The first colony to speak for American independence did it with the unanimous voices of the gentlemen who gathered May 15, 1776, in the tall brick building that dominated the east end of Williamsburg.

From a hall in the Capitol of what had been England's original New World possession, Virginia instructed its delegation at Philadelphia's Continental Congress to move the question of freedom. Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence records the Continental Congress's answer.

Refurnished with the help of 18th-century records, the present Capitol was dedicated with a ceremonial meeting of the General Assembly on February 24, 1934. Since that time, the legislators have reassembled for a day every other year in the tall brick building at the east end of Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area.