This week, a little over 50 photos from the late 1980s to 1990s have been added to the Cameron Street album on Flickr. Most photos feature the Kurtz Building before and during renovation, but there are also two aerial views, several of the Joint Judicial Center, and a number of detail photos of the brick and limestone walls around the Kurtz Building and the Cameron Street parking lot.
This week, PHW added the following images of individual buildings and closeup architectural details to Flickr. Catch up with all the newest additions at PHW’s Flickr Photostream, or view individual albums:
Handley Library (38 images)
Amherst Street (11 images)
Braddock Street (20 images)
Cameron Street (4 photos)
Court Square (1 image)
CSX (formerly B&O) Train Station (1 image)
George Washington Office Museum (1 image)
All new photos are at the end of their respective albums. As a number of photos were details, some are duplicated in the Architectural Details album as well.
Just when you think all the photos have been found, a few more turn up in unexpected places! For your browsing pleasure this week, new items have been added to:
and a new album has been created for:
The photographs this week were largely provided by E.E. Bayliss, Jr. (Sharp Street, East Lane) and John G. Lewis (renovation of the Henkel House at 27-29 S. Cameron St.).
Happy Friday! This week for Friday Photos, check the PHW Photostream on Flickr for an assortment of photos, including:
Revisit the memories of the Potato Hill Street Festival, held during PHW’s 25th anniversary in 1989 between the 400 and 600 blocks of South Loudoun Street. The event had kid-friendly activities, open houses and antique displays, plants for sale, and special guests Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.
This week, we bring you an assortment of views around Winchester, with a special emphasis on late Victorian era architectural details. If you like looking at cornices, you will love the Italianate style details and buildings album.
New additions have also been made to the following albums:
Holiday House Tour 2009: Aglow on Clifford Street
Following the presentation on Saturday, May 16, Sandra Bosley received a question about the exuberant Queen Anne style house on the corner of Washington and Boscawen Streets. It, along with the other late Victorian homes on that block, was owned by the Baker family, of Baker & Co. wholesale grocery fame. The so-called “palatial” residence was built by William H. Baker, the chocolate magnate of the family.
The house on the corner, known as The Gables, is not only one of Winchester’s most visibly ostentatious dwellings, but one of the designs produced by Knoxville, Tennessee-based architect George F. Barber.
Barber was a self-taught architect, learning from books like George Palliser’s American Cottage Homes and technical books published by A.J. Bicknell and Company. Barber published his first catalog consisting of fourteen designs in 1887 or 1888. The second edition featuring 59 designs was published in 1890, and his mail order architecture business boomed. Most of his plans were late Victorian confections with distinctive tower, porch, and chimney flourishes, but toward the end of his career, he produced a handful of Colonial Revival and transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style designs as well.(1)
Although Barber phased out his catalog business in 1908, his work had become so widespread as to have representative buildings in all 50 states. Winchester can boast of at least five extant Barber designed houses and two known demolished designs. The Gables is the most famous example, but the known Winchester Barber designed houses are:
As noted by Michael Alcorn during his research trip to Winchester in 1998, it seems likely one person would order a George F. Barber catalog and then pass it on to a friend, so that multiple Barber houses appear in a “cluster.” As Queen Anne houses are not typically thought of when considering potential mail order houses, Barber designs are easily overlooked by enthusiasts of other mail order homes, like Sears, Aladdin, Montgomery Ward, and many more. Peruse more Barber designs at the Knox County Public Library. You just might recognize the design of another local Barber house!
How sharp is your eye for architectural detail? You can test yourself with three architectural treasure hunts produced in celebration of National Preservation Month 2015. The three treasure hunts feature architectural details from the Handley Library at 100 West Piccadilly Street in Winchester, Virginia. The details can be found on its three street-side faces (Piccadilly, Braddock, and Fairfax). Look up, down, and all around to spot the details!
Unlike past architectural treasure hunts, there are often multiple places where the same details can be found. This treasure hunt is just for fun – no prizes involved – but it may inspire you to examine details you’ve never seen before.
Can You Find It at Handley Library? (3 sheets, PDF, 3.5 MB)
Take a trip back in time with this sampling of advertising from the 1870s to the early 1900s to whet your appetite for PHW and Handley Regional Library’s National Preservation Month activities next week.
PHW uncovered a selection of interesting vintage Winchester advertisements during the research and preparation for the Saturday, May 16 program. Some are amusing, some are informational. Some businesses are still remembered today, but perhaps many more have been forgotten. Even the goods sold run the gamut from the expected homemade whiskey to the surprising imported Italian marble.
See what some of Winchester’s industries were making and selling over one hundred years ago. View the album on Flicker!
