Merchants Square is the small commercial district at the eastern end of Duke of Gloucester Street where the historic area meets the college. It has about 40 shops and restaurants in colonial-style buildings, plus a bookshop and a few galleries. The architecture is designed to complement the colonial district without being replica 18th century — it was built in the 1930s as part of the wider Rockefeller restoration plan.
The restaurants here are a mix of colonial-themed taverns (the King's Arms, Christiana Campbell's) and more contemporary options. The square functions as a transition zone — less managed than Colonial Williamsburg but more historically cohesive than the chain restaurant strip on Richmond Road. It is where William & Mary students and historic district visitors most visibly overlap.