WEB FEATURE: A Coffeehouse Where Thomas Jefferson Was a Regular

If you’re looking to engross yourself in the history of American coffeehouse culture, your instinct might be to head to Seattle or San Francisco. In reality, though, you may want to set your sights on Williamsburg, Va., where R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse—a re-creation of a famed 18th-century coffee and tea establishment—has just opened its heavy wooden doors to visitors.

R. Charlton’s is the latest addition to the Historic Area at Colonial Williamsburg, a sort of American history fairyland that transports visitors back to a time when the community served as Virginia’s capital and names like Jefferson and Madison dominated regional politics. Though 18th-century patrons probably weren’t looking for free Wi-Fi and mochas, they did value the “third place” idea. “R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse became a stylish retreat from the mundane governmental activities of the Capitol,” officials from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the attraction, said in a prepared statement. “[It was] a gathering place for the social elite, a hotbed of political discussion and debate.”

The R. Charlton’s replica sits on the site where the actual coffeehouse served up tea, coffee, chocolate, food, and a selection of beer, wine and spirits more than two centuries ago. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation undertook an archaeological study of the site for three years beginning in 1995, and they unearthed more than 10,000 archeological fragments that helped the group paint a picture of day-to-day life in a colonial café. Last year, Forrest and Deborah Mars (of candy fame) donated $5 million to reconstruct the building.

The simple, beige wooden structure was constructed during the past year using 18th-century building practices and design mechanisms. Since opening Nov. 20, the spot has offered free samples of coffee, tea and chocolate to Colonial Williamsburg visitors (a one-day adult ticket to the historic city costs $36). Mars, Inc. came up with the recipes for the drinks and snacks, and though the chocolate is designed to taste close to how 18th-century chocolate would have, the coffee and tea isn’t quite so authentic. “They’re more palatable for today’s tastes,” the foundation’s release states. “In the 18th century the beans would have been burnt on the outside and green on the inside.”

The re-created coffeehouse’s first day of business was marked by a re-enactment of an infamous Stamp Act demonstration, which actually took place in Williamsburg around 1765. A stamp agent named George Mercer, who had just been sent to Williamsburg from England, encountered an angry crowd in another part of the city. The mob chased him down a street, and Mercer was finally able to take refuge on the R. Charlton Coffeehouse porch, where the governor of Virginia offered up protection.

The ruckus around the Stamp Act is slated to become a regular Williamsburg re-enactment, and it will be part of an experience around the coffeehouse that officials say is already gaining in popularity. “The coffeehouse has been extremely well-received,” says Anne Hillegass, a marketing manager for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. “We have had large crowds touring the coffeehouse and sampling drinks.”

And who exactly was this R. Charlton for whom the shop is named? Williamsburg curators say he was a young Williamsburg resident who converted an existing storehouse into a coffeehouse in the 1760s. Historians believe he used the basement of the structure as a kitchen, cooking up items including shellfish and even peacock. The coffeehouse was open for 10 years, and both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson spent time hunched over its wooden tables.

Interestingly, Charlton also served as one of the city’s wigmakers. And just like current coffeehouse owners, he apparently was always looking for ways to cut costs. “It is likely, based on archaeological evidence,” the foundation states on its website, “that some branch of the wigmaking business was also taking place in the coffeehouse.”

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