 1934, an article in
Good Housekeeping
rhapsodized
that Colonial Williamsburg was America's "hometown," offering a proud
nostalgia that was no doubt a strong tonic during the soul-searching
depths of the Great Depression. Another magazine of the time described
the town as: "Shady streets lined with gracious pre-Revolutionary
houses of mellow brick, and never a gasoline filling station or a
chain store to provide a jarring modern note--this is the Williamsburg
of the future which is to rise on the Williamsburg of the past." Today
a print advertisement in a national magazine says, "Call it ironic.
That a place dedicated to re-creating the past should invent a new way
to experience it every day." These experiences include daily dramatic
restagings of historical events of the time, such as town meetings, or
protests against Rule Britannia.
