Photo help time! Do you recognize the locations below in PHW’s “Vanished Winchester” holdings? These photos were not labelled and were discovered in limbo this week during filing. If you recognize either image or building, please contact the office through social media or phwinc.org@gmail.com.
This unmarked image is of a five bay, two story unpainted brick house with chimneys and stepped parapets on both sides. The windows all appear 2/2 with shutters on the front. A porch with jigsawn brackets spans the central three bays. There is a wrought iron fence and gate, a hitching post, and a carriage block along the street. Although hard to see, there may be dentil detailing along the cornice and a rectangular transom above the door. PHW’s copy is a photograph taken of another photograph and may have been stuck in the file for planning the “Vanished Winchester” exhibit at the Kurtz.
We have ruled out the Betty Dandridge House (116 N. Braddock), the Miller House (125 N. Washington) and the Overacre House (141 N. Washington). Other guesses or provenance on the mystery photo are welcome!
This unmarked image of a demolition in progress is another head-scratcher. Our two unverified guesses are the former Solenberger warehouse site at 119 North Cameron Street (beside the BB&T/Truist bank building, now a parking lot) or the greenspace area of the current Our Health campus in the 300 block of North Cameron Street. The building appears to be primarily painted concrete block with at least one brick pier.
If you’d like a different trip down memory lane, this week we also enjoyed reading and seeing images of Canada’s $50 million 1980s ghost town by Justin McElroy. We’ve come across other stories of ghost towns or buildings abandoned to harsh environments or frozen in time when the owners left, but most are left to their own devices to decay on their own terms. This may be the first ghost town outside of a National Park that we’ve heard of with caretakers keeping the lights on and the buildings secured and maintained.