Author: PHW

We Need Your Feedback: PHW Products

PHW would like to launch a line of products to raise awareness of Winchester, Virginia’s rich architectural heritage. Please take a few moments to complete this survey and help PHW determine whether this idea has popular demand and, if so, give a direction for the most desired items and subjects. The survey is seven questions in length and should only take a few moments of your time.

Click here to start the survey.

A printed version of this survey will also be included with the mailed PHW Annual Meeting invitations. Please feel free to share this survey with your friends who may be interested in PHW products, too.

Thank you for your help!

The Barber Houses of Winchester, Virginia

The Gables

Following the presentation on Saturday, May 16, Sandra Bosley received a question about the exuberant Queen Anne style house on the corner of Washington and Boscawen Streets. It, along with the other late Victorian homes on that block, was owned by the Baker family, of Baker & Co. wholesale grocery fame. The so-called “palatial” residence was built by William H. Baker, the chocolate magnate of the family.

The house on the corner, known as The Gables, is not only one of Winchester’s most visibly ostentatious dwellings, but one of the designs produced by Knoxville, Tennessee-based architect George F. Barber.

Chimney Detail Barber was a self-taught architect, learning from books like George Palliser’s American Cottage Homes and technical books published by A.J. Bicknell and Company. Barber published his first catalog consisting of fourteen designs in 1887 or 1888. The second edition featuring 59 designs was published in 1890, and his mail order architecture business boomed. Most of his plans were late Victorian confections with distinctive tower, porch, and chimney flourishes, but toward the end of his career, he produced a handful of Colonial Revival and transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style designs as well.(1)

Although Barber phased out his catalog business in 1908, his work had become so widespread as to have representative buildings in all 50 states. Winchester can boast of at least five extant Barber designed houses and two known demolished designs. The Gables is the most famous example, but the known Winchester Barber designed houses are:

As noted by Michael Alcorn during his research trip to Winchester in 1998, it seems likely one person would order a George F. Barber catalog and then pass it on to a friend, so that multiple Barber houses appear in a “cluster.” As Queen Anne houses are not typically thought of when considering potential mail order houses, Barber designs are easily overlooked by enthusiasts of other mail order homes, like Sears, Aladdin, Montgomery Ward, and many more. Peruse more Barber designs at the Knox County Public Library. You just might recognize the design of another local Barber house!

An Architectural Treasure Hunt at Handley Library

How sharp is your eye for architectural detail? You can test yourself with three architectural treasure hunts produced in celebration of National Preservation Month 2015. The three treasure hunts feature architectural details from the Handley Library at 100 West Piccadilly Street in Winchester, Virginia. The details can be found on its three street-side faces (Piccadilly, Braddock, and Fairfax). Look up, down, and all around to spot the details!

Unlike past architectural treasure hunts, there are often multiple places where the same details can be found. This treasure hunt is just for fun – no prizes involved – but it may inspire you to examine details you’ve never seen before.

Can You Find It at Handley Library? (3 sheets, PDF, 3.5 MB)

Coming This Saturday: See! Save! Celebrate! and Other Downtown Events

The big day, May 16, is almost here! Start your day off with a trip to Fort Loudoun at 419 N. Loudoun St. for Fort Loudoun Day (10 a.m. – 1 p.m.). Tours of the grounds, led by historian Norman Baker, begin in half hour intervals. At 11:30 a.m. Mr. Raleigh Boaze will speak on General Braddock’s Failed Attempt to Capture Fort Duquesne, to be followed at noon by the flag raising. Stop by to see members of The Department of Geographers, Washington’s Rev. War army’s staff surveyors, and Larry Johnston “Liberty Man.” Learn more about the French and Indian War Foundation and Fort Loudoun at www.fiwf.org .

Kidzfest returns for the second year on the Winchester Old Town Mall with activities all day long. The family-focused event features musical performances along with interactive activities for children of all ages. Free activities and engaging exhibits will line the walking mall. Learn more about Kidzfest and see a schedule of events at oldtownwinchesterva.com.

Last but not least is PHW and Friends of the Handley Regional Library’s joint See! Save! Celebrate! National Preservation Month event. Two concurrent programs, one for children and one for adults, will begin at 2:00 p.m. Sandra Bosley, Executive Assistant for Preservation of Historic Winchester, will give an illustrated talk for adults on the businesses and buildings associated with the city’s railroad history. Also at 2:00 p.m., there will be a separate program for children in grades two through five led by Youth Services librarian Jennifer Sutter. The program will feature train stories, train songs, a model train, and a chance for youngsters to learn about Winchester’s railroad history and about railroad crossing safety.

It will be a full day, rain or shine, so bring the family and head downtown. We’ll see you there!

Coming Tonight: “Slow Train to Yesterday” Documentary Showing

The first of the two joint programs put together by PHW and the Friends of Handley Library in celebration of National Preservation Month is almost here. Tonight, May 13, we invite you to come to the auditorium at Handley Library, 100 West Piccadilly Street, for a screening of the award-winning WVPT documentary “Slow Train to Yesterday: Memories of the Railroad in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

The documentary includes residents and railroad employees who describe the important role the railroad had in their lives as it connected mountain communities to the Shenandoah Valley. The film will be preceded by an introduction by Mason Cooper, a Stephens City resident and member of the Winchester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.

The event begins at 6:30 PM and is free and open to the public. The documentary running time is just under one hour.

Read more online at the Winchester Star in the article by Stephen Nielsen (login required).

Friday Photos Look at Newspaper Ads

Excursions to the Shenandoah Valley

Take a trip back in time with this sampling of advertising from the 1870s to the early 1900s to whet your appetite for PHW and Handley Regional Library’s National Preservation Month activities next week.

PHW uncovered a selection of interesting vintage Winchester advertisements during the research and preparation for the Saturday, May 16 program. Some are amusing, some are informational. Some businesses are still remembered today, but perhaps many more have been forgotten. Even the goods sold run the gamut from the expected homemade whiskey to the surprising imported Italian marble.

See what some of Winchester’s industries were making and selling over one hundred years ago. View the album on Flicker!

Upcoming Events in May

CSX Train

The Friends of Handley Regional Library and Preservation of Historic Winchester are co-sponsoring a two-part program in honor of National Preservation Month 2015. National Preservation Month, established as May by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, encourages localities to see, save, and celebrate their important places with diverse activities. This year marks the second time the Friends and PHW have collaborated on a program for National Preservation Month, this year expanding the program to two days and including a kid-friendly component. Because of PHW’s involvement in the ongoing restoration of the Winchester Little Theatre’s freight station, these two free programs will celebrate the important railroad transportation in Winchester with stories and images evocative of this bygone era.

The two halves of the program are as follows:

Wednesday, May 13
Start time 6:30 P.M.
“Slow Train to Yesterday: Memories of the Railroad in the Blue Ridge Mountains” documentary showing with introduction by Mason Cooper, Winchester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. The documentary running time is just under one hour.

Saturday, May 16
Start time 2:00 P.M.
“See! Save! Celebrate! Winchester’s Railroad History” lectures and slideshows by author and railroad historian Bob Cohen and Executive Assistant for Preservation of Historic Winchester Sandra Bosley.
The Saturday event includes a separate, concurrent children’s program suitable for grades 2-5 with hands-on activities, a model train, and “then and now” themed photographs of Winchester.

Both events will be held at the Auditorium of the Handley Library, 100 West Piccadilly Street, Winchester, Virginia. For more information or questions, please contact Barbara Dickinson, Executive Director of the Friends of Handley Regional Library, at (540) 662-9041 ext. 31 or friends@handleyregional.org.

If you would like additional printed postcards for this event for handouts, please stop by the PHW office and pick some up from the back door of the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street. They’re free!

May 16 is a busy day elsewhere around downtown, with Fort Loudoun Day at 419 North Loudoun Street from 10 A.M.-1 P.M. and Kidzfest all day on the Old Town Mall. We hope to see you at one (or more!) of these activities in May!

While you are having fun with all the warm weather activities, PHW is also soliciting preservation award nominations for local projects, people, and publications that have enhanced our community. While nominations are always open, to be considered for a 2015 award, please make sure you make your nominations no later than 5 P.M. on Monday, June 8 – the last time the PHW board will meet before the Annual Meeting on June 28th.