Near the end of the Revolutionary War and through the influence of Thomas Jefferson, the seat of government of Virginia was moved up the peninsula from Williamsburg to the safer and more centrally located city of Richmond . For nearly a century and a half afterward, Williamsburg was a simple, quiet college town, home of the College of William and Mary. Restoration began in 1926, when the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Bruton Parish Church , shared his dream of preserving the city's historic buildings with philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. Wisteria weaves along a white picket fence and burst with purplish-blue blooms in early summer.