Author: PHW

512 Courtfield Avenue

Holiday House Tour tickets for Sunday, December 8 are on sale now at the following Winchester locations: The Final Yard, Kimberly’s, Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, and the Hexagon House. Sunday tickets are available for order online through EventBrite. Tickets are $25/adult, $6/child 6-12, and free for children under 6.

Pat and Ellen Mason’s 20th-century home features materials and styles from earlier eras, befitting this period of reinterpretation of historic American construction. In 1938, Raymond Saxe, a local antique dealer, took his builders to Williamsburg to learn about Colonial craftsmanship. They constructed this Georgian-style home with old bricks, using a Flemish bond pattern.

The interior features mantels, woodwork and hardware salvaged from local buildings which were being demolished. Rich dark pine doors and woodworking create a warm and receptive atmosphere. Stairs rise from a center hallway, flanked by pine-trimmed front rooms used now as the dining room and study. Distinctive chair-rail molding lines the walls. Of the six fireplaces, three are in corners, and all feature salvaged woodwork.

The Masons purchased the house from the Saxe estate in 1979. The rear of the home opens into a bright and sunny upper-story addition designed by local architects Reader & Swartz in 2005. The family tradition is to have a  Christmas tree in the corner of the sun room. Other Mason family holiday traditions include a large collection of nutcrackers, Moravian Star ornaments, and decorations of silver and of needlepoint. Visitors will enjoy seeing abundant greens and floral arrangements by friends from the Hawthorne Garden Club. 

Thanks to our sponsor in 2019 Dominion Real Estate Associates. Look for their ad in the Holiday House Tour booklets and be sure to check out their services!

421 West Clifford Street

Holiday House Tour tickets for Sunday, December 8 are on sale now at the following Winchester locations: The Final Yard, Kimberly’s, Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, and the Hexagon House. Sunday tickets are available for order online through EventBrite. Tickets are $25/adult, $6/child 6-12, and free for children under 6.

Textbook-style Victorian dwellings were late arriving in Winchester, but when constructed rank among the best in style and execution of those found anywhere in America. This home, built at the end of the 19th century, follows the traditional pattern of a Folk Victorian. Based on the richly ornate and polychromatic houses of the elites of society, the Folk Victorian was simplified and designed for the everyday family.

Colloquially known as “painted ladies,” these homes often sport color schemes ranging from bold and bright to whimsical pastels. The colors draw the eye to  the interplay of decorative materials and key architectural features common in Victorian construction. The exterior of this home retains its deeply shaded porch with delicate spindles, a pseudo-tower feature, and complex intersecting gable and hip rooflines of the Folk Victorian style. The Craftsman-inspired bay window and otherwise restrained exterior decorative elements hint at the return of architectural simplicity in the early 20th century.

Over the years this home was used as a boarding house and a private nursing home, hosting people known and forgotten in Winchester’s history. It was returned to a single-family dwelling in the 1970s. Current owners Scott and Margie Cullers are in the never-ending process of updating and maintaining while taking great care to preserve the original architectural features of their home. 

Thanks to our sponsor in 2019 Hunt Country Wealth Management. Look for their ad in the Holiday House Tour booklets and be sure to check out their services!

The Daniel Morgan House, 226 Amherst Street

Holiday House Tour tickets for Sunday, December 8 are on sale now at the following Winchester locations: The Final Yard, Kimberly’s, Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, and the Hexagon House. Sunday tickets are available for order online through EventBrite. Tickets are $25/adult, $6/child 6-12, and free for children under 6.

The Daniel Morgan House, home of the Revolutionary War General, was built in 1786 by London merchant George Flowerdew Norton on a slight knoll of Amherst Street known as Ambler Hill. It is one of the few surviving homes of the period to be built of timber frame construction and is among the dozen oldest non-log buildings in Winchester’s Historic District. With nearly 7,500 square feet of living space, it also ranks among the Historic District’s most spacious historic homes, including an unusually large lot for a city property.

General Morgan, famed rifleman, moved here as his retirement home in 1800 and reputedly built the western portion of the house in brick. He died in the upstairs master bedroom on July 6, 1802. Found throughout the home are the original Dutch elbow locks, doors, and red pine flooring. Most of the eight mantels date to the 1830s when the house was upgraded by Alexander Tidball. Other major architectural features, including the staircase, room layout, paneling and wainscoting, would have been familiar to Morgan himself. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Mr. and Mrs. Schember’s eclectic collections of artwork, furnishings, and Christmas tree decorations were acquired during their extensive foreign and domestic travels.

Bough and Dough Shop artist Linda Haile will have notecards and the original painting of the Daniel Morgan House for sale this year. Look for the display in the parlor of the Hexagon House!

Thanks to our major sponsor in 2019 Colony Realty. Look for their ad in the Holiday House Tour booklets and be sure to check out their services!

The Bough and Dough Shop opens November 22. Several of our artists were able to set up early this year, and we are pleased to offer you a sneak peek at some of the wares that will soon be for sale!

Sky Blue Pink by Phyllis is one of our new artists this year. She creates original watercolor cards on high quality paper stock. Each piece is one of a kind. They can be used as a greeting card and are then suitable for framing by the recipient. Look for flowers, butterflies, trees, and winter scenery among her offerings.

Best in Glass returns this year with an expanded collection of stained and fused glass items. Coasters plates, and ornaments return along with bottle stoppers, votives, spoon rests and decorative trees. There is even one small decorative vase and some mousepads and notebooks in the mix. Each piece of glass is one of a kind and truly stunning!

George S. Davis is another of our new artisans for 2019. He crafts unique tables from reclaimed wood. His offerings this year are primarily walnut side tables. The smaller tables will be on display in the foyer, and a larger walnut table suitable for a dining room will be on hand as well.

Rosemary Tarrant is back with her popular quilted microwave bowls, coasters, trees, and ornaments. She has added small fabric baskets, dishcloths, and tissue holders to the mix this year. Rosemary will not be able to replenish her stock in 2019, so if you see something you want, be here early to claim your goodies!

New in our food selection this year is locally produced wildflower honey from Buzzword Honey in Berryville. Look for the jars immediately to your right as you enter the back door of the Hexagon House.

David Sipp of the Alley Gallery in downtown Winchester is back this year with art card prints featuring Christmas scenes as well as Winchester images. Cards are priced individually or in sets of four. David will also have work available in Deck the Walls upstairs if you don’t see anything you fancy at the Bough and Dough Shop.

Very Merry Mittens joins us as a new fiber artist in 2019. Her work takes unwanted sweaters and recycles them into stylish mittens, brooches, ornaments, and pillows. Her pieces are always unique due to the nature of her materials.

Thank you to our artists, and thank you as well to our major sponsor in 2019 the Shenandoah Group of Wells Fargo Advisors. Look for their ad in the Holiday House Tour booklets and be sure to check our their services!

Happy Friday! As you know, we are closing in on our increased updates for the Holiday House Tour and Bough & Dough Shop. We are also prepping for the Shop opening at the Hexagon House on Friday, November 22.

From now until November 22, please be patient if you stop by the Hexagon House to purchase tickets. We are able to process orders but might need to take a few extra moments. Sunday tickets are also available now at The Final Yard, Kimberly’s, Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, or online.

Booklets are in production and not expected to arrive before November 15, but you can get a sneak peek of the booklet and the house descriptions in our online PDF. Be sure to patronize and thank the advertising sponsors, especially our major sponsor Bank of Clarke County, for once again helping us produce a lovely booklet.

Although we ended up being behind schedule and could not get the mailed invitations to members out this week as planned, Preview Party tickets for the Holiday House Tour on December 7 are on sale now at the Hexagon House. Preview Party tickets are limited to 100 and are a special perk for current PHW members this year. If you know a member who does not get emails from PHW, be sure to inform them the next time you see them!

Please call ahead at 540-667-3577 or email phwinc.org@gmail.com to make sure someone is in the office at the Hexagon House prior to the Bough and Dough Shop opening (November 22).

Tickets are $50 for PHW members; nonmembers will be charged for an individual ($30) or family ($55) membership if you are interested in attending the Preview Party. ALL Party ticket sales are going through the PHW office this year to record memberships and party RSVPs. A mail order RSVP form will be mailed to current members as of October’s membership list.

Thank you for your interest, and we hope to have more to share about the tour and party houses next week.