Talk:Williamsburg, Virginia

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A lot of the referenced are left out or missing. Where are the references on the section for the 19th century? I need those! --NeedHELP4aREPORT 16:33, 27 December 2006 (UTC) Reply

Is it really 52? Is that a typo? That seems too warm for a low temperature. Joe 17:23, 21 September 2005 (UTC) Reply

Hmm, not sure where those numbers came from. Got the correct numbers from weather.yahoo.com. Dr. Cash 02:32, 22 September 2005 (UTC) Reply

Wow thats low joe :)BIPPY3

I want to include a blurb about the 9th g7 summit, which was held in W-burg. Shoud I make a new category? What should it be called?

• That section would be best covered in the history section. Obviously, when we think of history & Williamsburg, we think 17th century. However, Williamsburg has quite a bit of 20th century history as well. Dr. Cash 04:30, 29 July 2005 (UTC) Reply

Derek.cashman removed the city from the Category:Lost cities and towns. Yet, the picture on the page was certainly "lost" as was 90% of Colonial Williamsburg. In fact, the city had declined so much after the Civil War that this is what saved enough of the city for Rockefeller to restore. I certainly understand the debate, but I believe the Colonial portion constitutes a lost city. --Noitall 00:26, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

I kinda agrees the Williamsburg wasn't "lost" although almost forgotten would surely fit. Thank goodness for the foresight of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and especially the Reverend Doctor W.A.R. Goodwin. In any even, Middle Plantation qualifies as one of the Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia, and I added the cat lost cities and towns there.

Mark in the Historic Triangle of Virginia. Vaoverland 01:38, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

I have revised this section after confering with an official of the Virginia State Board of Elections. I realize that many W&M students are very upset, and may ultimately suceed in accomplishing cganges, but our article in WP needs to stay accurate and present a balanced POV on this tough subject. Vaoverland 20:55, 20 May 2006 (UTC) Reply

This information that has been added has no source, so is unverified. Something such as this definitely should have a source added, or be removed from the article as jibberish. Although I think with appropriate sources cited, its probably noteworthy, but I don't think it belongs exactly where it is. I wouldn't include it as a major section in the article; it should be added to the history section. Dr. Cash 01:45, 26 May 2006 (UTC) Reply

I moved the 'interaction with college students' section and condensed it into a single paragraph under the 'government' subsection. While the interactions between the city council and the college students are still quite important, I don't think it's big enough to warrant an entire major section in the article. Wikipedia, after all, is not anyone's personal soapbox. Dr. Cash 20:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC) Reply

rawdod is a local online community. 90% of members are local to williamsburg. It was established in January 2004. There is about 250 members, 60 or so active content contributors, and about a thousand unique hits to the site per day. I think a link to it is appropriate here, however there maybe a better describtion for it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.230.208.113 (talk)

Please review WP:NOT. Wikipedia is not the place for promoting your own websites. Non-notable online communities are not relevant to the article, either. Dr. Cash 02:52, 7 January 2007 (UTC) Reply

Someone has tampered with the Williamsburg page, changing the "county" label and a few words in the article to vulgar and profanity. 72.192.199.45 02:11, 26 May 2007 (UTC) Reply

The map doesn't have a dot on the city of Williamsburg but on York County. Can someone please fix the map? — ዮም | (Yom) | Talk • contribs • Ethiopia 05:38, 30 October 2008 (UTC) Reply

This might be a little bit nitpicky, but the highlighted area in the red dot map for this page is York County, not the City of Williamsburg. I couldn't find a central red dot project page anywhere (the US City guideline page just says that the maps are being produced by a 'number of Wikipedians'), so who would you talk to in order to get these things changed? Hiyayaywhopee (talk) 15:25, 18 February 2011 (UTC) Reply

(Edit: huh, I guess someone has already said something about this. Two years ago.) Hiyayaywhopee (talk) 15:26, 18 February 2011 (UTC) Reply

I've had getting the article for Williamsburg to GA status through off-and-on editing as a long-term goal for a while, now, and since this is my first real project like this, I thought I'd lay out a section-by-section. That way, I have some sort of structure to go off of, I can figure out if I'm doing this right, and if other people want to significantly change this article (horray collaboration!) we can make sure we're on the same track.

The articles for Norfolk and Virginia Beach, both of which have attained GA status, are serving as models for me.

Lede: The topics of discussion here and approximate length seem good, but there are some awkward phrasings that need to be ironed out. Also, once we're further along in the process of editing the rest of the article, we should change the lede to reflect the article's content.

History: Needs to be pared down significantly and written in summary style. I know that history is absolutely vital to an understanding of Williamsburg, but this article is about the modern-day city, and there's a lot of detail here that isn't particularly useful or interesting in that regard. It's also rather lacking in sources, though there are tons and tons and tons of books written about Williamsburg history (some of which are available at WRL; since I don't live in Williamsburg anymore, this might be easier for someone else, though books about Williamsburg are found pretty much everywhere). Once it's a bit shorter, it'll probably be a good idea to follow the advice of WP:WikiProject_Cities/US_Guideline and remove the section headings, since otherwise there will be significant temptation for someone to sneak a play-by-play of the Battle of Williamsburg back in.

Geography and climate: As far as physical geography goes, it might be a good idea to talk about the College Woods and other non-river features (including wildlife?). Also, the article doesn't mention Williamsburg's architectural tradition at all, so a cityscape section such as the one found in Norfolk is a must. Things that deserve mentioning: The Bruton Parish Church, The Governor's Mansion, The Wren Building and W&M in general (though, again, not too much detail, since after all this article is about Williamsburg and not W&M), all those churches found along Richmond Road, and the law that says that buildings can't be more than 3 stories tall. Something also should be said about the urban vs suburban question: though Williamsburg is primarily an automotive city, the university and tourist concentration has led to more pedestrian-friendly development downtown (eg Tribe Square and that new development going in on Prince George St). We might want to talk about New Town here, too, even though it isn't technically in the city limits. The climate section is a bit advertisement-sounding and totally unsourced (though is that a problem?).

Demographics: In addition to being rewritten in non-robot prose, something more should be said about the fact that a large chunk of Williamsburg is W&M students (look at that chart!) and how the elderly have been specifically targeted to live here.

Economy: Needs to be greatly expanded, highlighting the dominance of the hospitality and education sectors. Things that deserve to be mentioned include Williamsburg's reliance on international/migratory workers in the summer and the two-phase nature of the economy (tourists in the summer, students in the winter - a good example of this is prices at the Cheese Shop).

Culture: There's a lot going on in Williamsburg that doesn't get mentioned here. I kind of want to just find a local events calendar and have at. Events unique to Williamsburg deserve to be highlighted, as well as what the College draws in. I'm not sure how relevant the bit about Tidewater accents is (I've lived in Hampton Roads all my life and have never heard of it, though that doesn't mean it isn't important). As it stands now, this section doesn't sound very encyclopedic.

Media: Is there enough here to warrant its own section heading, or can we just fold this section and the culture section together?

Government: Probably fine as it is now, though maybe with a bit too much history. The paragraph about the role of W&M students is definitely worthy of inclusion but needs to be cleaned up and sourced. The 3 person rule is a big deal to students and students are a big part of Williamsburg, but I'm not entirely sure of its role in the grand scheme of things when talking about Williamsburg as a whole.

Education: Also pretty solid. Maybe more about W&M? I feel like the paragraph here, though, emphasizes things like community service which are good to talk about in an article about Williamsburg. Maybe more about the people associated with the school and less about its coat of arms or whatever.

Infrastructure: I've already reworked the transportation section; let me know if you have comments about it. I'm thinking about just trashing the utilities section. (Williamsburg, like most US cities of its size, has running water. Congrats!)

One last thing: pictures! I'd love to go take some next time I'm in town, but unfortunately that probably won't be until December.

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Found: https://www.williamsburgva.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=729 WhisperToMe (talk) 18:48, 15 August 2020 (UTC) Reply

I recently attempted to redo the lead image, but the original proposal was reverted as "not an improvement", so I would like to raise the issue here for discussion on how to improve the lead image in the infobox. Presently, the current image is the backlit rear of the Governor's Palace, which on balance, is not entirely representative of the city as a whole, nor is it among the best images from the city available on the Commons. I propose doing a photomontage like the articles for many of the worlds major cities (using the {{photomontage }} template). Such would allow a selection of several images, tastefully aranged, to highlight several iconic facets of the city. The original proposal was an improved image of the Governor's palace, an image of the Capitol, one of the historic area gardens and Bruton Parish church, and one of the Wren Building. Here is my thinking: I think there should be at least one image of Colonial Williamsburg (of one of the iconic structures; either the Palace and/or the Capitol), one of the Wren Building (to represent the college), and at least two other smaller ones of iconic aspects to fill other elements (ideally at least one of which is not the historic area proper or not managed by CW--possible Merchant's Square). Any thoughts or suggestions? Morgan Riley (talk) 22:34, 19 September 2020 (UTC) Reply

is this something worthy of writing into the history of the Town? Seeing how it is the second of only two 'underground' fires over a parking lot to have ever occurred in the United States, and almost a year later, is still being investigated to what started this fire? AndrewM81 (talk) 19:17, 23 August 2025 (UTC) Reply

@AndrewM81: Normally, I'd agree. However, the outlets are about a quarter of a mile outside of the city, so a brief gloss of the fire would be more appropriate in the article for James City County, Virginia. Best, ~ Pbritti (talk) 19:54, 23 August 2025 (UTC) Reply

Okay, well, Can I Counter that the official address, is mail boxed as Williamsburg, VA? AndrewM81 (talk) 20:16, 23 August 2025 (UTC) Reply

Not really, no. That doesn't mean much for encyclopedic purposes. Besides, I've ensured there's coverage of the fire on the Williamsburg Premium Outlets article. ~ Pbritti (talk) 21:39, 23 August 2025 (UTC) Reply