Author: PHW

Coming Soon: International Preservation Trades Workshop September 9-11 at Clermont Farm

The International Preservation Trades Workshop (IPTW) is the only annual gathering of its kind in North America. Since 1997, carpenters, masons, metal workers, painters, plasterers, timber framers, roofers and practitioners of other traditional trades from more than a dozen countries have come together to share their knowledge and demonstrate their skills. Every IPTW draws a diverse audience of tradespeople, architects, preservationists, students and home owners, and offers unique learning opportunities for people of all ages and skills levels.

This year, the IPTW will be held at Clermont Farm in Berryville. Demonstrations and events will be held in the main barn, tents located throughout the property, and the springhouse. A pre-conference workshop will focus on repair of the springhouse located on the farm. On Saturday night the yearly dinner and auction will be held to benefit the Preservation Trades Network Misia Leonard Scholarship Fund.

To learn more, see the schedule, and register for the conference, visit Preservation Trades Network at ptn.org.

Friday Photos: Celebrating the Blues in 1999

Blues House Showcase Happy Friday! It is good to be back and connected to the internet again. It was a quiet and lonely weekend at the PHW office as we completed the transition. To celebrate our new and improved internet and phone service, this week we bring you 77 more images from the Blues House Showcase in 1999. For those of you new to the PHW mailing list, you can catch up on a brief history of the event and PHW’s involvement with it in a previous blog post.

From the flyer for Blues House Showcase ’99, featured performers included Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter, Bob “Catfish” Hodge, Phil Zuckerman, Mary Ann Redmond, Bud Armel, Danny Beirne, Blues Fuze Band, Perry Glass Quartet, Ricky “J” and Blue Rhythm, along with special guest performers Paul H. Thomson, Gary Reynolds, Don Worthington, John Friant, Chip Schutte, Tom Flegal, Spiritual Guardians, Golder O’Neil and the Shenandoah University Jazz ensemble, Debbie Grim, Pam Buckland, Danny McFarland, Jim Burdock, Dave Ellinger, George Banks, Robert Glasker and Phil Swaby.

Catch the new additions and see if you recognize some familiar faces at the top of the Flickr photostream.

Friday Photos: North Braddock Street and More

But first, one last reminder the Verizon email is retiring. PHW will now be at phwinc.org@gmail.com. If you received multiple copies of a reminder email from us on Thursday to our past contacts list, please accept our apologies. The email server apparently hiccuped and sent the same email to the same recipients multiple times. It was not intentional and probably just as frustrating to us as it was to you to get the same email over and over and over… On the bright side, we can promise it will never happen again.

On to the fun things! This week, PHW has added the following images to the Flickr account:

East Piccadilly Street

PHW Plastic Bag Drive

Plastic BagAre you swamped with plastic shopping bags? PHW is in need of some “gently used” plastic shopping bags for our Holiday House Tour’s Bough and Dough Shop. Both standard size plastic grocery bags as well as the oversize plastic bags are needed. By reusing shopping bags, we help keep our House Tour expenses low so more funds can go back into our preservation projects – in addition to getting a little more life out of existing plastic bags before they get sent on the recycling center.

If you can spare some plastic shopping bags between now and December 2, please bring them to the PHW office at 530 Amherst St., Winchester, VA. If you cannot stop by during our office hours, there is enough space between our back door and storm door to drop off some bags safely.

It is a small request, but it will make a huge impact on our Holiday House Tour preparations behind the scenes. Thank you!

Around the Internet: Email, Lunch and Learn Lecture, Never Built Winchester

Around the Internet First, a reminder: The PHW email is changing! If you have not already, be sure to update us in your address books to phwinc.org@gmail.com. We may be able to access the Verizon email for just a week or so longer.

Next, we have a much-delayed Lunch and Learn lecture video to share with you. The timeliness of the presentation may have passed, but we wanted to provide as best a record of the event as we could. The presentation covers Tim Youman’s October 22, 2015 two-part lecture on “Expansion of the Winchester National Register Historic District” and “National Avenue Corridor Enhancement District.” The Historic District expansion portion is at the beginning of the presentation. If you prefer to skip ahead to the National Avenue Corridor Enhancement District portion of the talk, that starts at approximately the 31 minute mark. Listen to the video below or directly on YouTube.

Last for this week, an interesting counterpoint to our Vanished Winchester series – “Never Built Winchester.” Many people are taken with the map hanging above the fireplace in Sandra Bosley’s office at the Hexagon House. The map, donated to us by Lee Taylor, shows planned improvements to Winchester as part of Judge Handley’s efforts to better the town. The developments never materialized, but it is fascinating to see how the town could have grown. If you’ve wanted to look at this map at your own leisure, the Archives at the Library of Virginia featured the map at their blog, Out of the Box.

The Library of Virginia notes only one building from the project was completed – Hotel Winchester as per the map, Winchester Inn as it was more commonly called. As many of you know from our work on Vanished Winchester, the Inn was demolished about 1919 and the spacious property subdivided into a housing development. For a brief history of the Winchester Inn and its relationship to Winchester’s railroads, watch the clip on YouTube from about 3:43 to 6:30 in Sandra Bosley’s presentation “Images and History of Architecture and Industry Along Winchester’s Railroads.”

Winchester Inn 1904

Holiday House Tour Call for Advertisers

HHT Wreath and CandleIt’s that time again! PHW is at work on lining up sponsors for our 2016 Holiday House Tour. For many of us this event officially begins the holiday season with its guided tours of the festively decorated historic properties in Winchester. In addition to being a fun community tradition, the Holiday House Tour generates the monetary foundation that enables us to continue our mission to preserve the best of the area’s past.

House Tour Ad Size SheetAs part of our promotional materials for the event, PHW will be producing a full color program booklet again this year. I invite you to place an ad in the booklet to show your support for PHW and to promote your business to a demographic interested in Old Town Winchester, its history, and its architecture. Ads are available in full page (5″x8″), half page (5″x4″), and business card (2″x3.5″) sizes. Enlarging the image shows the sizes, costs, and benefits of the sponsors’ ads in the program.

Please reserve your spot soon – ads are due by 5 PM on October 28 to ensure inclusion in the program booklet, which will be distributed in mid-November to ticket sale locations and local visitor centers around Winchester. Include your business name, contact information, and ad size in your reservation. Your print-ready digital ad files may be emailed to phwinc.org@gmail.com or submitted on CD or flash drive at the PHW Office, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA 22601. If you have questions, do not hesitate to email us or call us at 540-667-3577.

Thank you for your support, and we hope to see you at our 40th Holiday House Tour this December 3 and 4!

Around the Internet: Kurtz Photos, Ruth’s Tea Room

Friday Photos this week continues to work on the massive amounts of pictures taken of the Kurtz Building before, during, and after rehabilitation. Catch the 57 new additions at the top of the Flickr photostream. This batch may conclude the exterior photos of the building, but no promises!

The Kurtz Building

Coming this Saturday is a special event in honor of Vivienne Jackson’s 90th birthday. The afternoon tea party will be held at the Winchester Centre Friends Meeting House, 203 North Washington Street, between 1-4 PM. Come visit with Vivienne and browse a selection of items from the Tea Room that will be for sale (dishes, table linens, and other artifacts).

Ruth’s Tea Room was once at 128 E. Cecil Street in Winchester. As you may know, the building itself is gone but the memories remain strong. In addition to the celebration on Saturday, a few homages to the eatery may be found online for a nostalgic trip to the past. Check out the Ruth’s Tea Room Tumblr, which aims to recreate the music in the jukebox. If you never got to experience the atmosphere of Ruth’s Tea Room, one person shares her story of how it was a safe place for her, her friends, and her future husband in “Our First Date: An Ode to Ruth’s Tea Room.”

Around the Internet: Braddock Street, Field Trips, and Saving Energy

Friday Photos is back this week with 79 new photos, most on South Braddock Street from the 1976 Architectural Survey. George Washington’s Office (the Adam Kurtz House) is also featured in this batch. See all the new additions at the top of the Flickr photostream.

31 South Braddock Street

Speaking of Braddock, if you were not able to take the Braddock Road bus trip with the French and Indian War Foundation, one of the participants wrote about her experiences and the sights along the way. Read Becca Milfeld’s journey at The Washington Post.

Hoping to get in another road trip or two yourself before summer ends? Check out 16 Amazing Field Trips Every Virginian Took As A Kid. . . And Should Retake Now for some ideas. One you probably didn’t take, but is worth the trip, is the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory. Patricia Keppel of Virginia’s Travel Blog recommends 10 stops between Winchester and Staunton. While you are on the road, keep your eyes peeled for roadside rest stops. The National Trust for Historic Preservation featured these now almost obsolete and forgotten structures in Roadside Rest Shelters: Destinations All Their Own with photographs by Ryann Ford.

While summer is usually a fun and relaxing time, the summer heatwave might be causing your energy bills to spike. This Old House guru Kevin O’Connor walks you through How to Perform Home Energy Audit (also great to keep in mind if heating for the winter is an additional energy concern).

Maybe it’s crossed your mind about using the summer sunshine to keep your bills down with solar panels. CityLab writer Julian Spector brings you 7 Things to Know Before Installing Solar Panels on Your Roof and shares What I Learned Installing Solar Panels in Southeast Washington, D.C. in May of this year. Solar panels won’t work in every situation, especially in our tree-loving city, but in the right situation they may help take the sting out of heating and cooling your home or business.

Friday Photos: Forty Photos

This Friday, PHW has 40 photos to share with you, including:

  • First Presbyterian Church properties during the expansion project circa 2004 (6)
  • Extra views of the 400 and 500 block of North Loudoun Street (5)
  • More interior and exterior views of the Kurtz Building rehabilitation (23)
  • Highland Avenue (6)

As always, the new additions can be found at the end of the albums, but it may be easiest to see the new Kurtz and North Loudoun photos at the top of the photostream. Happy viewing!

501 North Loudoun Street