Williamsburg is one of “10 U.S. Towns Stuck in Time” according to TheDiscoverer.com, an online travel site.
Travel writer Bradley O’Neill, who has visited 40-plus countries while living on four continents, reminded readers of movies and science fiction characters “who traveled back through time to bygone eras.”
However, “you don’t need futuristic technology to experience something similar,” he wrote. There are at least 10 towns in the U.S. “that have stayed true to their customs and lifestyles as the years have gone by.”
Williamsburg is the only one on the list, however, where original and reproduction structures for a historic area are recognized by historians worldwide. O’Neill stressed that the historic area allows visitors “to be transported to an American Revolution-era town.
“You’ll encounter men dressed in red coats carrying muskets and people trotting past elegant brick buildings via horse and carriage,” he said. “You’ll see tradespeople carrying out apothecary, bindery and blacksmithing tasks. You can even join in 18th-century games on a village green.”
Among the other “Towns Stuck in Time” are Cape May, New Jersey; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Mackinac Island, Michigan; and Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
The seaside town of Cape May, is “famous for its collection of over 600 well-preserved Victorian buildings, which give it a strong late 19th-century charm,” O’Neill said. Lancaster is one of more than 50 thriving Amish communities spread throughout Pennsylvania. “Often horse-drawn carriages roll last green acres and through narrow streets where old buildings, often 150 years old, add to the feeling of time gone by.”
Mackinac Island village, where cars are banned, allows visitors to walk among clapboard buildings and vintage storefronts. And in Mineral Point, miners from Cornwall, England, brought architectural features to the town, O’Neill explained.
Wilford Kale, kalehouse@aol.com
