PHW will kick off our 51st year with the Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 28 at the Winchester Little Theatre. A large part of what we look forward to celebrating at Annual Meeting, aside from the food and friends, is seeing the preservation projects that have happened around Winchester over the past year.
The awards were started by PHW in 1980 as preservation instead of demolition started to become the norm. The awards were intended to encourage the often lonely and unrecognized efforts of local preservationists. Initially, all projects, whether building restorations, leadership, or scholarly research, were awarded a certificate of merit.
In 1986, the Lucille Lozier Award, Ben Belchic Award, and Carroll H. Henkel Award were added to the merit awards to recognize specific preservation projects. As longtime PHW members or readers of the 50th Anniversary blog series may know, these three awards were named in honor of founding members of PHW who had passed away by this point in time. The Henkel award, named for PHW’s first president, honors individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership for historic preservation in the Winchester-Frederick County area. The Lozier award, named for PHW’s president during the final year of the struggle to save the Conrad House, is awarded to a renovation of a significant structure retaining 75% of the historic architectural fabric. The Belchic award, named for PHW’s first resident historian, recognizes a significant contribution to understanding Winchester’s history through written texts, such as books, maps, National Register nominations, and guided tours.
In 1988, the Elsie Rosenberger Award was added to the roster to recognize volunteerism with PHW. This award also is the only one to date which is recognized with an engraving of the volunteers’ names on a silver octagonal platter which remains on display year-round at the PHW office.
Two more awards were added in the 1990s. The first, the Katherine G. Rockwood Revolving Fund Award, was initiated in 1996. Named for the mastermind behind many of PHW’s projects of the 1970s and early 1980s, including the 1976 Historic District survey and the Limestone, Sycamores, & Architecture book, this award is only eligible to the approximately 80 properties PHW has purchased through the Revolving Fund. Until this time, it had been standard not to recognize the work put into the Revolving Fund properties as a quality restoration was part of the agreement to purchase the property. Added the next year was the Patron Award, recognizing outstanding supporters of the goals and programs of PHW. As it usually encompasses a financial component, it is likely to recognize sponsors or large donors to the organization.
The newest award is the Lifetime Achievement, which came to be in 2009. E. E Bayliss, Jr., who had long been PHW’s go-to realtor for the Revolving Fund, had passed away shortly before the Annual Meeting and no particular award seemed to fit the work he had done for PHW. After brainstorming, we decided the best recognition would be a Lifetime Achievement to recognize a person who has worked for the goals and programs of PHW over many years. Whereas a Henkel Award may recognize a short term, high-impact project, Lifetime Achievements are a recognition of “slow and steady” work over the long-term. The award is often presented posthumously to recognize a PHW supporter who may otherwise be unrecognized despite long years of preservation work.
Ten more names will join the list of PHW Preservation Award winners this Sunday, and a new recognition category will be presented as well. The winners won’t be publicly released until following the meeting, but you can review the past winners from 1980-2014 at PHW’s site.
We hope to see you Sunday as these names become inscribed in PHW’s history!
