Category: Informational Events

Friday Roundup: Photos and Curated Reading

535 W. Cecil St.
This week, we added six photos of the house fire at 535 W. Cecil St., taken by C. W. Yerkes. You can see all the images at the end of the Cecil Street album, or at the top of our photostream on Flickr.

Happy Friday! While doing some filing this week, we discovered more photographs tucked in file folders. Look for some architectural treasure hunts coming in future editions.

We are hard at work behind the scenes on a number of projects, including (of course) Holiday House Tour (December 7 & 8 in the West Clifford and Amherst Street neighborhoods) and the Bough and Dough Shop. We are also planning to have walking tours at upcoming fall events downtown like Friday Night Live, Celebración, and Oktoberfest. We’ll let you know as we get closer to the dates on where to find our table.

We have another very special lecture and book signing in the works for Friday, October 4 with Thompson M. Mayes. Mr. Mayes is Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  He is the author of many articles relating to, and has lectured widely on, preservation easements, shipwreck protection, historic house museums, accessibility, preservation public policy, and the future of historic preservation. Mr. Mayes is the author of Why Old Places Matter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018).  We are looking forward to hearing him speak on his book in Winchester this October. You can find a blog post covering his book at the National Trust, Why Do Old Places Matter? as an introduction to his book.

In a similar vein, you can also check out the blog and podcast from Strong Towns on Why We Should Build Cities for Our Unconscious Brains. The podcast is just a hair under one hour, so settle in with a snack or drink and enjoy the discussion. This is an interesting intersection of psychology and architecture – things that we “get” intuitively but often have a hard time putting those feelings into words. The next time you are out an about looking at buildings, see if you can spot how some of these traditional building techniques encourage social interaction, and, inversely, how more modern techniques can be off-putting or unpleasant.

Last, you may also enjoy the article Mapping the Effects of the Great 1960s ‘Freeway Revolts‘ and the related links from CityLab. It is not just a look at the successes of the protests that saved neighborhoods, but also at places where the revolts failed and those freeway projects fractured and destroyed neighborhoods. A freeway, in theory, should be a route of transportation to encourage travel point to point, but in many ways it is also a “pseudo-barrier” that unconsciously (or deliberately) prevents crossing that imposing concrete and asphalt line. For a deep dive into the research, you can find the working paper Freeway Revolts! at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Friday Roundup: Photos, Lectures, and August Events

Old Frederick County Court House
You may have seen these photos before, but 15 digitized slides were added to our Flickr this week, with most being buildings on Loudoun Street. Find them at the top of our Flickr photostream!

We hope you have been enjoying the Godfrey Miller summer lecture series. The final two installments will be held next Tuesday and Thursday at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center, 28 S. Loudoun St., Winchester:

July 23: 1900s in Winchester – Trish Ridgeway on benefactors to the area; Judy Humbert on integration in the second half of the century

July 25: 2000s in Winchester – Kris Tierney, Frederick County administrator, and Eden E. Freeman, Winchester city manager, on the present state of the area and future goals

Cost is $10 (cash or check) for each evening, collected at the door. Door prizes will be given away each evening. Proceeds from the lectures benefit programming for seniors at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center. For more information, visit www.winchesterva.gov/275th-anniversary or call 540-247-0968.

The Civil War Weekend returns August 16-18, 2019. There are too many events to list here. See the full schedule of activities and events at visitwinchesterva.com/event/civil-war-weekend/

Are you an artist or volunteer curious about PHW’s Bough & Dough Shop? Stop by the Hexagon House at 530 Amherst Street on August 24 between 1-4 PM to see the space partially set up for the shop, pick up a vendor application, or chat for a bit at this informal session. While this event is aimed more at new or returning artists to get an idea of the space, anyone is welcome to stop by and the event is free. Vendor packets with more information about the Shop are available at www.phwi.org/events/Shopinfo.pdf.

Last, you may want to read the recent article posted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation: Heritage Conservation as a Civil Right. This is an interesting overview of the perceived issues of historic preservation and the similar environmental justice movement origins and their intersection with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The two movements diverged in application over the years, and as the author John H. Sprinkle, Jr. concludes: “The question remains: In viewing both differential access and impacts to cultural resources from a civil rights perspective, how would our national system of heritage conservation fare? Perhaps it is high time to find out.”

Friday Roundup: Photos, Lecture Series, and Planning Survey

We hope you had a great celebration for the Fourth of July. There was a great turnout on the mall for the Rockin’ Independence Eve celebration. If you took a coloring sheet and made a masterpiece, let us know! A few images from the event are available at Flickr at the end of the Kids Events album, or top of the photostream.

We also have a few photos from the Annual Meeting held at Carter Hill Manor on June 28. Many, many thanks are owed to our hosts Tommy and Linda Ross Gibbs for opening their home, garden, and yard to us. It was the perfect venue and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time at the event.

The Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center’s annual summer lecture series begins next week.  The series will be part of the celebration of Winchester’s 275-year history. Lectures will be given four evenings, starting at 7 p.m. in the Woltz Pavilion, 28 S. Loudoun St., Winchester, and will cover highlights of the centuries. The dates and topics are:

July 16: 1700s in Winchester – Tom Maccubbin on early business life in Winchester through ledgers; Gene E. Fisher on history of the Godfrey Miller Home

July 18: 1800s in Winchester – Rebecca Ebert on life before the War Between the States; Keven Walker on life during and after the war

July 23: 1900s in Winchester – Trish Ridgeway on benefactors to the area; Judy Humbert on integration in the second half of the century

July 25: 2000s in Winchester – Kris Tierney, Frederick County administrator, and Eden E. Freeman, Winchester city manager, on the present state of the area and future goals

Cost is $10 (cash or check) for each evening, collected at the door. Door prizes will be given away each evening. Proceeds from the lectures benefit programming for seniors at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center, 28 S. Loudoun St., Winchester. For more information, visit www.winchesterva.gov/275th-anniversary or call 540-247-0968.

You may have also heard of the survey being undertaken to update and guide the Winchester Comprehensive Plan. There is a survey available online now at the city’s website. The survey covers various topics on greenspace, housing, and corridors to town. The survey will be available until July 31.

If you are interested in attending the in-person planning sessions related to the above survey, you need only attend one session that best fits your schedule. Sessions will be held:

  • Thursday, July 25th – 2:00 pm at Frederick Douglass Elementary School Gym, 100 West Cedarmeade Avenue
  • Monday, July 29th – 10:00 am at Virginia Avenue Charlotte DeHart Elementary School Cafeteria, 550 Virginia Avenue
  • Wednesday, July 31st – 6:30 pm at John Kerr Elementary School Cafeteria, 427 Meadow Branch Avenue
  • Tuesday, August 6th – 6:30 pm at Quarles Elementary School Cafeteria, 1310 South Loudoun Street

We know many of our members are concerned about and engaged with the future of Winchester, and this is a good opportunity in both the survey and in-person sessions to share your thoughts on the direction of Winchester for up to the next decade and beyond.

Rockin’ Independence Eve and July Schedule

Come to Old Town on July 3 for an evening of activities!

PHW will be at the July 3 Rockin’ Independence Eve again this year. Our table will be in the same spot in front of the Godfrey Miller House at 28 South Loudoun St. as last year. Be sure to stop by, say hi, and see what fun activities we may have going on!

The PHW office will be closed for the first week of July (July 1-5). We will be back to normal on the week of July 8. Catch up with the PHW reps at Rocking Independence Eve, or leave a message for us and we will get back to you then.

Although it is said every year, it is worth repeating to be careful while enjoying the summer holidays, particularly grilling and fireworks. While both activities are a staple of summer celebrations, they can be hazardous to both people and buildings. If you need a refresher, you can find safety tips at FEMA and NFPA for these and other summer safety issues like pools, campfires, and storms. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July celebration!

Friday Roundup: End of the Year Wrap Ups

PHW will be starting our 55th year in June. Thank you to all who have supported us. Your membership, interest, and engagement in our local community is a huge part of why Winchester has a thriving and active historic downtown. While it is well worth congratulating ourselves on the success we have had in the historic district protecting and valuing our local buildings, we always need to be aware and engaged in activities that will shape the development of our downtown in the future for the next fifty years. We look forward to supporting preservation and adaptive reuse projects, and we are always available to anyone who is looking for resources on collaborative and innovative solutions to development and design issues.

Today may be the last day of Preservation Month, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop celebrating our local history and architecture. The annual Clowser Memorial Service is this Saturday, June 1 at 10 AM. Come out to the Clowser House at 152 Tomahawk Trail in Shawneeland for a service open to all individuals who support the preservation of the historic Clowser House. The event will be held rain or shine. Learn more on their Facebook page!

While the school year is coming to an end for most students, you may want to peer back in time to see the growth and value of public education in Winchester and Frederick County. The article What Winchester Is Doing for Its Public Schools ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch on December 3, 1911. It is a copiously illustrated article, so be sure to check out the images of some of the old county schoolhouses!

Peonies cascade over a marble statue on the grounds of Carter Hill Manor.

PHW is also pleased to announce the details of our 55th Annual Meeting. We will be convening at Carter Hill Manor, the home of Linda Ross Gibbs and Tommy Gibbs, 529 Jefferson Street on June 23, beginning at 3 PM. Carter Hill Manor, a Georgian Revival style home of rose brick, is situated on one of Winchester’s highest points. The Jefferson Street address is actually the rear of the home; the front was built to face “The Old Lane,” with a view of the three acres of gardens. We plan to meet outside and enjoy the tranquil setting. In addition to the annual business portion and election of officers, we will also recognize the PHW preservation award winners for 2019. This is a great chance to celebrate local preservation projects and to meet our incoming PHW board members.

Last, mark your calendars for the Godfrey Miller Lecture Series of 2019! All lectures will be held at 7 PM in the Woltz Pavilion, 28 S. Loudoun St., Winchester. Cost is $10 (cash or check) for each evening, collected at the door.  Proceeds benefit programs at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center.  Door prizes will be given away each evening. For more information, visit https://www.winchesterva.gov/275th-anniversary

  • July 16 — 1700s in Winchester – Tom Maccubbin on early business life in Winchester through ledgers; Gene Fisher on history of the Godfrey Miller Home
  • July 18 — 1800s in Winchester – Rebecca Ebert on life before the War Between the States; Keven Walker on life during and after the war
  • July 23 — 1900s in Winchester – Trish Ridgeway on benefactors to the area; Judy Humbert on integration in the second half of the century
  • July 25 — 2000s in Winchester – Kris Tierney, Frederick County administrator, and Eden Freeman, Winchester city manager, on the present state of the area and future goals

Friday Roundup: Books!

PHW recently had a small boom in our office library thanks to the donation of a box of books from Dick and Dorothea Malsbary. The new additions are mostly on the broad scope and history of American architecture and historic preservation. If this is the first you’re hearing of PHW’s non-circulating library, you can actually check out our catalog online at LibraryThing. We have our books and some periodicals cataloged here.

We are always open for book donations in the fields of architecture, architectural history, landscape and exterior design, interior design, local history (primarily Winchester and Frederick County, but we have a few bits of Clarke County as well), historic preservation, and related fields. If you are downsizing your books and think you might have some things that would be good for our collection, drop us a note. We’d be happy to look over your offerings and we can work with you for in-kind donations for tax purposes.

Our other major book news is that we are very close to finalizing the reprint of the Winchester: Limestone, Sycamores & Architecture book. The book is mostly the same, with minor text edits and corrections throughout, a new introduction to the 275th Anniversary edition, a completely overhauled appendix of contributing buildings in Winchester’s National Register District, an index to the text and images, and a new jacket design. In short, the book is essentially a revised second edition, with the bulk of the revisions tackling consistency and grammar instead of new text and images. While we don’t have a date yet for books to be in hand, we hope to have them in time for our Bough & Dough Shop in November.

Last, while we have you thinking about books, you might also want to check out some recommended historic preservation books from the National Trust and Goodreads communities. Of course, if you are inspired to buy some books from Amazon, we would be thrilled if you made your purchase through our AmazonSmile link so PHW gets a small donation at no extra cost to you. It’s a small percentage, but we are always grateful for a little surprise deposit from Amazon now and then.

The Preservation Month Happy Hour Is Tonight!

Celebrate Preservation Month with Preservation of Historic Winchester tonight!

We have been so pleased with the interest shown in our happy hour event tonight, 5 PM at 522 S. Loudoun St. Just a couple notes as you get ready:

Parking is always tricky on Loudoun Street. We ask you respect private driveways as you arrive tonight. Be alert for pedestrians walking in the area from the adjoining streets.

There will be a PHW banner on the porch of 522 S. Loudoun by 5 PM so you can find the house more easily.

We will have mainly wine, craft beer, and light snacks – it will probably not be enough to replace your dinner!

If the weather cooperates (fingers crossed!), we may be able to utilize the rear yard as well for socializing.

It is perfectly fine to just stop in for a couple minutes and say hi or check on your dues. You do not have to arrive at exactly 5 PM. We will not have a program of activities so you will not miss any announcements.

We will, however, have nametags so you can put a face to a name of our current and potential new board members and volunteers. Several of our Holiday House Tour homeowners also plan to stop in tonight, so you can get an early glimpse of how our Holiday House Tour Through History is shaping up.

We will also have a few dates for you to save, upcoming events to mark on your calendars, and some of the new 275 Years of History and Architecture tour brochures for you to pick up (they are a fabulous update thanks to the work of Tim Youmans, Jennifer Bell, Renee Bayliss, and Sandra Bosley – check it out even if you have an older version!)

The PHW office will be closing up by about 3:30 so we can get set up for the event. We’ll see you all tonight!

Friday Roundup: Preparing for Preservation Month

May is almost here! To start the event off right, you may want to visit the Garden Tour this weekend – there are a number of fabulous homes in Winchester on the tour this year. You can learn more and buy tickets online here.

As anyone familiar with Winchester knows, the first weekend in May is part of the Apple Blossom Festival, so the PHW Office will be closed Friday, May 3. Enjoy a safe and happy Bloom!

Then on the next Friday, May 10, PHW will be hosting our Preservation Month celebration at 522 S. Loudoun Street. The event begins at 5 p.m. and is free and open to the public. If you have interest in our historic buildings in Winchester and want to get more involved ,we encourage you to come out and meet us. We’ll also be able to renew or take new memberships at the event. It seems like the event is generating a lot of interest, so we are looking forward to meeting and talking to all of you!

Additionally, PHW is still soliciting ideas for preservation awards for people and projects in Winchester and Frederick County. If you have some ideas, you can find our nomination form online here. Make sure to get it in by May 31 for the best chance to be considered for recognition!

If you own a property in Winchester’s Historic District and you’ve always wanted one of the oval historic building plaques but never knew how to get one, we encourage you to apply for recognition at the Board of Architectural Review. Plaques are acted upon in May as part of the Preservation Month activities. You can find information on the plaque process and costs at the City’s website under the heading “Is your property located in a Historic District?”.

While not exactly preservation-related, you may also want to mark May 17 on your calendars. City Code Officials will be hosting a free cookout in honor of National Building Safety Month at the Old Frederick County Courthouse on the Loudoun Street Mall between 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Officials will be available to answer questions and provide information on decks, pools, fences, smoke detectors, permits and more. Be sure to stop by!

Friday Roundup: Easter Edition

While the PHW office is closed for the holiday, we still have a few bits of reading for you to enjoy over your weekend.

Are you wondering what historic preservationists do? Jeremy Wells created a short document detailing his findings of what career paths historic preservation training might lead to. If you are curious about working at a place like PHW, staff here would have to be versed in every one of his points as we are often the first line of contact on a variety of topics, but we work most with the “regulatory compliance” and “historic site” categories. While working as a single staff-person is challenging, it can also be incredibly rewarding if you enjoy learning new skills to expand your resume. You can also check out the blog post at the National Trust and the continuing discussion on the Forum for other perspectives on working in this field. Several comments point out how student interns are often looking for research opportunities. If you are a student looking to get experience typical of historic preservation fields in a self-directed format, PHW may be a great option for you. We would love more in-depth deed/will/tax record research for some of our historic district properties. While hunting down a chain of owners might seem inconsequential when you are in the midst of it, putting the chain together has helped countless people who needed a starting point for future research. Keep that in mind if you are a student needing some hours and wanting a nice point on future resumes!

While looking into the history of the John Mann Church on East Cork Street, we found a small article from 1914 on the parsonage, called “Pastor Too Tall for Parsonage.” We’re not sure from this little article if they were able to raise the roof 313 South Kent Street for their pastor, but if so, finding an article like this is a nice historic documentation of a change to the building and the reasoning behind it.

In many of the discussions around new construction in the historic district, we’ve seen a trend towards “all or nothing” thinking, with no medium option on the table. If you’re wondering why, you might be interested in “The Death of the Suburban Fourplex” at Strong Towns. While it focuses on Michigan, it is a great overview of how the fourplex (a building constructed to resemble a suburban split level but with four housing units) rose to prominence, became loathed, and were zoned out of existence.

Last, and most important, there are some proposed changes to the National Register process that are extremely troubling. In essence, large landowners input would be weighted more heavily than individual property owners, federal agencies would have unprecedented “pocket veto” powers on nominations, and Section 106 review would be stripped from certain properties. We suggest reading “Dire Consequences for the National Register,” “Proposed Rule Changes to National Register of Historic Places Nominations,” and “Proposed Regulations on the Listing of Properties in the National Register of Historic Places” and making comments on the proposal before April 30. Several of the links will take you directly to forms where you can submit comments online or provide the address for physical letters to be delivered. Most of our larger success stories of preservation in Winchester are because we have a National Register Historic District which enables the use of historic tax credits to make otherwise impossible preservation tasks attainable, like the George Washington Hotel and the Lewis Jones Knitting Mill. Millbank in Frederick County was spared from demolition in the 1980s in part because of the Section 106 review for mitigation on the Third Battle of Winchester. The original 1980 historic district listing also helped avert a potential insurance crisis for the Old Town area, thanks to the exemptions historic recognition can provide for historically flood-prone properties. We are also extremely troubled at the potential impacts on nominations for tribal lands. While we recognize this is not a likely impact for our area, you can find examples of how such proposed changes will produce a negative impact at Living Landscape Observer. Again, we hope that you will review the proposed changes and submit your comments before April 30.

Friday Roundup: Email Penitentiary Edition

Happy Friday! We had a not terribly funny April Fool’s Day issue this week with the website. As you may have seen, our website was offline for over 24 hours. After checking in with our provider, the issue was someone using the server where PHW’s website resides for spam emails. While our website is back up, our mailing list may not be functional yet because of someone else being inconsiderate. With that in mind, we will have to keep the topics rather broad this week – no time sensitive events. If you receive this email weeks into the future and have no idea why its so late, now you know.

We had a tip this week that Pizzoco Pizza in the former Conoco gas station at 501 North Loudoun Street had their soft opening the end of March. If you enjoy staring at pictures of food while stuck at work, check them out at their website, Facebook, and Instagram. We are so excited to see this formerly vacant building be given a new lease on life, especially after so many people seemed to think the building was hopelessly obsolete. Historic buildings are the perfect incubators for small businesses and creative solutions.

For some more reading, we came across an article on General Daniel Morgan written about ninety years after his death and thought others may like to see the historic perspective on his life in the area in the 1890s. Much of it may be familiar to you, but if you would like to peer back through time, you can find the story in Our Church Paper (Evangelical Lutheran Church paper for New Market and Shenandoah County), March 17, 1897 on page 4. It took a while longer than the author of this article likely could have anticipated, but at long last we do have a monument to Daniel Morgan near the site of his first interment, and the children of Winchester will learn his name through attending Daniel Morgan Middle School.