Williamsburg

Take a tuba and sculpt Where do old musical instruments go when they become irrevocably out of tune? If they fall into the hands of once-upon-a-time-professional-welder-tur ned-sculptor Robert Martin, they may be playfully reincarnated as giraffes, elephants or fanciful characters. Martin started out with fountains made of plumbing fixtures (the first was his 12-foot Water Faucet Water Fountain for a restaurant in California). Then one day, he says, he was in Cincinnati looking for old faucets when he tripped over a trombone.

Dr. William Lehman Guyton, a retired surgeon, World War II combat veteran and pre-eminent collector of American silhouettes, died May 23 of pneumonia at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. He was 96. The son of a physician and a homemaker, Dr. Guyton was born and raised in Baltimore. He was a 1931 graduate of City College and a 1934 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He earned his medical degree in 1938 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed his surgical internship and residency at the old Church Hospital in 1942, when he was commissioned in the Army.

Comedian Jay Leno joked that the meeting of Republican governors in Williamsburg was appropriate since they "are trying to return to the 17th century." More like the 18th. The GOP contingent called for a modern form of original, constitutional federalism, in which each governor is free to do as he or she pleases, within reasonable limits, to solve their states' problems and to avoid unwanted obligations imposed on them by Congress.The message of this month's voting is that Americans want closer-to-home decision-making.

Williamsburg, Va., which already has parks and attractions galore for Baltimore day-trippers, has added a half-marathon and 8K race, taking place Saturday and Sunday. Participating runners get the usual T-shirts and protein bars, but also receive free tickets to Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, and discounts for friends and family. They get the chance to run through the streets of the living history museum in the early hours, before it gets crowded, and the satisfaction of helping not one but two causes.

Williamsburg Builders received two Silver Merit Honor Awards from the Sales and Marketing Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland at a banquet held last month at Martin's West.The builder received awards for The Wesley House in Hobbit's Glen in the category of custom home from $225,000 to $274,999, and The Barrington Manor III House in Hobbit's Glen in the category of single-family home from $325,000 to $399,999.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The elegant homes and gardens of 18th-century Williamsburg might have existed in a busy and crowded landscape of barns and sheds and workyards quite unlike the sedate atmosphere of the restored historic area today. Archaeologists exploring beneath the ground on the site of a proposed parking garage just outside the historic area have found evidence that a grand home and its garden existed within the same block as a stable, brick kiln, window-making shop, saw pit and other proto-industrial facilities.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is throwing a yearlong birthday party to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Beginning March 19, the 173-acre living-history museum will focus its programs on the events of 1774 -- when revolution was in the air and Colonists were itching for independence. New this year will be seasonally changing events that highlight 1774 and the impact they had on the coming revolution. This spring, for example, visitors will learn how the House of Burgesses promoted a fasting day to support Bostonians after the Boston Tea Party.

"Architecture is often left to gentlemen who have a knowledge of design but no practical experience or to carpenters-builders who know their craft but nothing of architecture."BERLIN -- O. R. White can easily refute that statement of Benjamin Latrobe, an architect of note who once practiced in Baltimore. White's own home on Trappe Creek Drive is a unique combination of his architectural scholarship and his finely honed construction skills.With his wife, Annette, they have built a handsome two-story Williamsburg Colonial home and garden 100 feet from Trappe Creek, a tidal stream that empties into Chincoteague Bay a few miles away.

So steeped is Williamsburg in American Colonial history that you forget it has had other pasts as well.My friends and I were reminded of this on a recent visit by a rifle-carrying Confederate soldier we came across on an evening walk. He was in a state of near hysteria as he accosted us, frantic to know whether we had seen his buddy who had gone missing. Both, he said, had fought side by side earlier in the day as part of a 20,000-man Southern force trying to hold back an onslaught of 25,000 Yankees determined to march through Williamsburg on the one road connecting Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula with Richmond.

JAMESTOWN, VA. My daughter, Isabelle, loves great stories -- especially the ones that are full of gloom. Her favorite movie scene is from Cinderella, when the main character's stepsisters rip apart her lovely pink dress just before the ball, followed closely by one from The Little Mermaid, when Ariel despairs after her father destroys all the knick-knacks the young mermaid collected from the forbidden human world.

Last week, TripAdvisor named Williamsburg, Va., as the top place for families to discover. The Virginia's Historic Triangle includes Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Amusement Park and Jamestown Settlement. Those wanting to get a jump on visiting the area can head into the past this weekend when history repeats itself as hundreds of re-enactors charge the battlefield during Jamestown Settlement's annual "Military Through the Ages. " Pseudo soldiers guard enemy lines as they depict wars from the 18th century to today.

WILLIAMSBURG, VA -. If your only exposure to Colonial Williamsburg occurred in the company of a busload of unruly middle-schoolers, you owe yourself a return visit during December, when the air is cooler, the streets are quieter and the town is dressed in its holiday finest. At Christmastime, homes in the historic district, in addition to those in nearby neighborhoods, put on elaborate displays of fruit- and flower-laden wreaths, boughs and swags and miles of pine roping. People didn't use fruit to decorate in Revolutionary War Williamsburg and, restoration purists will tell you, they would not be allowed to start such a historically inaccurate tradition today.

Go here: Step back in time to walk the streets that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry walked on the road to American independence. Scores of original buildings and hundreds of homes, shops and public buildings are reconstructed over 301 acres most on their original foundations. Tickets start at $21.95 for a one-day pass for adults; children ages 6 to 17 get half off with a paying adult. Stay here: Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of accommodations ranging from budget hotels to Colonial houses to the grand Williamsburg Inn , 136 E. Francis St., 800-745-8883.

Williamsburg Holiday Decorations Package What's the deal?: Take a step back in time to a simpler Christmas at historic Colonial Williamsburg, Va. Candles, decorations, costumed performers and musicians set the tone for a spirited, down-home 18th-century holiday. The Holiday Decorations Package includes accommodations, lunch at a tavern, passes to the historic area, a walking tour of holiday decorations and the book Christmas Decorations from Williamsburg. What's the savings?: Rates start at $81 per person, per night at the value hotel The Governors Inn. The Hotel Guest passes, which include general admission, also give 50 percent savings on evening programs.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Ben Carnevale, Navy's winningest basketball coach who later headed the U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee, has died. He was 92. The Naval Academy released a statement yesterday from Carnevale's family, announcing the death Tuesday. No cause of death was released. He had been living in Williamsburg. Carnevale, born in Raritan, N.J., played for New York University and was a member of the 1935 national championship team. He played in the first National Invitation Tournament in Madison Square Garden in 1938.

Thomas Randall Silcox, a World War II veteran and retired Baltimore architect, died of Alzheimer's disease March 3 at the Virginia Veterans Care Center in Roanoke. He was 89. Mr. Silcox was born in Roanoke, the eldest of six children, and raised in Vinton, Va. He graduated from William Byrd High School in Vinton and was drafted into the Army in 1941. He attended officer's training and during that time met Virginia Ann Divers, whom he married in 1943. He saw 10 months of combat in the Normandy region of France and the Huertgen Forest along the border of Belgium and Germany and at the Battle of the Bulge.

On Saturday, December 17, 2005, JOHN EDGAR BOWEN, JR., of Williamsburg, VA. Husband of Virginia "Jinny" Gertrude Webb Bowen. Arrangements by Nelsen Funeral Home, Williamsburg, VA. Memorial Service Wednesday, December 28 at 2:00 P.M. at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. Burial Thursday, December 29 at Good Shepherd Cemetery, Ellicott City, MD.

SUSAN JODON BROWN, age 37, of Broadlands, VA, died of complications from Scleroderma, Thursday, February 23, 2006. She was born July 27, 1968 in Detroit, Michigan, raised in Timonium, Maryland and graduated from Towson University. She is survived by her loving husband Patrick Brown, her daughter Kaitlin Brown, her parents Robert and Shirley Jodon of Williamsburg, Virginia and sister Debby Jodon Hetrick of Cincinnati, Ohio. She is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.