Built in 1673, the Williamson Ordinary Building was an ordinary for “lodging and victualing”. Timothy Williamson was the Innkeeper until his death in 1676 while serving the colony in the Indian War, known as King Phillip’s War.

After his death, the ordinary was kept by his widow, Mary Williamson, who was appointed Innkeeper by the colony court. This was the only acceptable occupation for a woman in this period. We, at Spa-tique are honored to keep Mary Williamson’s service mission alive today, over three centuries later.

Mary Williamson’s Hospitality Sign Read:
“It takes a heap of living in an Ordinary to make it right,
A heap of sun and shadow, both the sad days and the bright.
It takes a lot of caring for the welfare of the guests.
To know, before they ask you, how to answer their requests.
It’s not the chairs and tables nor the shingles on the roof.
But the wanting others happy that furnishes the proof.
A real Ordinary can’t be bought, or built, or made up in a minute.
To make an Ordinary there’s got to be a heap of living in it.
The singing and the laughter have to work into the wood.
And stoves get used to cooking so that meals are downright good.
The staff must fit together as a smoothly working whole.
Through the long cooperation there of every single soul.
You need good beds and linens, and a lovely village too.
But the things that really matter are the old things, not the new;
The age-old smile of welcome and the well-worn wish to please.
The years of long experience that puts a guest at ease.
The gracious hospitality for travelers who roam.
And the long familiarity that makes folk feel at home.”
--Mary Williamson, Hostess

At midnight on December 19, 1773, some of the first actions of the American Revolution took place. Local patriots, in protest of the British tax on tea and inspired by the Boston Tea Party, broke into the ordinary, and seized the tea stored there. Dragging it by oxcart to the top of a nearby hill, later called Tea Rock Hill, they set the tea ablaze, thus kindling patriot fervor against the Tory residents of the town.

The old ordinary also served as a store and a post office for many years. In 1812 the post office at South Marshfield was the only one in town. Mail was conveyed just twice a week. Postage was ten cents to Boston, twenty-five cents elsewhere.