PHW – Page 74 – Preservation of Historic Winchester

The Winchester Little Theatre Needs Your Help

The Winchester Little Theatre (WLT) has been a good partner with PHW over the years, particularly with the Holiday House Tours. Now it’s our turn to give back. WLT and its patrons need our help to meet their goals in their Restoration Campaign to restore their home and to bring this local landmark back to life.

On October 20, 2014 the PHW Board of Directors voted to pledge a total of $25,000.00 to this project, to be paid over a period 2 years. These funds will come from our Preservation Funds account, which is mostly from profits realized from the sale of the Kurtz Building, and other Revolving Fund Properties. Also, all proceeds from this year’s Bough & Dough Shop will be donated to the WLT Restoration Campaign.

This is a worthy project, one that supports PHW’s goals and mission of preservation. In order to meet our mission “Improving tomorrow by preserving the best of the area’s past” we have also offered to reach out to our membership and friends directly for your help. We kindly request that you make individual pledges and donations using the PHW pledge forms to show your support for both PHW and WLT. WLT is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization just like PHW, so any contributions may be tax deductible to the extent provided by law. Pledge forms will be available at each house during the Holiday House Tour, and through Sandra at the office, as well as available for download at the PHW website: Download a pledge form (PDF).

Thank you for your continued support of local preservation efforts, and best wishes for a very happy holiday season.

Upcoming PHW Office Thanksgiving Schedule

May your Thanksgiving this Year be Full of Good Cheer

Getting ready to purchase Holiday House Tour tickets? This year, we recommend utilizing one of the advance sale locations instead of the PHW Office for your ticket purchases. The anticipated PHW Office hours the week of Thanksgiving and the week before the Holiday House Tour are as follows:

* Opening at noon on Monday, November 24.
* Closing early at 3 PM on Wednesday, November 26 and remaining closed on November 27 and 28th for Thanksgiving. We will open as usual on Monday, December 1.
* Anticipating reduced or no hours on December 3-5 for Holiday House Tour preparation. Please call ahead at the office – 540-667-3577 – before stopping by.

Thank you for your patience with the erratic office schedule this year, and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Holiday House Tour: 219 South Kent Street

219 South Kent Street
The Home of Martha Shickle

This charming log cottage is one of the oldest extant structures on South Kent Street. It was likely built shortly after 1823 when part of Lot 142 was sold for $20 to Elizabeth Conrad. The cozy one and a half story cabin still retains many of its hallmarks as an early vernacular structure, such as a wood shingle roof, a solid vertical batten wood door, and a one story shed wing that formerly served as the milk and wash house. The home also incorporates Victorian-era gingerbread additions with delicate, stylized tulip sawn balusters on the porches.

This cottage, as well as several other nearby homes, was owned by the Hodgson family from 1899 until 1979, when the Hodgson Estate properties were purchased through PHW’s Jennings Revolving Fund and rehabilitated by the new owners.

Holiday House Tour: Bough and Dough Shop

The Bough and Dough Shop
Winchester Little Theatre (Pennsylvania Freight Station)
315 West Boscawen Street

Hours of Operation:
Saturday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 7, noon-5 p.m.

Musicians:
Celtic Heir Duo, Sunday 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Start your Winchester Holiday House Tour weekend with a visit to the Bough and Dough Shop in the Winchester Little Theatre for fresh greenery and unique handmade items from local artisans!

The Winchester Little Theatre occupies a former Pennsylvania Railroad freight station built circa 1890. The hipped roof with large overhanging eaves supported with large brackets tied into the masonry walls provides cover for the freight loading dock. The interior was modified to accommodate live theatre performances by the Winchester Little Theatre. The Theatre moved into its railway home in 1974 and has provided critically acclaimed professional-quality live theatre to the community ever since. Since 2011, the Theatre has also been the home of PHW’s Bough and Dough Shop during the Holiday House Tour weekend.

This year’s proceeds from the Shop will benefit the Winchester Little Theatre Restoration Campaign. The Pennsylvania Freight Station is in need of substantial structural work to the masonry walls and roof, with the final goal being to restore the building’s original appearance with a slate roof. PHW is committed to seeing this local landmark restored and remain a vital arts hub for the Winchester-Frederick County community with a pledge of $25,000 and additional donations based on membership support like the Bough & Dough Shop.

When you purchase artisan goods or greenery from the Shop this year, you will be helping Winchester Little Theatre realize their dream of restoring the Pennsylvania Freight Station to its exterior appearance circa 1890.

2014 Artisans and Gifts at the Shop

Unique Handmade Gifts
EBS notecards & prints, jewelry, pottery, hand-carved woodenware, infinity scarves, herbal soaps, candles, holiday ornaments, greenery arrangements, hand-sewn gifts, and so much more…

Featured Bakery
Naughty Girls Donut Shop — Donuts, cupcakes, pies, assorted sweet breads, pastries, cookies, cheesecakes, brownies, whoopie pies, bars, etc.

Featured Artisans
Eugene B. Smith Gallery, Jackie Tobin, Mary Turner, Lin Hausknecht, Shauna Lupton, Alma Dove, Jose & Mary Montero, Karen Cartlidge, Nina Burke, Ellen Hockensmith, Kim Labash

Greenery for Decorating
Freshly-cut pine, juniper, magnolia, spruce, nandina, holly, boxwood, decorated wreaths, and bows

Tickets
Advance tickets for the Holiday House Tour Preview Party and Daylight Tour, Winchester Little Theatre tickets by play or season

Potato Hill Promenade: Introduction and Map

Welcome to Potato Hill, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Old Town Winchester. The area encompasses the gentle hill on South Loudoun and South Cameron Streets and the adjoining side streets.

The origin of the name Potato Hill is lost in the mists of time and subject to fanciful speculation. Theories range from the area being particularly well-suited to growing potatoes, the site of a farmer’s market at the top of the hill where potatoes would roll off the back of wagons to be snatched by the residents, or perhaps most likely, an area with a high number of Irish immigrants. Whatever sparked the first use of the name Potato Hill was cemented into the history books by the 1850s, when “Potatoe Hill” was a frequent identifier of property transfers on South Loudoun Street.

Many of the buildings in this area are log, in whole or in part, and many of those likely contain remnants of Fort Loudoun. The fort, constructed by George Washington during the French and Indian War, never saw combat and was abandoned in the 1760s. Since the fort’s wood was in good repair, local builders repurposed it for their new construction on Potato Hill.

Potato Hill had fallen on hard times 200 years later. Several homes were saved by Preservation of Historic Winchester’s Jennings Revolving Fund. Others were “spin off” restorations enabled by PHW’s neighborhood stabilization efforts. All of these buildings remain because of owners who were willing to peel back the layers of inappropriate changes and reveal the early American history waiting beneath.

There is no better time to see these success stories than during PHW’s 50th anniversary year. Join us for the Potato Hill Promenade!

Map of the 2014 Holiday House Tour

1. 219 South Kent Street—Martha Shickle
2. 221 South Cameron Street—Eugene and Sarah Smith
3. 510-512 South Loudoun Street—Joseph and Sharon Collette — Preview Party House
4. 602 South Loudoun Street—David and Margery Wingenbach
5. 610 & 612 South Loudoun Street—Dr. John Chesson
6. 17 East Monmouth Street—Tommy and Sarah Beavers
B: Bough & Dough Shop, 315 West Boscawen Street — Saturday, Dec. 6 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 7 noon–5p.m.

Free parking is available the weekend of the House Tour at the Bough & Dough Shop lot, City-operated surface lots, and on-street along the tour. City Autoparks are $0.50 per hour. Please be mindful of residents when utilizing on-street parking. On-street parking is extremely limited in the Potato Hill neighborhood. Carpooling and utilizing City lots is recommended.

Holiday House Tour: Potato Hill Promenade

Thank you for your patience while PHW went into radio silence for a few weeks. We are well on our way toward the 38th annual Holiday House Tour festivities, which will be held this December 6 & 7. Starting on Monday, November 17, we will post a new Holiday House Tour themed post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday up to December 5. (We will continue the history of PHW’s past fifty years in January.)

One very important item to note is that this year’s proceeds from the Bough & Dough Shop artisans and the greenery will be donated by PHW to the Winchester Little Theatre Restoration Campaign. The Pennsylvania Freight Station is in need of substantial structural work to the masonry walls and roof, with the final goal being to restore the building’s original appearance with a slate roof. When you purchase artisan goods or greenery from the Shop this year, you will be helping Winchester Little Theatre realize their dream of restoring the Pennsylvania Freight Station to its exterior appearance circa 1890.

Buy Tickets Now
Online via PayPal at phwi.org or at the following advance ticket sale locations:
The Final Yard, 33 East Gerrard Street
Kimberly’s, 135 North Braddock Street
OakCrest Companies, 126 North Kent Street
Wilkins’ Shoe Center, 7 South Loudoun Street
Winchester Book Gallery, 185 North Loudoun Street
Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, 1400 South Pleasant Valley Road

PHW Leases the Kurtz

The Chamber of Commerce moved into their new office space in the Hollingsworth Mill in the summer of 1987, leaving the Kurtz vacant and in immanent danger of demolition for a plaza around the Joint Judicial Center. (1) The first foray was a petition to City Council to incorporate the Kurtz into the plaza designs.(2) The petition did not seem to gain much traction with the Municipal Buildings Committee, so PHW shifted focus to coming up with a new and relevant use for the building.

As part of PHW’s strategy to save the Kurtz, the organization leased the space and did some minor cleanup and partition wall removal to help people better visualize the interior space. Countless hours of meetings with many other nonprofits and community organizations went into planning for the April 1988 deadline to present a restoration plan to City Council. The idea to save the Kurtz seemed to split the town’s sentiment’s almost evenly, as this building did not have the grandeur of the lost Conrad House or the emotional connection of Old John Kerr. Selling the preservation plan of a warehouse did not lend itself as easily to a sense of urgency and need. Even the building’s intriguing Victorian era additions, its status as the last trace of the commercial center that used to be focused on the land around Rouss City Hall, and its potential to serve as a downtown arts hub was not a draw. (3)

Knowing that a strong understanding of the facts was vital to make the case for the building’s retention, PHW partnered with Warren Hofstra to produce oral histories focusing on the Kurtz Building.(4) (5) At the same time, PHW in turn leased the space to other organizations to show the building still had more potential years of service left in it. Perhaps the best remembered of those was the Shawnee Kennel Club, which used the space for winter training and socialization space.(6)

Even as public opinions started to change on the Kurtz, the deadline to present to City Council drew ever nearer. We will continue this tale next week.

The History of the Kurtz Building

As we return to the history of PHW this week, we turn to PHW’s largest preservation activity of the late 1980s into the early 2000s – the Kurtz Building at the corner of Cameron and Boscawen Streets. The Kurtz Building was built by a group of businessmen from Harper’s Ferry to house grain before shipping it by railroad to the mills circa 1836.(1) The lot, advantageously situated at the heart of Winchester’s commercial downtown, was purchased from the Conrad family, who owned the adjoining (and now razed) Conrad House. By 1846, Robert Conrad repurchased the property and leased the building to various commercial enterprises for the next thirty years. In 1877, Captain George Washington Kurtz(2) purchased the building and it became the seat of his furniture, undertaking, and embalming business.

The Kurtz Building, as 2 N. Cameron has come to be known, was expanded several times. The most visible expansion is the circa 1880 Second Empire style tower addition to the north, said to be used for the funerary functions. Several additions were made to the rear in the 1920s and 1940s. Lucy Kurtz, the daughter of George Kurtz, assumed the family business in 1926. The furniture business was gradually phased out at this point, leaving only the funerary services until the business was finally closed in 1968, after 100 years of operation by the Kurtz family.(3) In 1968, she sold the Kurtz Building to the City of Winchester. Afterward, the space was used by physicians and the Chamber of Commerce, and briefly the county judges occupied the space during the construction of the Joint Judicial Center behind the Kurtz Building.

The fear had always been in the back of people’s minds since the demolition of the Conrad House in 1970 that the Kurtz Building would likely suffer the same fate once there was no other use for the space. After the completion of the Joint Judicial Center, Winchester City and Frederick County had tentatively agreed to install a plaza in the space between Rouss City Hall and the Joint Judicial Center. Designs for this plaza were drawn up in 1984. One of those plans called for the demolition of the Kurtz Building.

Although the city was ready to proceed with the plaza construction, the matter was complicated by the county’s unwillingness to provide a commitment. The building was also still the home of the Chamber of Commerce, at least until the renovation of the Hollingsworth Mill was complete. The breathing space allowed PHW the time to perform a study on the Kurtz Building, which determined there was still life left in the building. The findings were presented to Winchester’s Finance and Municipal Buildings committee representatives in 1985. The presentation garnered a cool reception, as the committee felt they had no need for the space at the Kurtz, and if it could not be used for government purposes it should not be leased out to tenants. It was even suggested PHW make an inventory of salvageable items in the structure, as it was very likely to be demolished.(4)

The story could have ended there, but as we will see in the upcoming weeks, there is much more to this tale of an “ugly warehouse.”

Winchester Little Theatre Plaque Splash

The Winchester Little Theatre Board of Directors cordially invites you to join the media, members, volunteers, and distinguished guests to celebrate the installation of the Historic Designation Plaque from the City of Winchester. Come sip champagne, savor sweets and enjoy a fun, dynamic interactive afternoon while we await the arrival of the Restoration Ghost Train.

Date: Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014
Time: 3-5 p.m.
Place: Winchester Little Theatre, 315 W. Boscawen St.
RSVP regrets only to the Winchester Little Theatre 662-3331, ext. 2

Reminder for the Lunch and Learn Lecture on Tuesday

We hope you enjoy your long Columbus Day weekend, but before you forget, if you would like to reserve a lunch for the Tuesday, Oct. 14 lecture on Shenandoah University and PHW: Partners in Preservation, please do so by Monday at 5 PM (the PHW office will be open on Monday).

[Lunch reservations are now closed. Thank you!]

If you plan to attend but do not wish to reserve a lunch, RSVPs are very much appreciated to plan for the room setup. Let us know at phwi@verizon.net or (540) 667-3577.