Category: Holiday House Tour

Friday Roundup: Insight Academy and Shop Sneak Peek II

Have you attended the Insight Academy? The next round of events begins in January. Read more about the purpose and activities of Insight Academy and learn how to register at the city’s website.

The Bough and Dough Shop officially opens in one week! Due to a number of feedback suggestions last year, the Shop will be open until 6 PM on Friday, November 22 and Saturday, November 23. There will also be extended evening hours in December to coincide with the Holiday House Tour. You can find a day by day breakdown of the shop times at the Virginia.org website. If you asked for later hours, we encourage you to utilize them in 2019!

Several more artists dropped off goods for the Shop. Hide your wallets while we whet your appetite for opening day next week!

The Clowser Foundation returns with notecards, calendars, and ornaments this year. As in past years, all proceeds from goods sold through the Bough and Dough Shop go back to the Clowser Foundation to save and restore the Clowser House in Shawneeland.

New in 2019 is Angel’s Roost Quilts. Not only are there quilted ornaments and wall art of flora, historic buildings, and Santas, but artist Carol Spalding also creates outfits for 18″ dolls. The outfits are cute enough you’ll wish they were your size!

TL Cards and Crafts is back this year with her paper crafts and cross stitch. New this year are shadowboxes and small artificial arrangements. Be on the lookout for a large snowman pillow that is just asking to be hugged! Her cross stitch pieces will be displayed around the house as well.

Norma Fredrickson of Fibergig has a selection of one of a kind bags, scarves, hats, and garments for you to see and sample this year. There are also notecards featuring past fabric designs and fabric-covered journals for your special writing.

Libba Pendleton has a delightful assortment of felted critters, food ornaments and snowmen salt and pepper shakers this year. In addition, she has hand knit children’s winter hats, framed art, and “Christmas in a cup” mixed assemblages.

Our favorite Basket Cases Virginia Stultz and Jean Whetzel return this year with their woven ornaments and handmade baskets. Be on the lookout for more antler baskets, a big hit last year, as well as the angels, bells, corn, deer and stars ornaments hanging on their tree.

Making their first appearance at the Shop is Hackwood Farm’s pickles and applesauce. In addition to the aforementioned, there is also a selection of relish, chili, and apple crisp. By the time the Shop opens, we should have recipes to go with all of their delicious canned goods. While they could not make it in 2019, we think the wait will be worth it!

Thanks again to our artists, and thank you as well to our major sponsor in 2019 Lisa T. McCoig, CPA, PC. Look for their ad in the Holiday House Tour booklets and be sure to check our their services!

Shop Sneak Peek: First Artists

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!

Friday Roundup: Holiday House Tour Booklets and Schedule

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.

Preview Party Tickets on Sale Now!

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.

Friday Roundup: The Holiday Season Approaches

We had a great time at Oktoberfest! If you missed the event, PHW volunteers will be back again for Holly Jolly Celebration festivities in December.

Did you miss out on getting a copy of “Why Old Places Matter” at the October 4 book talk with Tom Mayes? Drop us a note at PHW if you are interested in purchasing a copy. We plan to have a number of copies available during the Bough and Dough Shop as a bit of a make-up. (We also hope to have the revised Limestone books in hand by then as well; keep your fingers crossed.)

Although it’s hard to believe, October is halfway over. If you committed to a Holiday House Tour booklet ad, remember to get your ad in to PHW by end of day on October 31. You may email questions or ad files to phwinc.org@gmail.com. As always, we are eternally grateful to our major Holiday House Tour sponsor, Bank of Clarke County, and all our other advertising sponsors for enabling us to produce the full-color tour booklets and postcards we have come to enjoy. (Thanks to our advertising sponsors’ support, we were also able to secure high quality printed tickets again this year!)

As some of you may know, we also had some issues processing online ticket sales last year for the Holiday House Tour via PayPal. In an effort to avoid the issue this year, you may begin ordering Sunday Daylight Tour tickets for December 8 online now through Eventbrite.

No PayPal account? No problem! Look for the guest checkout option, highlighted by the red arrow.

If you do not have a PayPal account, that’s okay! Begin the checkout and when you are redirected to PayPal, scroll down past the log in information to the “Pay with Debit or Credit Card” option (highlighted with a red arrow on this sample image). You will be directed to the guest checkout option on PayPal.

You will be given the option for a printable PDF ticket from Eventbrite; we highly suggest you print them! You should also receive a reminder email from EventBrite prior to the event. The venue address is given for the Hexagon House, so if you have problems or questions during the tour you can visit PHW at the Bough and Dough Shop for a quick and professional resolution, pick up some tour booklets, or get a free hot drink and to do a little shopping.

If you run into other issues with Eventbrite, let us know at phwinc.org@gmail.com, as this is the first time we’ve used their platform for a paid event and we might have missed something.

Friday Roundup: Book Talk, House Tour, and Shop Updates

Our book talk and signing with Tom Mayes on “Why Old Places Matter” is happening today at the Handley Library between 3-5 PM. The event is free and open to the public. We hope to have a full crowd to hear our author and speaker Tom Mayes, who serves as the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The talk should be accessible to anyone interested in how our history and built environment impacts our enjoyment of life. Be sure to stay for wine and cheese and book signings.

If you are thinking of placing an ad in the Holiday House Tour booklet this year, remember to get your ad in by October 31! We have had great response this year and the book should be lovely. To date we are only “sold out” of the back cover; we can work with any other size ad you would like to place. The sponsorship information can be downloaded here.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the call for Bough and Dough Shop artists will be closing early. Like last year, we will be happy to accept applications received after today and keep them on file for contacting you next year or should a spot open up at the last minute this year. If you are an artist who already made contact, your spots are saved and we ask for your patience as we adjust the last few details and get back to you.

Last, many thanks are owed to those who have helped keep PHW functioning over the past two weeks. We will be getting back into a more normal routine slowly but surely. We ask for patience and gentle reminders if you have not had a response to email or phone calls that are business related. We have received all the messages of condolence and are very thankful.

Friday Roundup: Call for Sponsors, FallFest, and Limestone Book Update

Due to some unexpected circumstances, we did not get much time to work on preservation this week. However, we want to remind everyone the call for Holiday House Tour advertising sponsors is now open! While the costs for the main categories (full, half, and business card size ads) are the same, the perks have changed slightly, and we added a new sponsorship level – local logos. Check out the sponsorship form here (PDF). Ads and logos are due by 5 PM on October 31.

As we wind down for the year, you may be thinking about getting your garden ready to hibernate. FallFest at Belle Grove Plantation on Sunday, September 8, noon-4 PM can help. Get your garden ready for winter with this free event sponsored by the Northern Shenandoah Valley Master Gardener Association. The afternoon of fun and learning includes talks from Master Gardeners, as well as demos, crafts, and giveaways–all free to the public and open to all ages. Learn more at bellegrove.org.

As a followup to our recent newsletter, we wanted to let everyone know we should have copies of the revised Limestone book for sale by the time our Bough and Dough Shop opens in November. The expected price is $25. We will let you know once they are officially on sale.

Friday Roundup: End of Summer Events

We had a fantastic time at the open house last Saturday. If you couldn’t make it, you missed a chill afternoon full of art, food, and creativity. Don’t worry, though! You will get to enjoy the fruits of these labors (plus our upstairs neighbors ShenArts) starting in late November at the Bough and Dough Shop. If you haven’t yet, you can pick up an informational packet with an application form here.

Do you enjoy transcription of historic documents? The Library of Virginia has made the records of the Equal Suffrage League available for transcription. As part of the 2020 commemoration of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women’s right to vote, the Library is asking volunteers to help transcribe these records that document women’s campaign for the vote in Virginia. You can learn more at their blog, Out of the Box.

September in Winchester always conjures up Patsy Cline. Get your fix tomorrow with the Patsy Cline Block Party. The annual event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. August 31, 2019 in front of the Patsy Cline Historic House, 608 S. Kent St., Winchester. It is an old-fashioned style block party with live entertainment, food concessions by Shaffer’s BBQ and souvenirs staged on Kent St. between Monmouth and Germain streets. The block party is free to attend with tours of the historic house offered at the reduced price of $5 for the day. Four performances by returning and new entertainers includes tribute singers performing Patsy songs, singer-storyteller, and groups performing songs of her genre.


“From Disaster to Redemption: George Washington and the Making of Winchester” will be held September 15.

“From Disaster to Redemption: George Washington and the Making of Winchester” will be held Sunday, September 15 at the George Washington Hotel, beginning at 1:30 PM. This free presentation will be a lovely celebration in a lovely place, with a dynamic speaker, Dr. Carl Ekberg. Join the French and Indian War foundation and the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society for this 275th anniversary of the founding of Winchester event. Everyone is welcome! More information is available on the French and Indian War Foundation’s website.

Last, PHW will be closed on Monday, September 2 for Labor Day. Enjoy your long weekend as you say goodbye to summer!

Friday Roundup: Open House, Newsletter, and Events

We know: the holidays are pushed earlier and earlier every year. (There is not a month of the year we do not have something “Christmas” in the works at PHW, so we fully sympathize with all the eye-rolling and cries of “Not again!”) But we also know it takes artists time to handcraft their delightful goods for the Bough & Dough Shop. In that spirit, we are once again hosting an informal open house at the Hexagon House on Saturday, August 24, 1-4 PM. The downstairs will be partially laid out for a test run of tables and confirmed artist spots.

While the event is geared mostly to returning and new artists, anyone is welcome to attend. And if you’ve been procrastinating on filling out an application, we strongly urge you to do so—most of our spots are filled, but with some advance planning, we may be able to squeeze in a few more artists or keep you on hand if a last minute cancellation opens a spot. You can find a copy of the info packet for artists at www.phwi.org/events/Shopinfo.pdf. We anticipate this session to be very useful for artists looking to discover what display materials they need to bring or how their items might fit into the eccentric Hexagon House layout.

Our summer newsletter is complete and online. Check out the digital version online here. A hard copy should be mailed to our members next week. We did not want to keep the time sensitive events waiting. Inside is a copy of our Holiday House Tour booklet advertising sponsorship levels. We hope you will secure a spot to showcase your business!

Mark your calendars for September 15 for the next 275th event: “From Disaster to Redemption: George Washington and the Making of Winchester” at the George Washington Hotel Ballroom, 103 E. Piccadilly St. The French and Indian War Foundation together with the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society is heading up this event with a dynamic speaker, Dr. Carl Ekberg. Dr. Carl J. Ekberg is a retired history professor from Illinois State University. Rutgers Un.; Ph.D.  Author of several books, many awards, two outstanding; 2014 Medaille de Valeurs from the French Ambassador and 2015 Best Book Award from State Historical Society of Missouri. Carl resides in Winchester and serves on the board of the F&I War Foundation.

This is a free event to attend; however, you may wish to purchase food or drinks during the mingle. Menu:  Fried chicken plate with greens and mashed potatoes and a biscuit for $15.00. Apple cobbler and coffee for $5.00. There will be a bar. The Hotel has asked that you pay with cash.

If you are out in the Gainesboro area, stop by the Gainesboro Tourist Park. A new sign has been erected commemorating the Stonewall Brigade’s encampment in the area during Jackson’s Bath-Romney Campaign. A small dedication is likely to take place the first weekend of September. PHW was delighted to help write and design the sign for the Gainesboro Ruritan Club to bring their idea to fruition. If you have not heard the story of the soldiers who took part of the expedition, you can learn more at the Bath-Romney Campaign Historical and Preservation Association. While this marker is not affiliated with the six Civil War Trails markers installed in Morgan County, it was written to mesh with them and mark one of the first camps the Confederate soldiers experienced after leaving Winchester.

Friday Roundup: Civil War Weekend and More!

The Winchester-Frederick-Clarke Civil War Weekend starts today! Most events are free or for a nominal charge. The events are too numerous to list here, so see what fits your fancy and time frame at the Visitor’s Center website.

The PHW library received a substantial donation this week from Ed Acker. We now have a complete set of Old House Journals from the inaugural issue of October 1973 through April 1998. If you need a how-to article from the timeless back catalog, we have you covered. You can see some of the other new additions to the PHW library at the top of our LibraryThing account.

Winchester Architectural Details
One of the cornice detail photos from the Loudoun Street Mall.

As teased a few weeks ago, we now have the images from the architectural details folder scanned. Sixty-six images (some very similar to each other) have been added to our Flickr account. Many of these images were part of a “find the building” activity produced by PHW. Challenge yourself to see how many of the details you recognize at the top of the photostream or the end of the Architectural Details album. Most buildings are on the walking mall, with a few outliers that may have been put in this folder by accident.

We were notified that a History Camp is coming to Virginia for the first time, and it’s close to us! The camp, which will be held at George Mason University in Fairfax, will take place on Saturday, November 16. More than 40 sessions on various aspects of history are expected. See the list as it continues to grow or register at historycamp.org/virginia.

Last but not least, our 2019 Holiday House Tour and Bough and Dough Shop is coming together. We are happy to report we have the full lineup of houses to represent the 18th through 21st centuries, and a an exclusive Preview Party house for Saturday evening. PHW representatives will be reaching out soon for advertising sponsorships. We are also looking forward to our informal Bough and Dough Shop open house at the Hexagon House on Saturday, August 24 between 1-4 p.m. If you have any questions about the Holiday House Tour or want to make sure your name is on our volunteer list to be called as a docent, stop by!