Duke of Gloucester Street is the closest some will ever come to time travel. Williamsburg’s main drag starts off in Merchants Square, a charming shopping and restaurant district with an undercurrent of colonial history. As you make your way eastward, the tide shifts rapidly from present-day retail to rousing reenactments, where silversmiths and wheelwrights preserve centuries-old crafts. This is Disney World for history nerds, developed thanks to the vision (and financial support) of John D. Rockefeller in the 1920s. Today, the former colonial capital is a bustling and picturesque town that bridges tradition and modernity—and may inspire a newfound appreciation for oyster shell gravel and 18th-century furnishings.

FIT FOR A KING

Whether you’re a staunch patriot or have a loyalist streak,

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