LSP Seminars – Preservation of Historic Winchester

Friday Photos Come to Facebook

Longtime readers may know of PHW’s efforts to scan our physical photographic and slide collections, documented in our Friday Photos tag. For the most part, all the physical media that has been found stashed at the office has been added to our Flickr account, but because most images were uploaded in large batches the image descriptions are often basic. This can make finding the appropriate image for research requests a bit more obtuse for someone not familiar with the collection.

As part of our “clean up the office” efforts in January, we have been randomly selecting a photo a day and giving the descriptions a more thorough look, making sure the image is in the appropriate albums, and sharing the item on our social media. We hope this will add more depth and background to our collections and increase their usefulness and interest to those exploring Winchester. We hope you enjoy revisiting these images along with us and learning a bit more along the way (and it will be quite a journey, as we have over 10,000 images)!

To hold you over this weekend between new image posts on Facebook, you may also want to review the Lunch and Learn Lecture “How to Finance Historic Preservation” by Bill Buettin on our YouTube page. Happy watching!

Welcome to 2021

PHW is slowly returning to normal services following our Bough and Dough Shop. We are still operating on an appointment system for visitors to the office. Call ahead or email phwinc.org@gmail.com to schedule your visit. Most questions can be answered via email, so we recommend utilizing that method of contact.

A limited quantity of PHW-produced items that were available at the Bough and Dough Shop like our books and decorative items with local historic buildings can still be ordered through our online store. If you want to save money on shipping and take advantage of curbside pickup at the Hexagon House, use the promo code “Curbside” at checkout. Pickup is available Monday-Friday.

In the meantime, enjoy this blast from the past from our lecture series, How to Utilize State and Federal Historic Tax Credits by John Willingham.

Care and Maintenance of Historic Metal Roofs Lecture on YouTube

Happy Friday! This week we have posted the latest Lunch and Learn Lecture to our YouTube channel. Eric Bennung, Vice President of Acrymax Technologies, presents this introduction and overview of his companies’ products in the care and maintenance of historic metal roofs, in addition to many other roof types. We had excellent questions and observations from our audience members during this event, which should also be audible. If you were not able to visit us on June 5, you can get caught up now at your convenience!

Be sure to visit preservationproducts.com and www.acrymax.com for more product details.

Friday Roundup: Events, Lectures and More!

It’s been a busy week at PHW as we wrapped up another fiscal year. But the administrative drudgery is not all we have been up to. Get ready to mark your calendars!

Tomorrow, June 2, 10 AM, the Clowser Foundation will hold their annual memorial service at the Clowser House, 152 Tomahawk Trail, in Shawneeland. Come out and see the progress that has been made in stabilizing this Frederick County landmark!

Also tomorrow at 1:30 PM, PHW will host the make up Preservation Month walking tour event. Look for the sign at the Harrison and Johnston law offices, 21 S. Loudoun St., to meet with a guide. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

Tuesday, June 5, starting at noon, PHW will host Eric Bennung, Vice President of Acrymax Technologies, Inc., to discuss the care and maintenance of historic metal roofs. We will be meeting at the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St., in the first floor board room. We will be able to seat approximately 25-30 guests. This event is free and open to the public, but we strongly recommend carpooling due to the limited parking at the Hexagon House.

Wednesday, June 6, Turner Ashby Chapter 184 United Daughters of the Confederacy will host their 152nd Confederate Memorial Day service at Stonewall Cemetery in Mount Hebron Cemetery, 305 E. Boscawen St. The event starts at 7 PM and will be held rain or shine. The speaker is Mr. Steve Ritchie, “Defending Home and Hearth.”

Don’t forget to get your award nominations in to PHW before Monday, June 11, so we can finalize our lineup of award recipients at PHW’s Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 24, 3 PM at the Hexagon House.

And look toward July when the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center presents their Summer Lecture Series, Our Community Response to World War I. The lectures will be held at 28 S. Loudoun St., 7 PM, on the following dates:
Tuesday, July 10 – Memorial Avenue 1924 WWI Plaques, Gene Schultz
Thursday, July 12 – Soldiers Stories behind the Plaques, Gene Schultz
Tuesday, July 17 – WWI and the Women of Winchester, Nancy Braswell
Thursday, July 19 – Historical Significance of Veteran Robert Conrad’s Home, Sandra Bosley
The cost is $10 per lecture or $35 for the entire series.

Care and Maintenance of Historic Metal Roofs

Preservation of Historic Winchester Invites You to Attend
Care and Maintenance of Historic Metal Roofs
A Lunch and Learn Lecture
June 5, 2018

Please join us at noon on Tuesday, June 5 to hear Eric Bennung, Vice President of Acrymax Technologies, Inc., discuss the care and maintenance of historic metal roofs. Acrymax coatings have been used on countless structures around the country – assisting people anywhere from the National Park Service to personal homeowners with a tin metal roof.
We will be meeting at the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St., in the first floor board room. We will be able to seat approximately 25-30 guests.

Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Time: Noon-1 PM
Place: The Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St., Winchester, VA
Cost: Free and open to the public
Parking: The parking lot can accommodate approximately 14 cars. Additional cars may be parked in the circular driveway or on-street at Hawthorne Dr. Carpooling is recommended!
RSVP or Questions? Contact PHW at phwinc.org@gmail.com or 540-667-3577.

Friday Roundup: Events and Photos

Looking for something to do this weekend? Friday and Saturday is the John Kirby Celebration and 24-hour Jazzathon. The event starts tonight at 8 PM at the Bright Box Theater, 15 N Loudoun St., with a performance by the Shenandoah Conservatory Little Big Band featuring guest artists Tom Williams on trumpet and Charlie Young on alto saxophone. General admission tickets are $12. Additional performances, which will continue on Shenandoah University’s campus and on the Old Town Winchester walking mall, are free and open to the public. Visit Shenandoah University News and Conservatory Performs for more information on the event and scheduled performances.

Mark your calendars for PHW’s first Walk and Learn event of 2018 on Saturday, May 19, 2:30 PM. This free event is PHW’s contribution of National Preservation Month in May, and we will be taking a condensed look at the history of preservation in Winchester with this approximately one mile walking tour. We will take you past a number of significant buildings that have received the Winchester historic building plaque or that have been saved through the Jennings Revolving Fund. We will meet in front of 21 South Loudoun Street at 2:30 PM, the first building marked with the oval bronze building plaque, and stop for a few words and refreshments at 125 East Clifford Street, the latest home to join the ranks of the marked historic buildings. The complete loop of the tour is expected to take one hour. Look for a mailer coming soon with more information!

It would not be a proper Friday without some photos. This week, we added 31 images to Flickr, including one of the porch at 316 Amherst Street, 8 of the Toll House at 800 Amherst Street, and 22 of the Fawcett House from the 1988 Holiday House Tour. Catch all the images at the top of our photostream.

Friday Roundup: Events, Ads, and Links

Happy Friday! We are entering the home stretch for Holiday House Tour preparation. Stay tuned for details on that event – we’ll start our coverage of Holiday House Tour next week. In the meantime, we have some reminders of important dates coming up:

Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church 150th Anniversary Black Tie Gala is October 28, 5 PM at the Shenandoah Valley Golf Club, 134 Golf Club Circle, Front Royal, VA 22630. Tickets are available for $50; contact Cynthia Banks at 540-539-8262 for ticket information. The following day, October 29th, the 150th Anniversary Worship Service Celebrations will be held at 10:30 AM and 3 PM at Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 428 North Loudoun Street, Winchester, VA.

Holiday House Tour advertising sponsor slots for 2017 are due no later than 5 PM on Halloween, Oct. 31. We have room for up to two pages of interior advertising as of Friday morning. Click here for the call for advertisers post with more information. You can contact PHW at phwinc.org@gmail.com or 540-667-3577.

The Bell House Walk and Learn event is set for Thursday, November 2, noon-1 PM at the Bell House, 106 N. Cameron St., Winchester. Depending on the attendance, tours may be split into smaller groups, so the start time will likely be rolling. On-street parking is limited and most nearby spaces are metered; we suggest using the George Washington Autopark at 131 N. Kent St. There is an entrance to the autopark from N. Cameron St.

If all those activities aren’t quite enough, we have some other interesting links for your reading pleasure this weekend:

The preservation of the plantation Menokin in Warsaw, VA is a case study of what to do with an important historic site that has suffered major losses. While many would have looked at the ruins as a lost cause, the plan to preserve the building is to rebuild the missing elements, but in glass. This approach will retain the historic massing but not to obscure the structure of the building which has been exposed. Thanks to Atlas Obscura for bringing the Menokin website (full of all kinds of documentary photos and research) to our attention.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation posted a summary of the findings from the Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Historic Tax Credit. Last year was a record breaker, surpassing the 1986 record for the largest year-over-year increase (unadjusted for inflation) for completed projects. While it’s on the number heavy side, it is useful information to have when talking about historic tax credits and their impact not just on saving old buildings, but creating jobs, too.

Last, just for fun is Every Apple You Eat Took Years and Years to Make by Sarah Laskow on Atlas Obscura. The story is a peek into the work happening in an experimental apple orchard to find the elusive perfect apple – hardy, tasty, and beautiful. While not preservation-related per se, apples are an important piece of Winchester’s cultural heritage, going back to Winchester’s own research laboratory.

Walk and Learn Tour at the Bell House, Nov. 2

You are invited to join us at the Bell House at 106 North Cameron Street for a PHW “Walk and Learn” tour. This free event will help introduce you to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and their future plans and efforts to preserve one of Winchester’s best Federal-style homes with a long and storied past. Be sure to dress for the weather and wear flat, comfortable walking shoes.

On-street parking is limited and most nearby spaces are metered; we suggest using the George Washington Autopark at 131 N. Kent St. There is an entrance to the autopark from N. Cameron St.

Date: Thursday, November 2, 2017
Time: Noon-1 PM
Location: The Bell House, 106 N. Cameron St., Winchester
Cost: Free!

Friday Round Up: Clowser House, Guideline Updates, and More

Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week at PHW, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

We have added five images from the Walk and Learn tour we hosted in conjunction with the Clowser Foundation at the Clowser House last Saturday to our Flickr account. Thank you to everyone who came out and saw the house and heard about the efforts so far to save it. The Clowser Foundation needs your support – they are still fundraising for their efforts to repair the back wall before June 2018. You can learn more about their organization at their website and Facebook page.

We had some good questions on the historic farming uses at the Clowser House. As we learned on Saturday, the Clowser family ran a mixed farm with wheat, corn, cattle, pigs, and other crops and livestock. Although not specific to the Clowser family, you can learn more about agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley before and during the Civil War at Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.

In Winchester news, we know many people have been awaiting word on the overhaul of the Board of Architectural Review Guidelines. The revised document, which has been in the works for about a year and a half, was presented at the September 26 City Council work session. It appears very likely the new guidelines, which allow for some additional flexibility with non-traditional materials, will be adopted on Tuesday, October 10. You may review the agenda and packet through the city’s website.

In Holiday House Tour news, we still have spaces available for interior full page, half page, and business card ads. You can learn more on the sizes and benefits of the ads here. If you are interested in reserving a spot, please let us know at phwinc.org@gmail.com or by calling 540-667-3577 before October 31.

We also took a few moments this week to update our GuideStar profile and reach their Silver rating. This has also opened up a new donation option for us on the GuideStar webpage. You may use the donation link under our logo as an alternate way to make online donations to PHW. Thank you in advance!

Clowser House Walk and Learn Tour This Saturday!

Please join us tomorrow, Saturday, September 30 at the Clowser House, 152 Tomahawk Trail in Shawneeland at 1 PM. This free event will help introduce you to the Clowser Foundation and their efforts to save the ancestral home of one of Winchester’s pioneer families. Be sure to dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. We expect the event will last about an hour.

Directions to the Clowser House from Winchester: Head west on Rt. 50 (Northwestern Turnpike) and turn left onto Back Mountain Road (State Route 614). Proceed until you see Tom’s Market on your right. Turn right at Tom’s Market onto Rosenberger Lane (State Route 753). Take a left at the intersection entering Shawneeland onto Tomahawk Trail. The Clowser House is the brick house on the right side of the road. There is a small gravel parking lot for visitors. We hope to see you there!