Georgia Thoms ’23 sat down for a cup of tea with the two current residents of William Randolph Lodging, more commonly known as the CW House, to discuss the movement from campus living to a living museum as well as how this connection with Colonial Williamsburg furthers their academic interests. 

Set on the edge of the main road across from the cabinetmakers, the CW House resembles a home for a wealthy colonial family. The house was reconstructed in 1920 when W.A.R Goodwin persuaded philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. to finance the revitalization of Williamsburg to its 18th-century origins.

Its current inhabitants, Heidi Zmick ’23 and Sarah Richman ’23, are part of a long line of previous residents from the College of William and Mary. Zmick explained the house’s history — and some popular misconceptions surrounding it. 

“It was owned by William Randolph, grandfather of Peyton Randolph, who owned the house just down the street, which is also painted red like this one, which is why our house normally gets mistaken for being haunted, since [the Randolph House] is one of the most haunted houses in America,” Zmick said.

Zmick and Richman met through a mutual friend and, with many similar interests, became roommates in fall 2021. Both are conducting honors theses for the history and English departments, respectively, and serve as co-Presidents of the Heritage Dancers club on campus, which specializes in English-influenced 18th- and 17th-century dance. 

Zmick became interested in applying to live in the CW House through her history professors and her certification work with the National Institute for American History and Democracy (NAIAD), a program in public history and material culture through the College’s partnership with Colonial Williamsburg.

“Essentially, the program is a connection between Colonial Williamsburg and the College, and classes are in material culture, public history, and museum studies, which means a lot of them are traveling either in CW or to other museums in the area and looking at how the museums run and how they interpret information to the public,” Zmick noted. “But also how they can ... connect with people and share that information effectively and accurately.”

Richman laughed, saying she was simply along for the ride, but that living at the CW House has been quite an adventure. As residents, they are responsible for maintaining the historic experience.

“In terms of starting with the exterior of the house, we can temporarily leave 19th-century things outside in view,” Richman said. “However, for the most part, you have to hide it. You have to send them photographs, and they can approve if it looks from the 18th century.”

They are also required to interact with the public via social media, participate in certain events like the trick-or-treating Halloween parade, and decorate for the holidays.

“This semester we’ve done a few so far. We had the dance event where we went and danced to live music,” Zmick recalled. “We had a scavenger hunt, which was mostly social media based. It was like a bingo and scavenger hunt, and there were different places in the museum, and then they came here to collect a little prize.”

The roommates treasure living in CW. However, there are a few quirks, including some nosy neighbors.

“This neighborhood has probably a higher rate than usual of people trying to break into your house, but a lower rate than usual of people who mean harm,” Richman joked.

Moving from their previous dorm — Old Dominion — to the CW House was a unique but positive experience.

“The sort of worldview, [the] change of distance is really interesting, because in Old Dominion, we were both going to our academic buildings, which are quite literally just across the street, and then we would go to Sadler, and that was like our whole little area that we lived in,” Zmick explained. “We were rather homebodies, but now we’re like, ‘Oh, we’ll just bike a mile.’”

The change from living on a modern campus to interacting with the 18th century on a daily basis was transformative. 

“With move-in itself, it was somewhat of a sort of surreal experience because it’s not something you do every day. Just getting to drive into CW through the museum and live in a house in the largest living history museum in the world — it’s pretty incredible.”

Their initial journey contained some roadblocks. With a sudden switch in administration, information, rules, regulations, and WiFi were lost. Their first TikTok, captioned, “That moment when your college gives you the keys to a house in Colonial Williamsburg with no further instructions,” went viral, amassing 1.3 million views.

It did work out in the end, and the pair look forward to adding to the house’s legacy.

“Moving into this house is interesting because it sort of collects the memories of everyone who’s lived in it before,” Richman said.

Zmick described living in the house as being part of a “picture-perfect world,” further benefited by the surrounding community.

“It’s nice finding a different community here in CW too; we’ve made friends with the musicians,” Richman added. “They were there playing on the courthouse steps on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. So we go down and do an English country dance.”

Apart from the physical move off campus, both felt an evolution within themselves.

“The theoretical movement from campus to this house is a movement more towards adulthood,” Zmick said. “I do think it is a movement in that direction for living more on one’s own with less of the support of the College.”

The application for living in the CW House goes live beginning next year — and the current residents highly recommend the experience, noting that the partnership between the College and Colonial Williamsburg is one of a kind.

Rising seniors are granted preference, and the goal of living in the Historic Area is to maintain and improve the connections between colonial and modern Williamsburg beginning at the heart — the students. 

“In the essays and in the interview, even if you feel like ideas are kind of out there or a little bit far-fetched, definitely share them, because what they’re really looking for is people who have creative event ideas and creative new ideas for how to do things and bring people into the house and into Colonial Williamsburg,” Zmick asserted. 

Oftentimes, there is an overlap between particular clubs, such as Heritage Dancers or the College Company, due to their interest in living history, museums, and the 18th century at large, but the application is open to all students.

“I think generally, regardless of whether the residents ... knew the upcoming residents previously, they definitely get to know them a little bit, to sort of show them the ropes, give them some pointers before they move in, which was definitely very helpful to us,” Zmick said. 

While there is more responsibility to living in the CW House compared to campus dorms, nothing beats being able to bike home as the cressets are lit each evening and the Fife and Drum Corps’ performance echoes in your ears. 

“It’s just a really wonderful atmosphere ... The museum has created this little bastion of an 18th-century world, which is a little bit perhaps picture-perfect and not necessarily realistic,” Zmick said with a smile. “But we get to live in that little picture-perfect world and experience it every day, which I think is quite beautiful.”

If, however, you prefer to visit Colonial Williamsburg rather than live there, all students of the College can obtain a free pass valid until their graduation. Students must present their Tribe Card to the Lumber House ticket office.

Although their journey began somewhat chaotically, from their shared time at the CW House emerged a lasting friendship and a promise to leave their mark on the house and Colonial Williamsburg as a whole. 

Follow Zmick and Richman’s experience at these accounts:

Instagram: @thecwhouse

Facebook: William Randolph Lodging - Colonial Williamsburg

Tiktok: @the_cw_house