Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

SOME HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE "HALLAM" OR "ARMISTEAD" HOUSE.
Block 2, # 36-A.
November 2, 1932.

This house originally stood on the York road, or on Woodpecker street, as this road has been popularly called ever since the eighteenth century. On this original location, the house was a development in Williamsburg's first sub-division.

Benjamin Waller purchased from Mann Page (of "Rosewell" in Gloucester county) a great tract of land adjacent to the city. This land had been in the Page family since the day when it was part of old Middle Plantation. Waller divided the land into town lots and had it added to the city. Here the more prosperous tradesmen, the master builders and the more successful craftsmen lived.

Benjamin Powell bought a lot in this section some time around 1756, and built himself this pretentious house. He was a master builder, one of Williamsburg's best, and some of his finest craftsmanship went into the building of his own home.

Powell had the care and repairing of the second Capitol entrusted to him. He maintained the General Court prison, and made repairs to the Governor's Palace. In fact most of the important public work was under his direction, and after the Revolution, he was placed in charge of much of the public work. He was twice honored by being appointed to act on the committee to represent Williamsburg for the Continental Congress in the company of Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, Robert Carter Nicholas, and other distinguished Virginians. This was a great honor for the builder, and reflected the new democracy of the Commonwealth.

Powell lived in the house he had built for a short time, if at all, selling it to his brother Seymour in November, 1760, for £150, a consideration so large that it indicates a house of unusual value. After Seymour's death, his widow, Lucy, deeded the house to her son Thomas.

Thomas Powell was a surgeon and after living in the house a few years, he sold it to William Prentis, a prosperous merchant in 1772. Prentis died the next year, leaving his estate to his brothers Daniel and Joseph.

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Prentis' inventory reveals the manner in which he furnished his house on Woodpecker street:

A desk and book case; 12 windsor chairs; 6 walnut chairs; 6 rush chairs; looking glass and sconces; 1 oval table; 1 square ditto; 1 tea table; 1 corner cupboard; Map of Virginia; Andirons, shovel, tongs and poker; Tea board and china; 4 bowls; 6 silver tea spoons; 6 table spoons; 1 pint silver can; 8 glasses and 2 tumblers; rim cruets; 4 salts; Tea chest; 7 pictures; 2 ditto; 4 ditto; 16 pictures; 1 ditto; 4 curtains; tongs and shovel; 1 pr. bellows; close stool; 1 dressing glass and table; 33 ells linnen; 1 fender; 1 grate; 1 pr. andirons; 1 trevit; 1 pr. float irons; 1 bed bunt; 1 bed mattress, bolster, pillow and bedstead; 2 pr. blankets, 1 counterpin, 1 quilt; 3 sheets; 4 pillow cases; 2 table cloths; 1 ditto; 1 napkin; 6 towels; 1 pr. spoon moulds; a parcel of books; 3 blankets; chest of drawers; 2 pr. scales; 4 measures and 2 funnels; 1 seive; 1 spy glass; 1 mortar and pestle; 11 butter pots; 3 carboys; 4 jugs; 2 bags; 1 pr. backgammon tables; 1 case of bottles; bench and vise; 2 candlesticks; candles; coffee, rum; parcel of tubs and pails; 2 trays; 1 frying pan; 2 doz. pewter plates; 4 pewter dishes; 1 skillet; teakettle; chafing dish; gridiron; 6 knives, 4 forks, and box; 2 tin ovens and skewers; 1 spade, 1 hoe, 1 ax; 4 empty hogsheads; 1 doz. plates; 2 butter boats and stands; 1 salver; 7 doz. bottles; 1 barrel corn.

The brothers who inherited the property sold it to another merchant, William Hornsby. He had extensive repairs and alterations made to the house by Humphrey Harwood, the mason, whose manuscript ledger is on file in the Research Department office showing this account. In 1777 Hornsby sold his house to Ambrose Davenport for £600. The Revolutionary War with its consequent currency inflation accounts for the large price which Davenport, a merchant and tailor, was able to pay for the building.

Toward the end of the Revolution, Davenport sold the property to Augustine Davis, a printer. Davis was one of the many editors of the Virginia Gazette who issued the competing editions of papers by the same name during the war and for some years thereafter. It is not known whether he kept shop at the house or not, but as he owned also property nearby more suitable for a printing office it is reasonable to suppose that he did not.

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Davis also called on Harwood to make repairs to the house. These included whitewashing four rooms and a passage upstairs on several occasions, providing curbs for steps and padlocks for the cellar.

After this time records of the house are fragmentary, and tradition says that Mrs. Sarah Hallam lived there. This house was associated with Mrs. Hallam by children of those who used to call on the old lady years ago. Mrs. Hallam was the wife of one of the famous Hallams in that notable company of players who arrived from England in 1751 to open a theatrical season here. They also played in New York, Philadelphia and Providence until the Revolution brought an end to such diversions.

There are facts that support tradition in this case. A Mrs. Sarah Hallam did come to Williamsburg during the war and conducted a dancing school for a number of years. She apparently did not own the house in which she lived as she is listed in the census, but not in the tax books of the town.

From 1776 to 1780 her account with Harwood for extensive repairs and alterations to a house were charged to Mr. John Lewis, a wealthy merchant who owned property near the Capitol. From 1782 (after Davis had purchased the Powell House) to 1787, her account is listed in Harwood's ledger under her own name, "Mrs. Sarah Hallam, dancing misstress", and on the credit side of the ledger the mason-builder entered, "By 6 months dancing of Billy & six ditto of Humphrey at 100/ per year".

Mrs. Randolph Harrison was one of Williamsburg's most beloved elderly ladies. At the beginning of the twentieth century she wrote her recollections of the last days of the dancing mistress:

"As late as the year 1839, in a modest home on York, Street, lived a very aged lady, wife of an ante-Revolutionary comedian. Though possessing no visible means of support, it was a well-known fact that Mrs. Hallam 'fared sumptuously every day'. A wealthy planter provided her with servants, and being the only person on whom the citizens of Williamsburg could lavish their attentions, they vied with each other in supplying her with comforts and luxuries. The ladies of Bruton Church were in the habit of holding weekly prayer meetings in her chamber, where she sat enthroned in state in her old arm chair. Happy were the children who were allowed to attend these services - not that 4 they developed unusual evidences of early piety, but 'visions of sugar plums danced through their heads'. Not only were they feasted with dainties on their arrival, but on leaving, each child was presented with a paper bag of good things to take home. Making these bags seems to have been Mrs. Hallam's sole occupation, and the pockets around her chair were kept filled with them. When this dear old lady was gathered in her fathers there was universal mourning in the community, the ladies feeling that 'Othello's occupation was gone' and that juveniles that they had lost an indulgent and devoted friend." (Wm & Mary Quart. 1 ser. Vol. 17.)