Yorktown

We visited Yorktown today. The houses along with several others on Main Street were built during the colonial period. The house on the right was the Customhouse built about 1721 by Richard Ambler. The house on the left was Cole Digges House built about 1720. In 1697 when the first county courthouse and Grace Church were constructed there were about 200-250 buildings in town. The town reached its peak in the 1750s when the population was about 1800. The siege of 1781 destroyed so much of the town that by the end of the Revolutinary War the number of buildings were reduced to fewer than 70. The 1790 census listed 661 residents. During the Civil War, Confederate and then Union forces held the town. Though smaller today than during colonial times, the town continues to function as an active community.