Reader's Digest money built this place, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, just outside Colonial Williamsburg's historic boundary. This museum, founded by a 1982 donation from DeWitt Wallace (1889–1981) and Lila Bell Acheson Wallace (1889–1984), tells of the Wallaces' link to Reader's Digest and their $12 million gift that financed reconstruction of the nation's 1773 Public Hospital and construction of this museum, connected to the hospital by an underground concourse. The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum opened in 1985 and houses British and American fine and decorative arts from 1670–1840.
As you stand here, imagine the collections inside: furniture, paintings, silver, numismatics, ceramics, tools, textiles, glass, maps, weapons, media and other objects from the permanent Colonial Williamsburg collection. The building later expanded to include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and was set to undergo another expansion to open in 2019 with a new, street-level entrance. You will enter through and underneath the Public Hospital, following the same underground concourse the Wallaces helped fund.
Notice the hospital facade beside you — the underground concourse the Wallaces helped fund begins beneath your feet.