Barber Shop and King's Arms Tavern (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Block 9)
Site History
The Barber Shop and King's Arms Tavern are two reconstructed 18th-century buildings located on the Duke of Gloucester Street in the Historic Area of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The 20 × 16 ft. Barber Shop was built prior to 1749 and was used as a barber shop and peruke (wig) maker’s shop. The early owner of this lot was William Byrd II and after his death, the loc was owned by Scottish merchants Buchanan, Archibald and Company. By 1768, barbers and peruke-makers Anthony Geoghagan and Simon Brazier had opened the building as a shop.
The King's Arms Tavern, on Colonial Lot 24, was constructed between 1749 and 1760 and the rear yard of the property contained a garden, well, kitchen, stable and laundry. Jane Vobe opened a tavern called The Sign of the King's Arms in 1772. At her death, the property passed to Philip Moody (who may have been Vobe’s son or other relative); Moody changed the name of the establishment to the Eagle Tavern.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation acquired the property in the 1930s and demolished a more modern structure, the Macon House, shortly thereafter. Reconstructions of the barber shop and tavern were built on Lots 23 and 24.
Archaeological Investigations
Archaeologists working for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation conducted archaeological investigations at the Barber Shop and King’s Arms Tavern in 1933. Along the front part of Colonial Lot #24 (the site of the recently removed Macon House and the supposed site of the King's Arms barber shop), no brick foundations dating to the colonial period were found. Several small undatable brick foundations built primarily of fragmented brick and a well were found in the rear part of the lot.
On Colonial lot 23, adjacent to the former site of the Macon House, the colonial period foundation of the King's Arms Tavern was uncovered. The dimensions are consistent with the measurements of that building recorded in old Mutual Assurance Society fire insurance policies issued in 1796 and 1806.
References
1932 King's Arms Tavern and Barber Shop. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series 1156. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, Williamsburg, Virginia.
1933 King's Arms Tavern and Barber Shop Archaeological Report, Block 9 Building 29A & B Lot 23. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series 1159. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, Williamsburg, Virginia.
