Friday Photos – Page 10 – Preservation of Historic Winchester

Friday Photos: Old John Kerr

This week, we have just eight photos to share of the first Old John Kerr School on South Cameron Street. The photos show a few interior photos when the building was vacant, as well as exterior photos of the building encased in scaffolding while it was being cleaned and repainted during the rehabilitation by Shenandoah University. It also shows the telltale signs of a file that was heavily used, as the documents inside, including the eight photos, had a run in with a cup of coffee many moons ago.

Find all the photos – and a number of articles we scanned as part of the 50 years of PHW history blog posts – in the Old John Kerr School album on Flickr.

Friday Photos: PHW Field Trip

Happy Friday! This week we have added just under fifty photos to the Flickr account, and all of them are from outside of Winchester. Five photos are of a house in Stephens City across from Lantz’s Pharmacy, circa 1986, before it was rehabilitated. See those photos at the end of the Frederick County album.

The remaining 41 photos are all believed to have originated from the 1989 field trip “Old Richmond Today.” The day trip started with a tour of the Executive Mansion and Capitol Hill, followed by a tour of the Wickham Valentine House and a luncheon in the Valentine Museum Gardens. The afternoon continued with a full line up of historic sites, beginning with a tour of the White House of the Confederacy. A walking tour of East Franklin Street included stops in the Bolling Haxall House, Mayo Carter House, and Linden Row Guest Residences. The day concluded with a tour of the Jefferson Hotel with tea on the mezzanine before heading back to Winchester. See the photos (and maybe spot some familiar faces in the crowd) in the Flickr album.

Friday Photos: A Loudoun Street Miscellany

Happy Friday! First, thank you to those who have dropped off some plastic shopping bags for the Bough and Dough Shop. Please keep them coming! We will try to collect as many as we can before December, and any that are not used this year will be saved for future events.

Second, this is a friendly reminder that we are about one month out from the deadline for Holiday House Tour advertising sponsors in our program booklet. This year, we are extremely grateful to have a team of business majors from Shenandoah University helping us make contact with sponsors as part of their classwork. If you are contacted by students for advertising opportunities, please know they are doing it with the blessing of PHW, and if any questions arise, we are happy to talk to you here at the PHW office.

Third, for those anxiously awaiting some word on the fall Lunch and Learn lectures, save the dates of October 22 and November 3. We are working on a special Saturday site visit to Hopewell Meeting House and a regular lunchtime program on log building maintenance, with two additional program dates pending.

Fourth, on to the photos! This week, PHW added about 50 images to the Flickr account, the majority of which are on Loudoun Street – North, South, and the Walking Mall. Of particular interest may be some photos that fell out of the Red Lion Tavern informational files. As you may know, there was previously a marble yard and small wooden shop building on Cork Street operated by the owners of the Red Lion Tavern. While we have photographic documentation of the Valley Marble Works/Haines’ Memorials building before it was demolished, Ben Ritter found a receipt from 1857 with a drawing the the building and donated two photos of it to PHW in 1995.

Catch all the new images at the top of the Flickr photostream.

Friday Photos: Millbank

This week, PHW has added 47 photos of the Millbank House on Route 7 to the Flickr account. The images were dated between November 1984 and March 1986 as PHW volunteers documented the farm and advocated against demolition as part of the plans for a nearby water treatment plant.

The house was constructed circa 1850 by Issac Wood and his son Daniel T. Wood. The Woods owned several mills along the nearby Red Bud Run. Because the Wood family were Quakers, abolitionists, and Union sympathizers, General Robert H. Milroy issued a protection order for the property in 1863. The house was heavily involved with the Third Battle of Winchester and served as a makeshift field hospital in the aftermath of the fighting. Daniel Wood continued to live at the home until his death in 1915, and his heirs retained the property until 1964, when it was sold to Robert Koon.

The ongoing preservation battle began in 1983 when the Frederick-Winchester Service Authority condemned the 88 acre dairy farm for a new water treatment plant. The last owner, Robert Koon, Jr., was forced to vacate the property in May of 1984. Despite numerous offers from private individuals to purchase the house and either relocate or renovate it, Millbank languished and suffered vandalism of key architectural features while teetering on the edge of demolition for two years. In the end, only the threat of losing the federal funding for the treatment plant – reported as 75% of the $22 million project in 1986 – if the house were demolished appears to have halted the push in the 1980s. The issue continued to resurface from time to time as the house further decayed.

The house and three acres of surrounding land has at last found its way into preservation-friendly hands with the Fort Collier Civil War Center in 2013, which was founded to preserve the earthworks of another important Third Battle of Winchester site. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 for its significance during the Third Battle of Winchester. Efforts to stabilize and weatherproof the house are ongoing. Learn more about the current condition of Millbank at the Fort Collier website.

See the documentary images of Millbank taken by John G. Lewis from 1984-1986 at Flickr.

Friday Photos: Hodgepodge Edition

Happy Friday! This week, PHW has added 50 photos to Flickr, including Peyton Street, Kent Street, Abram’s Delight, and Frederick County. We also have a brand new album featuring “people photos” primarily from the Kurtz Building era, which were used for promotional materials and fundraising packets. In addition, we sorted out the rehabilitation documetary photos of the Kurtz, so all building images now have their own album.

While you are perusing the photostream, please take a look at the very top, as a few houses in this batch were not identified. They are probably in Winchester or Frederick County, but that is not guaranteed. If you recognize them, please drop us a note and let us know.

Friday Photos: North Loudoun Street and Summer History Camp

Happy Friday! This week, PHW added 150 photos to Flickr. Thirty-five of those photos are some of the very last images we had left to scan from the 1976 Architectural Survey, which are all properties on the north end of the Loudoun Street Mall. The photos are at the end of the album.

The remaining 115 photos are from the 1999 History Adventure Day Camp “In the Footsteps of Washington.” The week long sessions explored what life would have been like for a young George Washington when he lived in Winchester.

The camp activities started on Monday with Scot Marsh demonstrating surveying techniques in the fields of Glen Burnie. Tuesday, the campers traveled to Stephens City for a day of archeology at the Pitman House, one of the oldest houses in Stephens City. Dr. David Powers and Linden “Butch” Fravel led the digging into the Valley’s history. Wednesday, the children visited Washington’s office in Winchester and then traveled to explore a colonial fort and Native American site in Frederick County. Thursday saw a trip to Millwood’s Burwell-Morgan Mill, where campers met the miller and then played colonial games, music, and tried their hand at crafts. The camp culminated on Friday with a colonial feast at Abram’s Delight. The children partook in a normal day of chores spinning, weaving, and candle-dipping before preparing their own meal.

The camp was co-sponsored by the Fort Edwards Foundation, the Glen Burnie Museum (better known now as the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley), PHW, and the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society.

Catch the new photos at the top of the Flickr photostream!

Friday Photos: Celebrating the Blues in 1999

Happy Friday! It is good to be back and connected to the internet again. It was a quiet and lonely weekend at the PHW office as we completed the transition. To celebrate our new and improved internet and phone service, this week we bring you 77 more images from the Blues House Showcase in 1999. For those of you new to the PHW mailing list, you can catch up on a brief history of the event and PHW’s involvement with it in a previous blog post.

From the flyer for Blues House Showcase ’99, featured performers included Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter, Bob “Catfish” Hodge, Phil Zuckerman, Mary Ann Redmond, Bud Armel, Danny Beirne, Blues Fuze Band, Perry Glass Quartet, Ricky “J” and Blue Rhythm, along with special guest performers Paul H. Thomson, Gary Reynolds, Don Worthington, John Friant, Chip Schutte, Tom Flegal, Spiritual Guardians, Golder O’Neil and the Shenandoah University Jazz ensemble, Debbie Grim, Pam Buckland, Danny McFarland, Jim Burdock, Dave Ellinger, George Banks, Robert Glasker and Phil Swaby.

Catch the new additions and see if you recognize some familiar faces at the top of the Flickr photostream.

Friday Photos: North Braddock Street and More

But first, one last reminder the Verizon email is retiring. PHW will now be at phwinc.org@gmail.com. If you received multiple copies of a reminder email from us on Thursday to our past contacts list, please accept our apologies. The email server apparently hiccuped and sent the same email to the same recipients multiple times. It was not intentional and probably just as frustrating to us as it was to you to get the same email over and over and over… On the bright side, we can promise it will never happen again.

On to the fun things! This week, PHW has added the following images to the Flickr account:

North Braddock Street 1976 architectural survey photos, plus a few others (69 photos)
Demolition of buildings on East Piccadilly Street circa 1960 (6 photos)
Residences in the 200 block of East Fairfax Lane, circa 1976 (6 photos)
And 22 miscellaneous and potentially duplicate photos of East Clifford, West Boscawen, Cameron, Cork, and other streets in the historic district.

Around the Internet: Kurtz Photos, Ruth’s Tea Room

Friday Photos this week continues to work on the massive amounts of pictures taken of the Kurtz Building before, during, and after rehabilitation. Catch the 57 new additions at the top of the Flickr photostream. This batch may conclude the exterior photos of the building, but no promises!

Coming this Saturday is a special event in honor of Vivienne Jackson’s 90th birthday. The afternoon tea party will be held at the Winchester Centre Friends Meeting House, 203 North Washington Street, between 1-4 PM. Come visit with Vivienne and browse a selection of items from the Tea Room that will be for sale (dishes, table linens, and other artifacts).

Ruth’s Tea Room was once at 128 E. Cecil Street in Winchester. As you may know, the building itself is gone but the memories remain strong. In addition to the celebration on Saturday, a few homages to the eatery may be found online for a nostalgic trip to the past. Check out the Ruth’s Tea Room Tumblr, which aims to recreate the music in the jukebox. If you never got to experience the atmosphere of Ruth’s Tea Room, one person shares her story of how it was a safe place for her, her friends, and her future husband in “Our First Date: An Ode to Ruth’s Tea Room.”

Around the Internet: Braddock Street, Field Trips, and Saving Energy

Friday Photos is back this week with 79 new photos, most on South Braddock Street from the 1976 Architectural Survey. George Washington’s Office (the Adam Kurtz House) is also featured in this batch. See all the new additions at the top of the Flickr photostream.

Speaking of Braddock, if you were not able to take the Braddock Road bus trip with the French and Indian War Foundation, one of the participants wrote about her experiences and the sights along the way. Read Becca Milfeld’s journey at The Washington Post.

Hoping to get in another road trip or two yourself before summer ends? Check out 16 Amazing Field Trips Every Virginian Took As A Kid. . . And Should Retake Now for some ideas. One you probably didn’t take, but is worth the trip, is the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory. Patricia Keppel of Virginia’s Travel Blog recommends 10 stops between Winchester and Staunton. While you are on the road, keep your eyes peeled for roadside rest stops. The National Trust for Historic Preservation featured these now almost obsolete and forgotten structures in Roadside Rest Shelters: Destinations All Their Own with photographs by Ryann Ford.

While summer is usually a fun and relaxing time, the summer heatwave might be causing your energy bills to spike. This Old House guru Kevin O’Connor walks you through How to Perform Home Energy Audit (also great to keep in mind if heating for the winter is an additional energy concern).

Maybe it’s crossed your mind about using the summer sunshine to keep your bills down with solar panels. CityLab writer Julian Spector brings you 7 Things to Know Before Installing Solar Panels on Your Roof and shares What I Learned Installing Solar Panels in Southeast Washington, D.C. in May of this year. Solar panels won’t work in every situation, especially in our tree-loving city, but in the right situation they may help take the sting out of heating and cooling your home or business.