The summer edition of PHW’s newsletter is now available online. Click here for a PDF copy.
We would also like to take a moment and note the Samuel Noakes House was listed as #1 in Design Bureau’s top 100 architectural and design interiors. In addition, it was the only building featured from Virginia. Congratulations again on a beautiful project, inside and out!
It’s another short post this week as we continue to work on PHW’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (spots are still available!).
This special two-part tour and lecture focusing on Staunton was coordinated in 1988 by Katie Rockwood and Kay Whitworth. The first phase, a lecture, was held in the Old Stone Church on East Piccadilly Street in Winchester. Ann McCleary, Curator at the then newly opened Museum of Frontier American Culture, spoke on the early 18th and 19th century architecture of the Shenandoah Valley, and how the Frontier Museum interprets the lives of the early pioneers.
The second phase was the field trip to Staunton. The first stop on the bus trip was the Frontier Museum itself. At that time, two homesteads were completed – the Scotch-Irish and the Appalachian farm. PHW’s guests were offered a special guided tour on this trip, as normally experiencing the site was unguided.
The tour group had a private tour and lunch at Belle Grae Inn, which at the time was a gourmet hotspot in an 1870s Italianate home converted to a bed and breakfast establishment.
After lunch, the group meet with representatives from the Historic Staunton Foundation for a walking tour of the downtown, with an emphasis on how their Facade Improvement Program impacted both the appearance and economic vitality of their downtown. Some of the highlighted spots included Trinity Church, Stuart House, C.W. Miller House, and The Oaks.
No history post this week as we continue to work on PHW’s 50th Anniversary celebration, but don’t despair! You can easily spend the weekend paging through PHW’s slides of Loudoun Street, circa 1970-1990 at Flickr.
Also, don’t forget about two upcoming events:
First, the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Taylor Hotel, this afternoon, 4 PM at the Taylor Hotel.
Second, Movie Night “Moving Midway,” presented by Magic Lantern Theater and the MSV, tomorrow evening, August 16 at the MSV starting at 7 PM.
Have a safe and happy weekend, everyone!
As you may have deduced from past Friday Photos posts, the 1980s were the most active period for the Jennings Revolving Fund. This was a critical period which saw some truly remarkable renovations take place. This activity helped to much of the core downtown after decades of rampant demolitions for parking lots.
The unfortunate side effect of this work is that by returning these buildings to single family use, the renters in the multiple apartments were displaced. The massive amounts of work to the buildings naturally led to a rise in property values and slowly began to change the perception of neighborhoods like Potato Hill from somewhere undesirable to a safe and attractive neighborhood. This displacement, called gentrification, was one of the main criticisms leveled at PHW and the Revolving Fund.
Although PHW’s approach to Revolving Fund purchases was to offer a current renter the ability to purchase the property, in most cases this was not feasible for the renter. The Revolving Fund houses were often in disrepair past the point of someone inexperienced and not financially stable taking on the task of renovating them on their own. It is hard to imagine someone diving into renovations for the first time with properties like the Grim-Moore house, 215 S. Loudoun, or the Huntsberry Building and reaching a successful outcome.
To that end, PHW partnered with the City on a Community Development Block Grant for Kent Street. The CDBG was primarily aimed at reversing blight in rental properties and focusing on maintaining the existing building stock as the likelihood for new construction declined. A secondary motivation was in response to the fear of the downtown as a whole declining as the key anchor stores moved to the Apple Blossom Mall. By keeping the surrounding neighborhoods inhabited, there was more chance of businesses remaining downtown because of the built-in clientele.
All told, the 1980 CDBG project addressed safety and blight concerns in 28 residential properties on North and South Kent Street. Fire hazards were one of the highest cited problems for the neighborhoods. The houses typically lacked central heating and relied on wood stoves, kerosene heaters, or portable electric heaters, all of which raise the potential for fires. The data collection for the CDBG also found many buildings did not have adequate plumbing (some never having been connected to the existing sewer service) and many were overcrowded. There were also insufficient fire hydrants and in some cases the very streets were too narrow for fire equipment to access.
The houses were renovated to provide fire breaks and improve electrical wiring conditions. At the same time, sidewalks, water lines, and sewer lines were improved and the stone retaining walls on South Kent Street were repaired. PHW’s focus was primarily on South Kent Street in the 300 block. Seven of the units on South Kent Street were under PHW’s purview. Although reactions to the project were mixed and it never quelled the concerns about gentrification, one unit in particular was called out as a prime success story.
311 1/2 South Kent was the smallest of PHW’s units and the first to be renovated. Completed and put up for sale in 1982, potential buyers would have to qualify under special Department of Housing and Urban Development restrictions because the house was renovated with CDBG funds. It didn’t take long for the house to find its new owner. After being listed in February and shown in an open house event, the home was sold to Daryl Monn and his family in May. (1) (2) It had been a perfect opportunity for Monn, who had been struggling to find a home. Through PHW, the Monns could realize their dream of home ownership.
A copy of the 1980 CDBG Kent Street paperwork is on file at PHW and is available to researchers seeking more information. See the Flickr album for images of 311 1/2 South Kent Street before and during PHW’s renovation.
Magic Lantern Theater and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley will be hosting an outdoor screening of the film “Moving Midway” at the Museum on August 16, 7-9 PM.
This is a highly engaging film with a preservation theme – the relocation of a large North Carolina plantation home called Midway several miles from a busy commercial highway. What begins as a project of engineering becomes a meditation on Southern history and traditions. The engineering details of moving a large antebellum house are fascinating, as are the broader historic, social and racial issues and the impact on those, black and white, with ties to the plantation.
More details on the event are at www.magiclanterntheater.org and themsv.org. For background on the film, see IMDB.com and Rotten Tomatoes.
We will return to our normal history posts next week, but for now, please enjoy some images of South Kent Street on Flickr.
What is Preservation of Historic Winchester all about? Watch this quick intro video to learn what started the organization and some of our major projects over the past fifty years. Versions of this slideshow were presented several times in 2014, most recently at the July 26, 2014 Design Expo on the Old Town Mall in Winchester, Virginia.
Background music from OverClocked ReMix http://ocremix.org
“Aeris Lives” by Kevin Lau – http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01295
“A Healer’s Touch” by Level 99, Avaris – http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02230
Want to explore Winchester’s architecture, but find the “250 Years of Architecture Tour” tour too long? Try “Explore the Old Town Mall”, which was first presented this past Saturday at the TVBA Inside & Out Home and Design Expo. It concentrates on the highlights of the Old Town Mall. Download a copy, or stop by our office for a printed version!
We take a little break from the downtown mall this week with a look at one of the more unique situations in PHW’s Revolving Fund history A row of four lots, encompassing 601, 603-605, 607, and 609 South Cameron Street, was purchased by the Jennings Revolving Fund in 1981. Like 215 South Loudoun last week, the three existing buildings were in poor condition, while a fourth had already been razed following a fire. This was the first, and to date only, time an empty lot was part of a Revolving Fund purchase. (1)
The properties were held for many years by two families. 601 and 603-605 S. Cameron were both built by James A. Fuller, a Winchester railroad engineer. 601 was constructed in 1846, and 603-605 in 1882 (though like 215 S. Loudoun, deed references indicate there may have been an earlier dwelling on the site which did not survive.) These properties remained in the Fuller family until 1946.
The house at 609 S. Cameron St., and the lot at 607, were both owned by the Funk family. 609 S. Cameron was constructed circa 1860 for Christopher Funk, a bricklayer. His son James N. W. Funk was an undertaker and proprietor of Funk and Ray Undertakers, located at 7 S. Market (Cameron) St. 607 and 609 S. Cameron remained in the Funk family until their purchase by PHW in 1981. (Note the Winchester Star cites the location of Funk and Ray Undertakers as 7 S. Loudoun St. It appears the error originated in PHW’s research and was passed on to the newspaper.)
The interesting story may be the house at 607 S. Cameron. The Funk-owned house here had been destroyed by fire in the 1920s. Although offered as a rare chance for new construction in the Historic District, the lot instead became a once in a lifetime chance to move a historic property from outside the district into its boundary. The house is recorded in PHW’s notes as originating from 901 S. Cameron St., approximately the juncture of Millwood Avenue/Gerrard Street and Cameron Street. Presumably this house was in danger of demolition for the strip mall now located at 101-113 Millwood Ave., which was constructed circa 1983. The May 1984 PHW newsletter notes this house was “laying on its side, under a black tarp” before the reconstruction process began.
This Friday we bring you one of our favorite things: a photographic documentation of a building rehabilitation. The houses at the intersection of Cork and Loudoun Streets, just off the walking mall, had been in decline for some time, adding to the visual perception of the downtown as a dirty and unsafe place to be. PHW purchased the house at 215 South Loudoun Street in 1979. The building was in dilapidated condition, inside and out, and would require extensive work to make it inhabitable once more.
George and Vivian Smith stepped up to the challenge. Over the next two years, the Smiths worked on the home. The building was originally tentatively dated pre-1885; as work on the interior commenced, the existing moldings and mantels suggested a circa 1840-1850 timeframe. Later, the building received a facelift, adding Italianate features like the arched windows, doors, and front porch. A frame wing to the rear of the main brick house was apparently constructed over the site of an earlier structure. Archeological work during the rebuilding of the frame portion revealed the remains of a stone chimney, fragments of Canton ware, and an 1831 penny.
Deed research by PHW supports these archeological findings. The lot was purchased by John Lauck in 1821. Some sort of dwelling was likely in place by 1828 when it was purchased by William Blanchard. Language of the deed in 1852 when the property was sold to Edward Hoffman seem to indicate the brick house was not yet constructed. Tax records for 1881 indicate a jump in assessments, leading to speculation the Italianate improvements may have taken place that year.
Work on 215 South Loudoun included repairing the existing porch and shutters, rebuilding and repointing the walls, jacking and leveling the frame extension and replacing the siding, and repairing and reglazing the existing windows. PHW placed special protective covenants on this property to specify all work during the repointing was to be done with hand tools to not damage the brick. Interior upgrades included new electrical, HVAC, plumbing, insulation, bathroom and kitchen facilities, as well as modifications to the interior stairs.
With so much work to be done, it will come as no surprise 215 South Loudoun was a tax credit project. It was granted a Winchester Historic Building plaque in 1982. Much like the Huntsberry Building, this property displayed a dramatic upswing in value post-rehabilitation. PHW sold the property for a little less than $23,000. In 1985, the Smiths’ asking price was $125,000. The building, just off the walking mall, was used by the Smiths for their business, but was returned to residential use by its current owners.
