Patrick Henry was sitting just to my left in the Virginia House of Burgesses as the debate raged about the events that had been following the Boston Tea Party.

One doesn’t really step into the past here, or in any of the other historical villages developed after Colonial Williamsburg’s pioneering success.

Reproductions and renovations and innovations intermingle, creating an image of the past so carefully constructed that it is a re-creation in all senses of the word.