Friday Photos: Back to the Past Edition

PHW brings you over 350 photos for this week’s edition, with the bulk of the images coming from the 1976 Architectural Survey of Winchester (with the majority of those having been previously posted on Picasa). Along with the new additions, we have done some housekeeping and created a few new albums to capture previously uncategorized or unidentified photos. See below for a list of the new albums.

18 E. Clifford

PHW Events
Rose Hill at Featherbed Lane
PHW Tours
PHW Annual Meeting, 1978
Blues House
Germain Street
1976 Architectural Survey (approximately 1/3 of the 1976 survey photos at this time)

Coming This Weekend: St. Paddy’s Celtic Festival

ShamrockOld Town Winchester will celebrate the community’s Irish and Scottish roots with the first St. Paddy’s Celtic Festival in Old Town on Saturday, March 12, 2016 from noon to 9 p.m. These free events will take place inside several businesses and, weather permitting, on the Loudoun Street Mall.

Performances will be held inside the 50/50 Taphouse, Brewbaker’s, Bright Box and Union Jack. The events are free to the public, but space inside the venues is limited. A percentage of food and drink sales at the performance locations will benefit Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County.

Learn more about this event, the performers, and the other activities taking place this Saturday at oldtownwinchesterva.com.

Friday Photos: Three Little Albums

We have three albums for you today that have been transferred to Flickr. They may be small in comparison to last week’s extravaganza, but these albums pack a concentrated punch of history.

Construction of the Winchester Towers

“Uncovering Your Hidden Gems” Photo Contest top entries, 2012.

Construction of the Winchester Towers, images tentatively dated from 1960-1961, probably taken by E.E. Bayliss, Jr.

Artifacts from the Samuel Noakes House, photographed before the silent auction in 2013.

We had a much smaller readership in 2013, so if you missed the backstory on some of the Noakes house silent auction items, you can read these following histories:
Rumford Baking Power
Winchester Coca-Cola Bottles
Bromo-Seltzer Bottles

Friday Photos: Revisiting the Grim-Moore House

The Grim-Moore House

This week we revisit one of the largest undertakings in the history of PHW’s photo digitization project: The Grim-Moore House album. This set is nearly 550 photos taken between 1977-1982 by Virginia Miller during the renovation of this Jennings Revolving Fund house. The Millers documented almost every step they took to save the log and brick houses at 510 and 512 South Loudoun Street, from the initial walkthrough still showing the deplorable living conditions in the apartments, the Victorian details they removed to return the building to something closer to its appearance in the early 1800s, to their documentation of a building too far gone to save, and even a surprise setback when part of the foundation crumbled mid-rehabilitation. The album passed on to the new owners, Joe and Sharon Collette, and was digitized in preparation for a small PHW gathering in the home before the Collettes made some cosmetic updates and opened the house for the 2014 Holiday House Tour.

Part of what made this album both informative and challenging was Virginia Miller’s notes on the back of the photos. Her captions were extensive enough to date and explain what and where the photos were taken, but also rather idiosyncratic, making the transcription process involved. You may see in some of the captions a few unknown words or seemingly nonsensical sentences. The notes were transcribed to the best of our ability, and during the transfer from Picasa to Flicker a few typos and words were corrected.

As we noted when this album was first posted, “[t]his is a fascinating and telling example of how PHW’s Revolving Fund can save ‘junky’ properties from neglect and almost certain demolition and restore them to contributing structures in the Historic District.” If you missed it, only caught a portion of the slides during the Holiday House Tour, or just want to page through some amazing before and after photos, this album should keep you occupied this weekend.

Research Source: The American Woods

Via the Public Domain Review, we have learned about the digitization of a rare fourteen-volume work entitled The American Woods by Romeyn Beck Hough, published between 1888-1928, which features many plates of paper thin wood slices in addition to the usual written descriptions and lithograph drawings of the specimens. We receive the occasional question about identifying wood species, so this work may help you visually identify now-rare species potentially used in historic buildings.

There are two online sources to view the wood plates:
Internet Archive (Full books with text and plates)
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Plates only)

If you prefer a physical copy to peruse and buying an authentic set with real wood plates is out of the question, a reproduction using high-quality facsimiles of the original wood plates entitled Romeyn B. Hough: The Woodbook was released in 2013. This edition arranges the specimens in one volume alphabetically with descriptive text and accompanying lithographs.

Coming Soon: Art Exhibit and Mount Hebron Cemetery App

March is shaping up to be a busy month. First, on Saturday, March 5 at 2 PM in the Handley Library Auditorium, John Lewis, Maral Kalbian, and George Schember will present the “Mount Hebron Cemetery Introduction to Mobile Friendly App.” The presentation covers the recently completed Android and Apple GPS-based Memorials and Tour App which allows visitors to use their mobile devices to locate and learn about historical grave sites and places of interest in the cemetery. This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Handley Library and the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society.

Second, The Shenandoah Valley Tapestry Project presents “A Stitch in Time,” from March 1-April 30 at the Virginia National Bank. This is an exhibit of artwork to highlight many of the talented people working on The Tapestry Project. This show is organized by the Winchester Chapter of the Embroiders’ Guild of America (WEGA) and the Multicultural Club Collage and sponsored by the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, the Handley Regional Library and The Friends of Handley Regional Library, and the Shenandoah Valley Chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild.

You are cordially invited to the opening reception on Thursday, March 10 at 2:30 pm, 186 N. Loudoun St., Winchester, VA. For more information, call 703-608-3924.

Friday Photos: Smorgasbord Edition

Continuing our transition from Picasa to Flickr, PHW has an incredible array of photos for you this week.

Monmouth Street

Over thirty brand new additions have been made to:
North Avenue
Stewart Street
Boscawen Street
National Avenue
Indian Alley
Monmouth Street
Cecil Street
Kurtz Cultural Center Exhibits

Over 240 photos have been transferred from Picasa to the following albums:
Kurtz Cultural Center Exhibits
Salvaged Greenhouse
Kent Street
Hiram Lodge Frescoes
311 1/2 South Kent Street
Lovett Building
PHW 1973 Grand Event
1975 Chamber of Commerce Event
Cedar Creek Battlefield
Abram’s Delight

Happy viewing!

Architectural Mysteries: What’s That Hook?

Chandelier Hook During the Holiday House Tour, a few people commented on the hook in the center of the kitchen lighting fixture at the Hexagon House. Before the chandelier’s transition to electricity, the hook likely held a smoke bell to catch any soot from burning the oil or gas fuel before it could stain the ceiling.

Hexagon House Chandeliers Although not identical to the chandelier at the Hexagon House, you can see a number of gas fixtures with smoke bells in the National Park Service’s Gaslighting in America book. Plate 82 in particular is quite clear. Still not convinced? There is one other smoke bell installed downstairs at the Hexagon House. You can view this smoke bell at close to eye level by partially climbing the stairs to the second floor.