Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin

The Reverend Dr. William Archer Rutherfoord (“W.A.R.”) Goodwin was born June 18, 1869 in Nelson County, Virginia and died September 7, 1939 in Williamsburg, Virginia at age seventy. He is universally remembered as the “father” of the Colonial Williamsburg restoration — the Episcopal-priest-turned- preservationist whose persistence translated a fading colonial capital into one of the most-visited American historical sites.

VTS years (1890–1893)

Goodwin graduated Roanoke College in 1889 and matriculated at the 3737 Seminary Road Place 3737 Seminary Road Episcopal theological seminary founded in Alexandria in 1823 and relocated to its present hilltop campus in 1827. Occupied by Union forces during the Civil War and used as a … in Alexandria the following year. He graduated VTS in 1893, was ordained deacon that summer, and ordained priest in 1894.

First Williamsburg rectorship (1903–1909)

Goodwin’s first Williamsburg posting came in 1903 when he accepted the rectorship of Bruton Parish Church — the historic 1715 Anglican parish church at the heart of the old colonial capital. During his six-year first rectorship, Goodwin led the restoration of Bruton Parish Church itself to its eighteenth-century appearance, completed in 1907. The parish- church restoration was Goodwin’s first preservation project and his proof-of-concept for the larger work that would follow two decades later.

He left Williamsburg in 1909 for a New York rectorship, then a Roanoke pulpit, but the city stayed with him.

Second Williamsburg rectorship (1923–1939) — the restoration

Goodwin returned to Bruton Parish as rector in 1923, taking up an additional appointment teaching biblical literature and religious education at the College of William & Mary. By then, the surviving 18th-century buildings of Williamsburg were rapidly disappearing — torn down for modern construction, altered beyond recognition, or simply collapsing from neglect. Goodwin recognized that the entire historic fabric of America’s colonial capital was about to be lost.

The Rockefeller partnership (1924–1928)

Goodwin spent 1924 building a coalition for a city-wide restoration. The breakthrough came in late 1924 when he met John D. Rockefeller Jr. at a Phi Beta Kappa banquet at the College of William & Mary. Goodwin was persistent: he sent Rockefeller a series of letters and held subsequent meetings, eventually persuading him in 1926 to fund a full-scale survey of the city’s eighteenth-century buildings — and then, by 1928, to underwrite a complete restoration program.

The Goodwin–Rockefeller partnership lasted the rest of Goodwin’s life. By the late 1920s the project had quietly bought up significant parcels in the historic core; by the 1930s the visible work was underway, with hundreds of structures restored or reconstructed to their eighteenth-century appearance. The project formally opened to the public as Colonial Williamsburg in 1934.

Death and legacy

Goodwin died at his Williamsburg home on September 7, 1939, age seventy. The restoration he initiated has continued for nine decades and now encompasses 301 acres at the heart of Williamsburg, with more than 600 restored or reconstructed eighteenth-century buildings.

Goodwin is honored on the 3737 Seminary Road Place 3737 Seminary Road Episcopal theological seminary founded in Alexandria in 1823 and relocated to its present hilltop campus in 1827. Occupied by Union forces during the Civil War and used as a … campus and across Colonial Williamsburg itself — most prominently in the Goodwin Building, a structure named for him, ensuring that the man who saved Williamsburg’s past is permanently remembered in its future.