Author: PHW

Friday Roundup: Historical Articles, Applications, and Archived Video

We enjoyed the article “Thanks to the Internet Archive, the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever” from Nieman Journalism Lab. While we don’t quite have anything of such importance or national relevancy in the PHW archives, we do enjoy searching the newspapers that are becoming more available for researchers. Two articles that stood out this week are a description of building a house that rotates to catch sunlight all day long, as well as a small slice of life on Christmas dinners on Braddock Street long ago. We have also had fire stations on the mind this week, so to nod to the ongoing adaptive reuse taking place at the Sarah Zane Fire Company building, here is a short note on the old engine donated to the fire company by the aforementioned Sarah Zane.

The National Fund for Sacred Places provides training, planning grants, technical assistance, capacity-building support, and capital grants up to $250,000 to congregations of all faiths for rehabilitation work on their historic facilities. Submit your letter of intent by March 15 to keep these places as an important part of our national cultural heritage. You can also register for an introductory webinar for the 2021 grant cycle on February 10th at 2 pm ET.

Applications are due February 23 for the Spring 2021 Fellowship ARCUS Leadership Program. This leadership development program is for anyone who identifies as an emerging leader in the cultural heritage, public history, and historic preservation movement. The Spring 2021 Fellowship workshops will focus on Developing an Inclusive and Antiracist Approach to Cultural Heritage Leadership. Learn more and apply at ARCUS Leadership Program: Fellowship Spring 2021 Application. Not interested in a fellowship? Individual courses are also available at arcusleaders.com.

Last, from the PHW archives, check out our Lunch and Learn lecture with Chuck Swartz on How to Green Your Historic Preservation Project.

Friday Roundup: Nominations, Grants, and More

Nominations are now open for the 2021 Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places list. The list features buildings, cultural landscapes, cemeteries and archaeological sites that face imminent or sustained threats to their integrity or survival. Nominations are due by February 26th and can be submitted online at preservationvirginia.org. The announcement of the 2021 Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places list will take place May 11, 2021.

The National Park Service’s Underrepresented Community Grant Program (URC) works towards diversifying the nominations submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. URC grants are funded by the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), and are administered by the NPS. Projects include surveys and inventories of historic properties associated with communities underrepresented in the National Register, as well as the development of nominations to the National Register for specific sites. Applications are due March 31, 2021. Apply via Grants.gov.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the Bough and Dough Shop survey for planning our 2021 event so far. The feedback survey will be used to adjust the event for the next year in regards to timing, location, and the types of artisan vendors you would most like to see. There is still time to voice your opinion before February 8. Find the survey online at SurveyMonkey.

PHW has been following the discussion on the Conditional Use Permit for the conversion of the Selma property to a bed and breakfast with an event center. As many others have noted, the bed and breakfast aspect raises no concerns for PHW and is to be lauded for finding a new use for the property without damaging its historic character. As a neighboring business, we are in favor of a review period and slightly restricted event capacity to see what noise and congestion may arise from the proposed outdoor events. If you have not, you may also want to review the agenda material for the request at the City of Winchester site.

We often find interesting tidbits while we are correcting text in the Virginia Chronicle. A short article on Fine Woodwork stood out for the mention of fine artistry, as well as the use of sycamore wood, in the RMS Queen Elizabeth. The ship itself has been lost, but happily, a promotional photograph of the “Canterbury Pilgrims” does exist. You can see what this panel looks like at Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.

Friday Roundup: Preservation Deadlines and Events

Via the National Trust and Preservation Virginia, there are a number of dates to remember coming up:

Preservation Virginia’s 2021 Legislative Reception event is going virtual and features several guest speakers discussing the positive impacts of programs like historic tax credits and upcoming legislation in the Virginia General Assembly. Tune in Thursday, January 28th, at 7 p.m. via Zoom.  The event is free but registration is required. 

Do you know of an endangered historic property? America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places raises awareness about the threats facing some of our nation’s greatest treasures. The list, which has identified more than 300 sites to date, has been so successful in galvanizing preservation efforts that less than five percent of these sites have been lost. You are strongly encouraged to contact National Trust staff via email to discuss your site prior to applying. ​Submissions for the 2021 list are due by Monday, February 1.

Putting Together the Pieces: How Small Ceramic Fragments Reveal Much about the Life of the Enslaved at Belle Grove  will be held on Zoom Tuesday, Feb. 9 at noon. Join Matthew Greer, the archaeologist who has been investigating the Belle Grove enslaved quarter site since 2015, to learn what he has uncovered. This free program will be conducted by Zoom, click here to register. If you wish to donate to help support similar programs at Belle Grove, please click here.

Rosenwald Schools in Virginia: Updates and Preservation Tools will be held on February 18 at 10 AM. In 2019, with the help of alumni, local historians, the Department of Historic Resources and the National Park Service, Preservation Virginia completed a comprehensive survey of nearly 400 sites related to Rosenwald Schools in Virginia. Join Preservation Virginia for updates on activities, initiatives and threats related to historic African American schools, as well as information on grants and other funding sources. This event is free but registration is required. 

Feedback Wanted!

Behind the scenes at PHW, we are considering some tweaks to the Bough and Dough Shop for 2021. While we can’t peer into the crystal ball and see what our day to day life will be like by November, our highest priority with holding a gathering of any sort is safety for artists, visitors, and volunteer workers. If you enjoy shopping at the Hexagon House in the holiday season, we’d like your thoughts on how we should proceed this year. Please follow the link or answer the survey below to help us plan for the dates, format, artist/product selection, and shop layout for the 2021 Bough and Dough Shop. Make sure you give your answers to us by noon on February 8 so we can share the information at our next board meeting.

Create your own user feedback survey

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.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you all for following and supporting PHW this year. If you were not able to visit the Bough and Dough Shop in person, a few photos of the artist setups are available on our Flickr page. The office will reopen January 4 by appointment as we get back to our regularly scheduled activities of promoting and preserving the architecture of Winchester and Frederick County. We wish you a healthy and happy holiday season. See you in 2021!

Bough and Dough Shop Procedure Updates

Effectively immediately, the Bough and Dough Shop will be implementing the following procedures to comply with the updated restrictions for limiting the spread of COVID-19:

Shopping is now appointment only. Please make your appointment in advance (no walk ins) on Facebook, or by leaving a message at phwinc.org@gmail.com or 540-667-3577.

Guest size is now limited to 6 per appointment slot (down from 10).

Shopping time remains a half hour for an appointment.

Masks are required for all shoppers at all times. There are no public restrooms or free samples.

If you have special requests for loose greenery, you may continue to use the preorder form available on our website.

If you know what items you are looking for, we will put items directly online for you to purchase from our online store so you can buy and use curbside pickup to reduce contact. We may be able to do limited phone or email ordering the same way. We ask no credit card orders over the phone or email, thank you!

Please continue to follow our social media for further updates and item showcases as we finish our 2020 Bough and Dough Shop. Thank you for your patience and helping us keep the Hexagon House a safe place to shop this holiday season!

The Bough and Dough Shop Updates

Thank you to everyone who has come out to visit the Shop so far this year. There is still plenty of time left to visit before December 23, but after our opening weekend we have a better understanding of how operations are flowing. Here are a few more points to keep in mind:

We will be staggering larger groups of four or more into two people at a time. This will help with the congestion inside of the house to help everyone maintain social distance.

We are extremely pleased with the appointment system. If you have limited time to shop, please visit our Facebook page or leave a message by phone or email at least half a day in advance so we can confirm your time slot.

Walk ins are still accepted, but visitors with a reservation will be given priority for their half hour time slot.

While we know it is difficult to resist, please try to handle items as little as possible. If you would like to touch items, hand sanitizer is located in the kitchen at the entrance, in the dining room near the wood, and in the living room by the pottery.

Loose greenery has not been stocked and several of our suppliers are not able to provide items this year. When loose greens arrive, we will post on our social media accounts. If you have a known item of greenery you are looking for, you may send a request and we will try to fulfill it.

As a reminder, the Shop will be closed every day between 2:00 and 2:30 PM for cleaning and a small lunch break for our workers and volunteers. We are letting the last group of shoppers in at 1:45 PM so you can finish your walk through the shop. Likewise, we are closing the door at 4:45 PM each day to help us finish up by 5 PM.

In the event of inclement weather, please watch our social media for delays or closing information.

Thank you for your understanding of these procedures so we can keep the shop open and safe for you and us!

Countdown to the Shop

It is one week until the Bough and Dough Shop opens at the Hexagon House! If you’ve been following our Instagram, you might have gotten glimpses of the fun goodies as the artists have been setting up over the past few weeks. If you don’t have an Instagram, here’s a video preview just for you!

As a reminder to help keep everyone safe, we are limited to ten shoppers inside the building at a time, and hard limited to 25 people on the grounds. We strongly recommend setting up an appointment for a shopping block on Facebook if you have limited availability. We also encourage you to order online through our store and preorder perishable goods whenever possible to reduce congestion. Remember to enter promo code “Curbside” during checkout from our online store for free pickup at the Hexagon House during normal shop hours!

The Shop will be a little different this year, but we want everyone to be safe while you enjoy this holiday tradition. Please remember to be courteous and patient with our volunteers and staff as we find our new rhythm and adapt to any upcoming changes.