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The Comte de Grasse Chapter of the DAR is privileged to have stewardship of one the most venerable buildings in Yorktown. The Custom House dates from c. 1720, and is one of the few buildings to survive the bombardment of the town by American and French forces in 1781 that drove British General Lord Cornwallis to surrender his army in the Battle of Yorktown, which was the seminal battle of the Revolutionary War. And, it survived again as the Civil War raged through the town during McClellan's Peninsula Campaign in 1862.
The Custom House at Yorktown occupies a unique place in American history. In the early days of the American colonies, there were no publicly owned customhouses as we know them today. Customs collectors were prominent merchants and farmers who kept an office at their place of business or residence -- and in this office, port clearances and other official papers were issued and sealed, and district records were kept. Few of these "private" customhouses have survived to present day.
Richard Ambler established the Custom House in Yorktown. He was born in York, England, in 1690, and emigrated to Virginia at an early age. By 1720, he had settled in Yorktown, then one of the busiest ports on the east coast of North America. In 1721, he purchased lot 43 in Yorktown, located at the corner of Main and Read streets, at the top of the bluff overlooking the busy waterfront. Ambler built his home and a large (for the times) brick storehouse on the lot. Ambler is the first officially designated collector of customs for the British Crown in Yorktown. At the time and all through the 1700s, Yorktown was the largest port on the East Coast between Philadelphia and Charleston. It had a population of about 3,000, about the same as the capital, Williamsburg.
The property passed to his youngest son, Jaquelin, who also served as collector of customs for the port of Yorktown… and sheriff for York County, a member of the Council of State in 1780, and treasurer of Virginia from 1782 until his death in 1798.
During the Revolutionary War, Jaquelin moved his family to the relative safety of the interior of the state, and the Custom House, his home, and other properties were used by colonial troops as barracks. The gardens, fences, and outbuildings were casualties of this occupation. When the British arrived in 1781, they used the same structures, adding insult to injury. After Cornwallis' humiliating defeat in October 1781, the remaining buildings were used to quarter French troops who wintered in Yorktown.
Yorktown's time in the sun passed after the Revolution, and little of note occurred during the years leading up to the "Recent Unpleasantness" (called the Civil War by most). During McClellan's Peninsula Campaign in 1862, General Magruder used the Custom House as his headquarters. Ambler's frame house next door was a casualty of this occupation --but the venerable Custom House survived.
During and after Reconstruction, the building was used as a store, a school, a bank, a barbershop, and at times, a residence. Through all these transmutations, it suffered mightily, but its essential character was retained.
The Comte de Grasse Chapter of the DAR acquired the property in 1924, with the help of Mrs. George Preston Blow of the Nelson House in Yorktown. Mrs. Latitia Pate Evans, whose surname is connected with an early Yorktown family, donated funds for the building's restoration and upkeep. With the meticulous guidance of famous Virginia historical architect Duncan Lee, the Chapter restored the structure, established a walled garden, and constructed outbuildings, all in keeping with the period.
The interior and exterior walls of the building are all original, though repaired and restored in several places. The flooring on the first floor is original to the building; some boards were relocated from other parts of the building to replace especially worn boards. The other floors are from other structures of the period. One of the doors, from the main room to the hall, is original. The trim on the first floor was added during the Duncan Lee restoration in the late 1920s, and while it is consistent with the period, it would not have been used in such a utilitarian structure; it has been retained because of the Lee connection.
The importance of Customs operations, then and now, cannot be overstated. After the Revolutionary War, the struggling young nation found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. Responding to the urgent need for revenue, the First Congress passed, and President George Washington signed into law, the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789. This act authorized the collections of duties (i.e., taxes) on imported goods. It was such an important piece of legislation that it was called "the second Declaration of Independence" by the news media of that era. Four weeks after passage of the Act, on July 31, Congress established the Customs service and defined the authorized ports-of-entry into the United States -- one of which was Yorktown. For the next 125 years, Customs funded virtually the entire government, and paid for the nation's early growth and infrastructure.
In 1972, the United States Customs Service designated the Custom House at Yorktown as one of twelve Historic Custom Houses in the United States. In 1988, on the occasion of the bicentennial of the Customs Service, the Commissioner of Customs re-dedicated "this historic structure, which served as a Custom House from 1789 to 1945 (sic)… in honor and recognition of the two centuries of service by men and women of the U.S. Customs Service, whose contributions and sacrifices have played a significant role in the development of the United States of America and the protection of it's citizens." In 1999, the Custom House was listed in the Virginia Landmark Register and was designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Today, the Comte de Grasse chapter of the DAR uses the Yorktown Custom House as its regular meeting place, and shares this unique piece of history with visitors to Yorktown. Docents (in period costume on special occasions) guide visitors through the building. The Custom House is open on Sunday afternoons during the summer and early fall, and can be opened for tours at other times by prior arrangement. Anyone with an interest in seeing the Custom House should contact the chapter at dar.comtedegrasse@cox.net
Note: The word "customhouse" is the subject of much confusion, primarily because the term has had at least three forms over the years. In the 18th century, it was common to use the form "custom house." In the 19th century, the most common form was "custom-house." The current form, preferred by the United States Customs Service, is "customhouse." Customhouse means the building or the office where customs duties and other charges are paid. It is the central place where most of the Customs work and transactions are performed and where all moneys, of every nature and wherever collected, are accounted for. The customhouse is the office of the Collector of Customs. At certain Customs ports and stations, some or all of the other Customs officers and personnel may use the same building or office.
Because of the changing preferences noted above, the word "customhouse" appears differently, even on Customs buildings, in directories of federal buildings, in correspondence, and in magazines and newspapers. It is also frequently mispronounced in conversation, as is "customshouse." In the context of the building, the form is never plural, so it is never properly spelled (or pronounced) as "customshouse." It is, however, proper to say ––
These notes are based on "COLLECTING THE CUSTOMS - Summary History of the Development of the Tariff in the United States and Its Administration," issued by the United States Bureau of Customs on August 1, 1939, in commemoration of "The 150th Anniversary of the First Federal Tariff and the Organization of a Customs Service." The author, H. F. Worley, was the first Director of the Customs School of Instruction, established in 1935, during the tenure of Commissioner James H. Moyle. The preferred form is confirmed in the U.S. Customs Service's publication What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About CUSTOMS BROKERS, published in March 2000. |
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Custom House Yorktown, Virginia |
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Comte de Grasse |
