Today
Merchants Square is located on the North end of the Duke
of Gloucester Street. The three block shopping area is composed of a variety
of retail merchant shops and restaurants. Although the merchants
cater primarily to visitors to the Williamsburg area, many residents shop
“downtown” also.
I may be a tad partial but I believe some of the best
food establishments on the east coast (well, at least in the Commonwealth
of Virginia) offer their fare here.
Berrets, Fat Canary, & the Blue Talon,
just to name a few.
Some residents complain that tourist prices (high) come
along with the location. I would argue that opinion by saying quality and
uniqueness of the products make most everything purchased in Merchants
Square a really good value.
The College of William & Mary bookstore is located in
the Barnes and
Noble on the corner of the Duke of Gloucester and Henry Streets.
The kids will definitely want to stop in to the
Wythe Candy Shop.
It is also a very friendly and peaceful place to just
wander and window shop. The Street is closed to auto traffic on that block
so it makes for a pretty nice outdoor mall.
A great
Market event happens every Saturday (in season).
Area farmers are invited to sell their produce. This has become quite a
locals place to gather on Saturday mornings.
And of course do not forget all this can be found right
out the front door of our historic
Colonial Williamsburg Inn!
History of Merchant's Square
Prior to the restoration most Williamsburg business’s
were located up and down the length of the Duke of Gloucester. The
principals of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation had the foresight to
realize that as merchants sold their historic sited properties, the area
residents would still need those goods and services.
The foundation built a “down town” district which we
know today as Merchants Square. This customer-oriented shopping district
was built in order to make way for the accurate restoration of the rest of
the town. The buildings for this “Merchants Square” would not be designed
to duplicate the architecture of the 18th-century Historic Area, but to
harmonize with the character of the restoration.
Over the years, as the town has grown, most of those
early shops such as the small grocery stores have moved nearer the
expanding neighborhoods and become super markets. But Merchants Square,
that idyllic shopping district envisioned by those early architects who
were ahead of their time in this type of design, retains that friendly,
quaint quality much copied today by other shopping districts springing up
throughout the country.
