Preservation of Historic Winchester

We have been very pleased with the online ticket sales this year for the Holiday House Tour, but unfortunately we are nearing the end of our window to mail physical tickets to get them into your hands ahead of the tour. Get your last orders in now so we can get your tickets out in Saturday’s mail! The online order form will be disabled soon.

Still waiting to see how the weather goes for the tour weekend before buying tickets? Physical tickets may still be purchased in person at the Bough & Dough Shop at 530 Amherst St. during our normal operating schedule, or at the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center and Kimberly’s in Winchester. For absolute last minute shopping, tickets will be available at the door of the houses the day of the tour, but for the increased price of $30/person.

Join us at Vibrissa Beer & Kitchen for a drink and enjoy a generous 20% discount with your Holiday House Tour ticket. Don’t miss out on this amazing deal to satisfy your thirst and tantalize your taste buds after exploring Winchester during the tour!

Formerly home to the Winchester Star, Vibrissa boasts a large production brewery, taproom, full service kitchen, and indoor/outdoor seating. This adaptive reuse project won a Preservation of Historic Winchester Award of Merit in 2023. Parking is available on the side of the building!

Open Sun-Thurs: 11 AM-9 PM, Fri-Sat: 11 AM-11 PM

vibrissabeer.com

PHW extends our gratitude to Kay Hallet, a business card advertiser in our Holiday House Tour booklet. Sponsorships like this help us to put together the event and make it a success every year. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Tickets are available for purchase now from our online store, and are available now at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Tickets are also available at the Bough & Dough Shop, open Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 AM-5 PM at the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St.

This single-family brick dwelling sits on the corner of West Cecil and South Washington Streets, enhanced with mature shrubs and foundation plantings. Constructed circa 1905, the Colonial Revival style house is composed of the main block graced with a full-width Doric-style front porch, and two additions to the rear, including a partially enclosed porch.

For many years, the home was owned by Katherine Solenberger, wife of hardware salesman Jno. S. Solenberger. In the estate auction of 1952, the house’s superlative features included a “full bath on 1st and 2nd floors, lavatory on third floor and toilet in basement,” with its proximity to Handley High School mentioned as an afterthought.

The main hip roof is punctuated by three half-hipped dormers. The one overlooking Washington Street is the most elaborate, with a tripartite window with a central 8/1 flanked by 4/1 windows. All the first and second story windows are enhanced with soldier brick jack arches and operable louvered shutters. Inviting visitors to step inside the home are segmentally-arched double-leaf doors with leaded glass, sheltered under the generous porch. Be sure to note the round-headed, stained glass window gracing the West Cecil Street side of the home.

PHW thanks homeowners Bryan and Christa Lewis for opening their home to the Holiday House Tour.

PHW extends our gratitude to Maral Kalbian, a business card advertiser in our Holiday House Tour booklet. Sponsorships like this help us to put together the event and make it a success every year. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Tickets are available for purchase now from our online store, and are available now at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Tickets are also available at the Bough & Dough Shop, open Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 AM-5 PM at the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St.

The exterior of this ca. 1846 Federal-style home has evolved gracefully through the centuries. Many changes were made around the turn of the twentieth century and in the 1920s. The most recent changes, undertaken by the present owners, included removal of the 1920s pebbledash stucco, revealing remarkably well-preserved wood siding beneath.

The original entry on Washington Street faces a stairway with a gracefully curved banister at the upstairs landing. Painted details such as a carved ceiling medallion and stair brackets give texture and history to the older part of the house. The last renovation also added a library on the north side and reconfigured the kitchen area, smoothly blending the historic elements with contemporary features. The updated kitchen is enhanced by glass pendant lights over a shiny black granite countertop and a large open area with sunny windows on the south and west.

The library features a partner’s desk of tiered mahogany, said to be a replica of one owned by George Washington. A north window has been converted to a door, allowing access to a charming enclosed city garden featuring a herringbone brick and bluestone patio and a historic outbuilding with pebbledash finish.

PHW is grateful to Tom and Lucy Rockwood for opening their home to the tour.

PHW extends our gratitude to Dominion Real Estate Associates, a business card advertiser in our Holiday House Tour booklet. Sponsorships like this help us to put together the event and make it a success every year. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Tickets are available for purchase now from our online store, and will also be available soon at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Tickets will also be available at the Bough & Dough Shop, opening Nov. 17.

Step back in time with this charming 1800s home that combines history with modern living. This historic log cottage covered in weatherboard siding has been expanded and adapted many times over the years. The building may have been a “starter home” for Charles Grim, Jr., whose father willed this property to him in 1778.
The building’s humble beginnings and unpretentious demeanor are reflected in the assortment of window styles, dormer addition, Victorian-era porch, and multiple rear additions, each one showing a choice to enhance or improve the building to the current needs of the owners.

The property left the Grim family in 1866, likely coinciding with the first building expansion of an ell and an Italianate-style front porch with jig-sawn brackets and pendants. The next wave of expansions happened in the 1930s and 1950s. Work included digging out a basement and removing an exterior chimney, as well as adding a large display window for the building’s time as a twentieth-century meat market. Beulah Carpenter, who purchased the home in 1938, was quoted in the 1976 Architectural Survey, “We sold over 3,000 hogs here.” Today, the building has been returned to residential use with an interior just as charming as its exterior.

PHW is grateful to homeowners Lindsay Browning and Jayden Sibert for opening their home to this year’s tour.

PHW extends our gratitude to The Shenandoah Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, a half page advertiser in our Holiday House Tour booklet. Sponsorships like this help us to put together the event and make it a success every year. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Tickets are available for purchase now from our online store, and will also be available soon at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Tickets will also be available at the Bough & Dough Shop, opening Nov. 17.

The first owner of this lot, William Cocks, built an inn or tavern on this site in the 1750s. George Washington stayed here in 1755 before the completion of his living quarters at Fort Loudoun. While that original inn has been lost to time, the second structure, built by prominent local businessman James Gamul Dowdall, still stands.

This Federal-style dwelling, built in 1792, was made of local limestone, shaped into rough blocks as a hint to the wealth of James Dowdall. The symmetrical facade features a double-leaf wood door topped by a delicate spiderweb transom window. The interior is one of a handful of local buildings with acorn motif decorations and other extremely skilled woodcarving. This may be the work of James Foley, who worked with the owner Lewis Lindsey on an interior remodel and expansion in 1825.

George W. Kurtz, a local furniture maker and one of the state’s first embalmers, purchased the property in 1894. He used the building as his residence and the Kurtz Funeral Home business. After his death, his daughters, Mrs. Virginia Temple O’Rear and Miss Lucy Fitzhugh Kurtz, occupied the house and continued the funeral home until 1968.

Harrison & Johnston, PLC, plans to offer tours on the first and second level of this spectacularly restored building.

PHW extends our gratitude to Belle Grove Plantation, a half page advertiser in our Holiday House Tour booklet. Sponsorships like this help us to put together the event and make it a success every year. Thank you!

Holiday House Tour Tickets are available for purchase now from our online store, and will also be available soon at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center. Tickets will also be available at the Bough & Dough Shop, opening Nov. 17.

This year has flown by, and amazingly we’re almost ready for the start of our Holiday House Tour season with the opening of the Bough & Dough Shop on Nov. 17. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting news of the houses which will be opened for tours on Dec. 3, wait no longer!

We are very excited to offer three homes and one historic office this year:

• 21 South Loudoun Street
• 613 South Loudoun Street
• 101 North Washington Street
• 400 South Washington Street

We are also thrilled to have a special partnership location this year with Vibrissa Beer & Kitchen at 10 North Kent Street. They have generously offered Holiday House Tour ticket holders a 20% discount on orders when showing their House Tour tickets.

Getting excited? Ticket prices will be $25/person in advance, or $30/person at the door of any of the tour sites. While it currently looks like program booklets may not be available until Nov. 17, we will likely have tickets to our advance sale locations at Kimberly’s and the Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center by Nov. 15 as planned.

Thinking about ordering online in advance? We will be selling the tickets through our online store, also planned to go live around Nov. 15. You can save shipping costs by entering promo code “CURBSIDE” and picking up your tickets at the Bough & Dough Shop in the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst St., Wednesdays-Sundays between Nov. 17 and the Sunday of the Holiday House Tour. We’ll also be able to sell tickets to walk-ins at the Shop right up until the House Tour on Sunday.

Once again this year we have to extend our gratitude to the Bank of Clarke County Foundation, which has been a major supporter of the Holiday House Tour. The printing of our program booklets is covered by their sponsorship; we would literally not be able to do the program booklets without their financial support. Thank you!