Category: PHW Office

Heads Up! Email Housekeeping

While we were making a few cosmetic adjustments to the way our weekly PHW emails look, we also went in and made a couple other tweaks. Most should not affect you, but here’s the quick rundown:

1. About forty suspicious-looking emails from Yahoo and Laposte email addresses that signed up in two clusters without names were removed from the mailing list. If you are a real person who was caught in this pruning, we apologize and invite you to rejoin the list.
2. New subscribers should get a second welcome confirmation email from MailChimp.
3. If you unsubscribe from the email list, you should get a confirmation email with a resubscribe link (in case you are accidentally unsubscribed), because . . .
4. We added MailChimp’s built-in forward option at the bottom of the email to make it easier and a bit cleaner looking to send the emails to friends or share on Twitter or Facebook. The forward option might make it so your friend could unsubscribe you, so we erred to the side of caution in providing extra confirmation you meant to unsubscribe.
5. In a totally cosmetic adjustment, we unchecked the “mobile friendly images” setting for MailChimp, as it was actually making smaller thumbnails from our blog full-width instead of keeping them in-line with text. This might make some photos side scroll a bit on smaller phones, but hopefully this will be an acceptable compromise for desktop and tablet readers to not see unfortunately grainy images.

PHW Membership Dues Reminder

It is time for the bulk of PHW members to renew your dues! Snail mail letters have been going out this week and will continue into next week to about 2/3rds of our members. If you have questions about your membership status, please feel free to contact the PHW office at 540-667-3577 or phwinc.org@gmail.com.

If you are one of our free readers on Facebook or by email and you enjoy hearing from us every week, why not take the next step and support us with membership dues or a donation? We have several options on how to join:

Automatic Yearly Payments via PayPal Subscription


Membership

The PayPal subscription button sets up an automatic yearly payment on the date you first join. If this option does not display correctly in your email, please visit our website for the form. Please refer to the instructions in PayPal’s FAQ on how to update or cancel your automatic subscription. Instructions vary based on whether you have a business or personal account.

One Time Credit Card Payment

Use the PayPal Donation option and input the amount you wish to donate. You do not need to have a PayPal account to use this option – select “Use a card” to use a debit or credit card. Remember to share your mailing address with us so you can receive our snail mail invitations to events and the printed newsletter, too!

One time credit card payments can also be made in person at the PHW office, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, Virginia.

Mail in a Check

Download and fill out the membership form and return it with your check to PHW, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA 22601.

Shop Through AmazonSmile

Support PHW when you do your regular shopping on Amazon by using AmazonSmile. There’s no extra cost to you, and you help us at the same time!

Around the Internet: Shopping, Holiday Hours, and More!

Around the Internet PHW will be taking a winter vacation from midday on Wednesday, December 21 through the New Year, opening as usual on Monday, January 2.

Still looking for a present for an architecture-aficionado in your your life? The Clowser House Committee is selling matted, signed and numbered prints of the Shawneeland Clowser House with the water wheel house in the foreground. These were done by artist Michael Martin (www.michaelmartinart.com) and sell for $30 each. A limited number are framed, as well, for $40. Buy one now in the Handley Regional Library Archives. Proceeds from the sale of the prints is going back to the ongoing efforts to save the Clowser House. The print and more information about the fundraising efforts can be found on their Facebook page.

Have you ever wondered what a country store around 1840 might have had for sale? JF Ptak Science Books found a pocket sized guide published in 1836 that lists all the staples you were likely find, from tea and coffee, pork and beef, fabrics, shoes, pails and kettles, and even a few books. Find the full post, with the full list of items, at the JF Ptak Science Books blog “What Things Cost in the U.S. in 1836.”

As we alluded to in some of our 2016 Holiday House Tour stops this year, Midcentury Modern is gaining traction in historic preservation circles. Relax after Christmas with a new PBS documentary on Eero Saarinen, architect of St. Louis’ iconic Gateway Arch, Dulles International Airport, and the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. The documentary will premier on Dec. 27, 8 PM on WETA and is 1 hour in length.

Last, if you have not done so yet, there may be enough time to check a few more winter maintenance issues off your to-do list. Take a look at the Northern Virginia Magazine’s To-Do List to see if you are ready for winter.

Holiday House Tour 2016 Final Notes

HHT Wreath and Candle As we near the last hours before the 40th annual Holiday House Tour kicks off, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

Tickets are still available at the advance ticket sale locations:

Kimberly’s, 135 North Braddock 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

Tickets will also be available at the Bough & Dough Shop on December 3 and 4.

Admission to a single site on Sunday is $5. Pay at the door of the house you wish to visit.

If you have questions, the best place to find someone well-versed on the House Tour Saturday and Sunday is the Bough & Dough Shop at the Winchester Little Theatre, 315 W. Boscawen St. The Shop is open Saturday 9 AM-5 PM and on Sunday 11 AM-5 PM.

The normal PHW phone number (540-667-3577) and email (phwinc.org@gmail.com) will not be staffed from Friday-Sunday. Should the weather or some other disaster impact the tour, we will try to push notification on Facebook, the PHW blog, and the PHW voicemail message ASAP.

Watch for any changes about to the Saturday handbell concert and Sunday Lessons and Carols taking place at Braddock Street United Methodist Church at braddockstreetumc.org

The hours for the house tours are Saturday (Preview Party and Candlelight Tour) 6-9 PM, and Sunday (Daylight Tour) from 1-5 PM.

Note that George Washington’s Office Museum, 32 W. Cork St., will be open on Saturday only, 3-9 PM. Washington’s Office will not be stocked with House Tour tickets or booklets.

The Bell House, 106 N. Cameron St., will be open Sunday only, 1-5 PM. The Bell House will be stocked with House Tour tickets and booklets.

There will be complimentary warm drinks at the Bough & Dough Shop for all visitors as in previous years.

Costumed carolers from Winchester Little Theatre, organized by Nancy Ticknor, will once again stroll the streets and serenade tour-goers at the open houses between 2-4 PM on Sunday with festive holiday music. Carolers sing 4 or 5 holiday standards at each stop. They will start and end at the Winchester Little Theatre, and travel to the houses open on the tour.

The weather forecast is partly cloudy on Saturday, to rainy on Sunday. Precipitation is not expected to start until after 5 PM. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-40s, falling to the low 30s overnight.

Have a safe and happy Holiday House Tour, everyone!

Upcoming PHW Office Schedule

The PHW office will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 24 and 25, for Thanksgiving.

Planning to do some online shopping at Amazon during the holiday weekend? Support us when you shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. #StartWithaSmile at smile.amazon.com/ch/23-7404958 and Amazon donates to Preservation of Historic Winchester Inc.
smile2016

Holiday House Tour tickets are still available for purchase at the advance sale locations Kimberly’s, Wilkins’ Shoe Center, Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center and online through PayPal:


Two-Day Tour Tickets

Two-day tickets are valid for the Preview Party at 203 South Braddock Street and the Candlelight Tours on Saturday, December 3 between 6-9 PM at:
314 Courtfield Avenue
514 Amherst Street
220 West Boscawen Street
32 West Cork Street.

Two-Day tickets are also valid for the Sunday Daylight Tours on December 4 between 1-5 PM at:
314 Courtfield Avenue
203 South Braddock Street
514 Amherst Street
220 West Boscawen Street
106 North Cameron Street.





Sunday-Only Daylight Tour Tickets

Tickets valid for Daylight Tours on Sunday, December 4 between 1-5 PM at:
314 Courtfield Avenue
203 South Braddock Street
514 Amherst Street
220 West Boscawen Street
106 North Cameron Street.




As a reminder, any House Tour Tickets ordered through PayPal after Monday, Nov. 28 will not be mailed out. Please save your PayPal receipt (printed out or on your phone) to use as your ticket.

Lastly, the office will be closed again on Friday, Dec. 2 for Holiday House Tour setup.

Have a happy holiday, and get ready for the Holiday House Tour on December 3 and 4!

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