Fundraiser – Page 4 – Preservation of Historic Winchester

PHW Plastic Bag Drive

Are you swamped with plastic shopping bags? PHW is in need of some “gently used” plastic shopping bags for our Holiday House Tour’s Bough and Dough Shop. Both standard size plastic grocery bags as well as the oversize plastic bags are needed. By reusing shopping bags, we help keep our House Tour expenses low so more funds can go back into our preservation projects – in addition to getting a little more life out of existing plastic bags before they get sent on the recycling center.

If you can spare some plastic shopping bags between now and December 2, please bring them to the PHW office at 530 Amherst St., Winchester, VA. If you cannot stop by during our office hours, there is enough space between our back door and storm door to drop off some bags safely.

It is a small request, but it will make a huge impact on our Holiday House Tour preparations behind the scenes. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Call for Advertisers

It’s that time again! PHW is at work on lining up sponsors for our 2016 Holiday House Tour. For many of us this event officially begins the holiday season with its guided tours of the festively decorated historic properties in Winchester. In addition to being a fun community tradition, the Holiday House Tour generates the monetary foundation that enables us to continue our mission to preserve the best of the area’s past.

As part of our promotional materials for the event, PHW will be producing a full color program booklet again this year. I invite you to place an ad in the booklet to show your support for PHW and to promote your business to a demographic interested in Old Town Winchester, its history, and its architecture. Ads are available in full page (5″x8″), half page (5″x4″), and business card (2″x3.5″) sizes. Enlarging the image shows the sizes, costs, and benefits of the sponsors’ ads in the program.

Please reserve your spot soon – ads are due by 5 PM on October 28 to ensure inclusion in the program booklet, which will be distributed in mid-November to ticket sale locations and local visitor centers around Winchester. Include your business name, contact information, and ad size in your reservation. Your print-ready digital ad files may be emailed to phwinc.org@gmail.com or submitted on CD or flash drive at the PHW Office, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA 22601. If you have questions, do not hesitate to email us or call us at 540-667-3577.

Thank you for your support, and we hope to see you at our 40th Holiday House Tour this December 3 and 4!

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.”

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!

Check Presentations from the National Ave. Gateway Project

On Thursday, Winchester City Councilman John Hill met with community members at Stephen’s Restaurant and Jazz Cafe to introduce the interpretive signage for the local African-American community that will be placed near the National Avenue roundabout. Two additional signs authored by PHW will interpret the Virginia Woolen Company once located at the site of the Timbrook Public Safety Building, with the final sign noting the retreat of the Confederate forces through town after the Third Battle of Winchester.

As part of the beautification efforts around the signage areas, engraved bricks will line the walkways around the paths. The bricks were ordered through PHW and engraved by Frederick Block, Brick, and Stone. The proceeds after the cost of engraving was split evenly between the Boys and Girls Club and the Timbrook House. Due to the generous support of Frederick Block and the interest from the community, each organization received $1000 to put back into their youth community services. Winchester Chief of Police Kevin L. Sanzenbacher accepted for the Timbrook House, and executive director Heather Foreman accepted for the Boys and Girls Club. PHW was thrilled to be able to help the project to interpret our local history and simultaneously benefit two more worthy Winchester organizations serving Winchester’s children.

Sandra Bosley presented the checks to Heather Foreman and Chief Kevin Sanzenbacher on February 4 at Stephen’s Restaurant and Jazz Cafe.

Check Presentation Event for National Avenue Brick Project

Mark your calendars: The check presentations to the Timbrook House and Boys and Girls Club from the proceeds of the National Avenue engraved bricks is scheduled for February 4, 2-3 PM at Stephen’s Restaurant and Jazz Cafe at 440 North Kent Street. There is room for approximately 25-35 guests for the event. We hope to see some of you there to celebrate!

Coming This Weekend: Candlelight Tour of Historic Houses of Worship, Dec. 27

Looking for something to do after Christmas? Join the American Guild of Organists and eight local historic churches for mini Christmas organ recitals and tours of the decorated sanctuaries on Sunday, December 27, from 2-5 PM. Donations from the event benefit the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS program). The public is free to come and go to any church in any order during the stated hours.

Participating Churches:
First Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Loudoun St. (2-4 PM only)
Braddock Street UMC, 115 Wolfe St.
Centenary United Church of Christ, 204 S. Cameron St.
Christ Episcopal Church, 140 W. Boscawen St.
First Baptist Church, 205 W. Piccadilly St.
First UMC, 308 N. Braddock St.
Grace Lutheran Church, 26 W. Boscawen St.
Market Street UMC, 131 S. Cameron St.

The event will be helf between 2-5 PM. Organ recitals will be held on the hour and the half hour. Tours of the sanctuaries will be held on the quarter hour and three-quarter hour. Special organ programs for children will be held at 3 PM at Braddock Street UMC and at 3:30 PM at Grace Lutheran Church.

A map the the church locations and the flyer is available online at at First Presbyterian Church.

Holiday House Tour Final Notes

As we near the last hours before the 39th annual Holiday House Tour kicks off, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

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

The normal PHW phone number (540-667-3577) will not be staffed during tour hours so as not to interrupt house tours.

The hours for the house tours are Saturday (Preview Party and Candlelight Tour), 6-9 pm, and Sunday (Daylight Tour) from 1-5 pm. The Preview Party house (703 S. Stewart) will be open only on Saturday evening.

There will be complimentary warm drinks at the Bough and Dough Shop as in previous years.

The costumed carolers are expected to perform on Sunday 1:30-3:30 pm (weather permitting). They will start and end at the Winchester Little Theatre, and travel to the houses open on the tour.

The weather is forecast as sunny and highs in the 50s for both days, with temperatures falling to the 30s at night.

Have a safe and happy Holiday House Tour, everyone!

Winchester Star Article Highlights Holiday House Tour

The Winchester Star ran the preview article written by Stephen Nielsen and photographed by Ginger Perry for the Holiday House Tour today:

Sandra Bosley, executive director of Preservation of Historic Winchester, decorates the banister leading up the stairs at the Hexagon House, one of the stops on the annual PHW Holiday House Tour 2015. --GINGER PERRY — Sandra Bosley, executive director of Preservation of Historic Winchester, decorates the banister leading up the stairs at the Hexagon House, one of the stops on the annual PHW Holiday House Tour 2015. –GINGER PERRY

For the 39th year, Preservation of Historic Winchester is providing a unique look into the historic homes of the downtown area at its Holiday House Tours.

“This might be one of our best tours,” said Sandra Bosley, executive director of Preservation of Historic Winchester (PHW).

Candlelight house tours will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, and daylight tours will run from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. On Saturday, in addition to the tours, there will be a preview party at 703 S. Stewart St. The five tour locations are 608 S. Stewart St., 226 Amherst St., 530 Amherst St., 220 W. Boscawen St. and 24 S. Washington St.

The weekend will also feature the Bough and Dough Shop selling handmade crafts, holiday decorations and greenery at the Winchester Little Theatre at 315 W. Boscawen St. The shop will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

. . . The home of David Look and Terry Frye, a Queen Anne style building built in 1888 by businessman Alexander Baker at 24 S. Washington St., is expected to be one of the biggest draws this year.

“It has been painstakingly restored,” Bosley said. “It is probably the most restored house in Winchester.”

The house was purchased in 1983 by Hal and Betty Demuth, who restored it to a single family residence with Victorian furniture and ornamentation. The current owners moved there in 2014 and still have some of the Demuth collection of Victorian furnishings.

After visiting the Holiday House Tour locations, participants are encouraged to have a look at the Bough and Dough Shop for their own holiday decorations. The shop will feature handcrafted items like pottery, soaps, watercolor prints, woodwork and scarves.

. . . Like last year, the proceeds from the shop will be donated to the Winchester Little Theatre’s renovation campaign for the replacement of the roof and other projects.

Read the full story online (login required).