Informational Events – Page 20 – Preservation of Historic Winchester

Around the Internet: Historic Preservation, Markers, and More

The fight for historic preservation goes beyond just the aesthetics of the architecture. As encapsulated by this editorial from Greenville, South Carolina, significance also lies within the social and community history encapsulated by even relatively modest homes:

“. . . a home is living history. It can be reproduced, but not replaced. The value of these homes goes far beyond reminding people what [a town] once looked like. They represent the people that built and inhabited them and the values, lifestyles and ethos of the community where they stand. . . . The value of preserving homes rests in what is preserved with them and what people can learn from each and all of those things.”

If you prefer the same sentiment in an easy to digest list format, check out the five point list “What We’re Losing When We Destroy Historical Sites,” written by Colonial Williamsburg.

Last Saturday, the two African-American markers at the National Avenue roundabout were dedicated, and the other three markers were erected. As you may have seen, the first round of bricks were installed along the pathway at that time as well. PHW took a few photos at the unveiling, which can be seen on Flickr. If you missed the chance to buy a brick last summer, PHW is once again partnering with the North End Citizens Association to sell a second round. Keep an eye out for more information soon!

This Saturday, a marker in Marshall County, West Virginia will be unveiled. Although out of PHW’s normal purview, this marker will be at the Cockayne family farm. You may recall two sisters, Sarah and Martha Cockayne, were the first long-term owner-occupants at the Hexagon House. We are happy to hear the family’s Merino wool farm continues to be researched and interpreted. The marker will be unveiled at a community celebration and the Cockayne House will be open for tours and a meet and greet with the site’s new executive director, Janell Keyser.

If you feel like staying closer to home, Saturday is also Glen Burnie Day at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Stroll through an antique and modified car show coordinated by the Shenandoah Region Antique Automobile Club of America from 10 AM-2 PM and enjoy an outdoor concert by the Clarke County Brass Quintet at noon. Children’s activities take place all day. Food from Jordan Springs Market and Strite’s Donuts will be available for purchase. Admission and activities are free to all! (As an added bonus for Pokemon GO hunters, the MSV has plenty of Pokestops and two gyms to keep the trainers in your family entertained.) Learn more about Glen Burnie Day at www.themsv.org.

After you have your fun at the MSV, there’s still time to go to the Blues House Festival, also this Saturday, from 11 AM-7 PM. Hear some great music and help out a local nonprofit at the same time! More information on the Blues House is available at winchesterblueshouse.com.

North End Historic Sites Dedication Ceremony on Saturday, July 9

City Councilor John Hill will lead the marker dedication ceremony at the National Ave. roundabout Saturday, July 9, beginning at 2 PM. The ceremony will take place in the green space adjacent to the roundabout on East Piccadilly Street. A map of the location is available on the City’s website. The event is open to the public – we hope to see a few of you there to see the newly installed interpretive signage!

Coming in July: Fourth of July, Highland Games, and Blues House Festival

There is plenty of summer fun to be had around Winchester this July. To start the month off, head downtown on Friday, July 1 for the monthly First Friday events with musicians, special gallery events, and later hours for some businesses. See some of the events taking place in Old Town on their event page. First Fridays is sponsored by the Old Town Winchester Business Association and the Winchester Main Street Foundation. Check out the First Fridays in Old Town Winchester Facebook Page.

Come back on Sunday, July 3 for Rockin’ Independence Eve for a full day of music, family-friendly activities, and even a Snow White Grill hamburger eating contest, before ending the evening with a fireworks display. Rockin’ Independence Eve is hosted by the City of Winchester, Old Town Winchester, and Winchester Parks and Recreation and is free and open to the public. Find more information at Old Town Winchester.

On Saturday, July 9, head out to Kernstown Battlefield for a Highland games competition hosted by the Kernstown Battlefield Association and Clan Adrenalin. Refreshments will be available for sale. Activities run from 9 am to 5 pm. To learn more, visit KBA’s website or Facebook page.

Last but not least, on Saturday, July 16, the Blues House Music Festival & Motorcycle Poker Run returns to the Eagles Outdoor Pavilion at 700 Baker Lane, Winchester, from 11 am – 7 pm. Festival tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. Net proceeds from the event benefit Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County. See all the performers, ticket sale information, and other event information at their website winchesterblueshouse.com.

Coming This Weekend: Young Builders Rock the Block 2016

Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County will be hosting an event for children aged 8-15 this Saturday, June 18th, to teach them about philanthropy and building skills. Children may build bird and dog houses, which will then be sold at Habitat’s ReStore. Habitat also will be collecting cans of dog food to donate to the SPCA. Space for these events is limited and registration is required.

For more information or registration forms, please visit the event page.

Historical Preservation – A Radical Conservative Liberal Concept

We hope you will forgive us for not having new photos this week with our Annual Meeting looming on Sunday, June 12. In exchange, we would like to share a recording of a TEDxRiversideAvondale presentation “Historical Preservation – A Radical Conservative Liberal Concept” by Wayne Wood. The presentation is an encapsulation of the historic preservation movement with all its quirks and contradictions which cut across political affiliations. Some of these themes will be very familiar and resonant to the creation of PHW and other preservation organizations and their battles to save historic neighborhoods and conserve often highly vulnerable pieces of well-made architecture. You may view the approximately 16 minute video at YouTube or in the embedded video player below.

Friendly Reminder: Two PHW Events Coming Soon!

PHW’s 52nd Annual Meeting

Date: Sunday, June 12, 2016

Time: 2-5 p.m.

Place: The Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA

Cost: Free for PHW members and invited guests. Voting at the business meeting is restricted to dues-paying PHW members.

Activities: The annual business meeting includes the election of board members and presentation of the 2016 PHW Preservation Awards. Following the business meeting, which is expected to last about one hour, we will enjoy a light reception, homebrew beers, and (weather permitting) lawn games. The Hexagon House will be open for guided and self-guided tours (including the second story). For something a little more relaxing, you may sit down for a few minutes and color a house.

Lunch and Learn Lecture “The Origin of Winchester Street Names” presented by Timothy Youmans, Director of Planning for Winchester City

Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016

Time: Noon-1 p.m.

Place: OakCrest Companies, 126 N. Kent Street, Winchester, VA

Cost: Free and open to the public

Lunch: Bring your own lunch

Parking is limited and on-street parking is metered; we recommend utilizing the George Washington Autopark, across the street from OakCrest.

We hope to see you at one or both events!

Information on the Clowser House

As you may have heard, the fate of the Clowser house in Shawneeland hangs in the balance of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors. The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 11, 7 PM in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room, 107 North Kent Street, Winchester. All meetings are open to the public.

Never heard of the Clowser house? If you’ve ever heard rumors of an Indian attack and local settlers being taken hostage, this was the place where it happened and one of the families involved. The tale is remarkable in itself, but perhaps even more amazing is the story of how some family members escaped a situation that seemed like certain death. The Clowser family lives on among many well-recognized local family names today, including Snapp, Frye, and Schultz. To read the relevant excerpts of the account of the attack and the aftermath, Jim Moyer of the French and Indian War Foundation has compiled a page of resources. You may also read the Preliminary Information Form for the Clowser house at the Department of Historic Resources (PDF), which includes Maral Kalbian’s assertion that it is “the only surviving structure to tell of that interesting part of this area’s early history.”

Coming This Weekend: Kernstown Battlefield Opening Weekend

Opening weekend at the Kernstown Battlefield is this Saturday and Sunday, May 7th and 8th! Please meet at the Visitors Center for the regularly scheduled battlefield tours on Saturday at 11 am and 1 pm. In addition to tours of the battlefield, the 1854 Pritchard House, the museum and artillery building, the Liberty Rifles will be presenting a living history all weekend. The living history event’s interpretation will focus on May of 1861, and the organizing of local Winchester citizens into state service following Virginia’s secession from the Union. The participants will represent volunteers who would eventually muster into Confederate service as Company D, 33rd Virginia Infantry. These men, largely from the Winchester area, would serve in the Stonewall Brigade and fight at both Kernstown battles.

Time: Early May until the end of October
Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm
Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm

Place: 610 Battle Park Dr., Winchester, VA 22602

Tours Include: The battlefield, the 1854 Pritchard House, the museum and artillery collection. For those in need, a golf cart is available to lend assistance.

Cost: All programs are by donation.

Other Information: The Kernstown Battlefield Association is an all-volunteer, non-profit preservation organization. Tours can be arranged throughout the year by contacting the KBA. They have a gift shop with diverse items for purchase, and can accept checks and credit cards.

For more information visit www.kernstownbattle.org or Facebook, or by phone at (540) 869-2896 or (202) 302-9129.

Thanks for Your Support!

PHW is drawing closer to the end of our fiscal year on May 31. Our spring renewal letters are often a condensed Annual Report, so we wanted to take a moment and share this letter with all of our online readers, too. If you are a PHW member, thanks for supporting us with your dues! If you’re not, please consider joining or even making a one time donation to us via PayPal to help us continue our programs and activities as we prepare to enter our 52nd year.

Over the past year, PHW has continued our Lunch and Learn lecture programs, providing free, high quality history and preservation information to the community, with topics ranging from the history of railroads, Douglas School, and Winchester’s “Wild West” days, to the impacts of the new National Register Historic Districts, to introducing the National Park Service’s Training Center in Frederick, MD.

We also have plenty of fun while learning about history at PHW, as seen during our fall Memberfest. The 2015 theme was that of a speakeasy. Along with the fun of dressing as gangsters and flappers close to Halloween, we enjoyed the superb music of the Bob Larson Trio, homebrew beers, and tales of Winchester during its time as a dry town.

Thanks to the community’s interest and support, PHW was able to make the Holiday House Tour fundraiser a success not only for us, but also the Winchester Little Theatre. The sales generated from our Bough and Dough Shop put another $2,700 into the Winchester Little Theatre’s Restoration Campaign. As you may have seen, the beautiful new roof is now being installed on the old Pennsylvania Freight Station!

Last year, PHW dipped back into children’s education with the railroad program held in conjunction with the Friends of Handley Regional Library. This year, PHW is aiming to expand on that work and provide a fun, free, and educational activity booth at Kidzfest on May 14. We will provide coloring activity sheets covering a variety of architectural styles, suitable for the entire family to explore buildings, history, and color together.

PHW partnered with the City and the North End Citizens Association with the work at the National Avenue roundabout. PHW authored two industrial heritage signs and sold bricks to line the sidewalk as part of the beautification efforts. The proceeds from the brick sales raised $1,000 each for the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club and the Timbrook House. Both organizations support the education of children in the community.

Lastly, mark your calendars for PHW’s 52nd Annual Meeting, which will be held Sunday afternoon on June 12th at the PHW headquarters in the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street. Yard games will return, along with our usual local preservation awards and election of PHW’s board of directors for the 2016-2017 year.

If you prefer to mail a check, click here for a copy of our membership application form to return with your dues.

However you chose to support PHW, know that we appreciate your support and enthusiasm!

Coming This Weekend: Historic Garden Week in Winchester

This weekend is the Winchester and Clarke County Historic Garden Week tours hosted by Winchester-Clarke Garden Club and The Little Garden Club of Winchester. The tour features four outstanding estates and one historic church dating from 1782 to 1993:

Claytonville Farm, 574 Clay Hill Road, Millwood
Clay Hill 859 Clay Hill Road, Millwood
Milton Valley Farm 294 Milton Valley Farm, Berryville
Audley Farm, 752 Audley Lane, Berryville
Old Chapel and Burwell Cemetery, intersection of Rt. 255 and 340, Boyce

For more information, descriptions, and ticket sale information, visit vagardenweek.org.