Public Hospital (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Block 4)
Site History
The Public Hospital site is the site of an 18th- to 20th-century mental hospital—the first public mental institution to be constructed in North America. The site is located adjacent to the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg and is the current location of the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Art Museum on South Henry Street in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Prior to the construction of the hospital, the property had been the site of Governor Francis Nicholson’s rented home.
The hospital began accepting patients in the fall of 1773. The hospital building was expanded in the 1840s with the construction of a third story as well as two wings where walled exercise walls had previously stood. Four additional structures were added to the hospital complex between 1820 and 1872. The entire hospital complex burned in 1885. The hospital was rebuilt at the same location and became known as Eastern State Hospital in 1894. The facility moved to its current location west of the city by 1970.
The primary Public Hospital building was reconstructed by Colonial Williamsburg in 1985 to serve as the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.
Archaeological Investigations
The first archaeological investigations at the site took place in 1972 and 1973, when Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists under the direction of Ivor Noël Hume investigated portions of the original hospital building. This work yielded artifacts that had remained in the building at the time of the fire, including iron beds, steam heat radiators, burned ceramics, medicine bottles, and stacks of burned newspapers. Two late 17th-century structures were also uncovered during this work, in addition to an early 18th-century well.
More extensive archaeological investigations of the site were undertaken in the early 1980s in advance of construction of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Art Museum. Large open area excavation was conducted and revealed not only structures and features associated with the hospital, but with the 17th-century Middle Plantation period of Williamsburg's history. Features explored during this excavation included the 1773 hospital structure, the 1825 kitchen complex, a late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century kitchen, a small structure on the east slope of the ravine, the south boundary line, a 17th-century cellar, and the 17th century trash layers dating to the Middle Plantation period occupation of Francis Nicholson.
References
1983 Draft Final Report: Public Hospital Excavation October 1981-January 1983. Archaeological Report Block 4 Building 11. Draft Final Report: Public Hospital Excavation October 1981-January 1983. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series – 0144. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, Williamsburg, Virginia.
1973 1972 Excavations at the Colonial Public Hospital Site in Williamsburg, Virginia. Post Medieval Archaeology 7 (1): 91-92.
