As the nation prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, few places carry the weight of that history more tangibly than Colonial Williamsburg. Ron Hurst, the foundation’s chief mission officer, has spent his career ensuring that weight is felt—honestly, fully, and accessibly. Madeline Mayhood, Virginia Living’s editor-in-chief, sat down with Hurst to discuss […] The post Colonial Williamsburg’s Ron Hurst on Preserving History, VA250 & More appeared first on Virginia Living.
As the nation prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, few places carry the weight of that history more tangibly than Colonial Williamsburg. Ron Hurst, the foundation’s chief mission officer, has spent his career ensuring that weight is felt—honestly, fully, and accessibly. Madeline Mayhood, Virginia Living’s editor-in-chief, sat down with Hurst to discuss why preserving physical history matters, how the foundation is evolving to reach new audiences, and what he hopes every visitor takes away from the cradle of American democracy.
Madeline Mayhood: What do you hope today’s visitors to Colonial Williamsburg will take away?
Ron Hurst: Historic sites need to tell you everything that happened in the period you’re discussing—the good and the bad. They should not tell you what to think about it. That’s up to you. We hope people coming to Colonial Williamsburg in this anniversary year will always get a really full picture of what happened in this particular place in the years leading up to and just beyond the Revolutionary War—from astonishing political developments to the realities of enslavement. I hope everybody goes away with a broader picture of what really happened here.
M.M.: Have you noticed visitation demographics change?
R.H.: Seasonal patterns haven’t changed much—summers are frequently families with children, fall tends to be retirees. The numbers have changed. Like most historic sites, we don’t have the same level of visitation we had a generation ago, which has much to do with the fact that history education in schools has dwindled significantly. We saw it 25 years ago—schoolchildren arriving with surprisingly less history education. Now we’re seeing the children of those children with even less. That makes it all the more important that sites like Monticello, Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, and Jamestown find ways to engage the public. You have to tell an accurate story, but in a way guests can access and internalize. Make it palatable, make it fun, make it engaging—but make it honest.
M.M.: How is technology changing the visitor experience?
R.H.: We use relatively little technology on site, but a tremendous amount to reach the rest of the world. Our president and CEO, Cliff Fleet, once said there are 330 million Americans—we’re never going to get them all here, but that doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility of teaching them American history. Technology is the avenue for doing that. Everything from social media to something we’re developing called History.org—an online database for educators with lesson plans and programming to help teachers address these needs. We’re also developing sites for children featuring games that painlessly teach history. There’s really no substitute for an on-site experience, but our online offerings are impressive and important, and will be more so going forward.
M.M.: How do you balance public access with historic preservation?
R.H.: Public visitation takes its toll on historic buildings, so we have a rigorous program of annual preservation-focused maintenance. We close buildings like the Governor’s Palace and the Capitol for two weeks every year for top-to-bottom cleaning, inspection, and repair. We use various methods of covering floors to prevent wear, always in ways that don’t create a jarring modern intrusion. It surprises most people to learn that Colonial Williamsburg’s historic area encompasses 604 buildings—89 of them are 200–300 years old, and the reconstructed examples are now 75 –95 years old. It’s an ongoing effort. We have to paint a minimum of 60 buildings every year just to keep up.
M.M.: Why is preserving historic sites, specifically Colonial Williamsburg, important?
R.H.: It is difficult or impossible to know who we are as a nation without knowing where we’ve come from and what we as a people have experienced. So we think history education is terribly important. Why the spaces? Because they tell you so much about what happened at the time you’re interpreting, not only because of the atmosphere they create, but because research is allowing us to ask questions of these resources that weren’t dreamt of even 25 years ago. In archaeology, we can now retrieve pollen grains and tell you what was growing at a particular site in 1750—that’s the sort of thing nobody thought possible in the 1970s. In restoring the Bray School [one of the earliest institutions dedicated to Black education in North America], we looked for patterns in the building to figure out how people who used it over 250 years actually occupied the spaces. We have no idea what technology will allow us to ask of these physical resources 50 years hence. That’s one of the many reasons it’s important to preserve them.
Featured photo by Kyle LaFerriere. This article originally appeared in the June 2026 issue.
The post Colonial Williamsburg’s Ron Hurst on Preserving History, VA250 & More appeared first on Virginia Living.
