Apollo Room, Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, VA, circa 1932

About this postcard

The Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, appears as a colonial dining and assembly room. A long polished table set with candlesticks and flowers runs through the center, surrounded by Windsor and upholstered chairs. A paneled fireplace wall anchors the room, and a harpsichord with open sheet music stands in the foreground. Above the fireplace is the motto "Hilaritas Sapientiae et Bonae Vital Proles" (likely "Vitae"), translated as "Mirth the offspring of wisdom and good living." From about 1740 until the tavern burned in 1859, the Apollo was a center of social and political activity, used by members of the House of Burgesses and by Phi Beta Kappa. The room shown belongs to the early 1930s reconstruction of the Raleigh Tavern, rebuilt during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.