Category: Holiday House Tour

It’s that time of the year! PHW is proud to announce the lineup for the 2015 Holiday House Tour on December 5 & 6:

• 315 West Boscawen Street, Bough and Dough Shop (open to the public December 5 from 9AM-5PM and December 6 from 11 AM-5PM, no entry fee)
• 703 South Stewart Street, Preview Party House (open December 5 from 6-9PM only)
• 608 South Stewart Street
• 226 Amherst Street
• 530 Amherst Street
• 220 West Boscawen Street
• 24 South Washington Street

Ticket Information:
Bough and Dough Shop
Open to the public, no ticket required! Please come in and shop for your holiday greenery and gift-giving, and even pick up lunch! Like last year, PHW will donate the 20% proceeds collected from the Shop vendors to the Winchester Little Theatre’s Restoration Campaign.

Two-Day Party & Tour Ticket
Includes access to the Preview Party (includes food and drink) and all the homes for the Candlelight Tour on Saturday, December 5 from 6-9 PM AND access to the homes on Sunday, December 6 from 1-5 PM
Cost: $40/PHW member, $50/nonmember

Sunday Daylight Tour Tickets
Includes access to the homes on Sunday, December 6 from 1-5 PM
Cost: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
An individual house may be visited on Sunday, December 6 for $5 per stop.

Advance tickets are anticipated to go on sale the week of November 16 at the following locations:
The Final Yard, 33 East Gerrard Street
Kimberly’s, 135 North Braddock Street
Wilkins’ Shoe Center, 7 South Loudoun Street
Winchester Book Gallery, 185 North Loudoun Street
Winchester-Frederick County Visitors Center, 1400 South Pleasant Valley Road

Advance tickets will be sold at the Bough and Dough Shop on December 5 from 9 AM-5 PM and December 6 from 11 AM-5 PM. The Bough and Dough Shop is able to process credit cards in addition to cash and checks.

Stay tuned next week as we begin our coverage of Holiday House Tour with in depth looks at the tour stops and the Bough and Dough Shop.

510-512 South Loudoun Street
The Grim-Moore House
The Home of Joseph and Sharon Collette
Site of the Preview Party on Dec. 6, 6-9 p.m.

Catering by Becky Parrish, A Matter of Taste
With samples of holiday home-brewed beers provided by Jeff Rudy

Musician: Linda Beavers, Pianist

The Grim-Moore House consists of two separate buildings, now joined into one residence by a modern kitchen addition. The circa 1760 log house at 512 South Loudoun was built for the Grim family, while the larger brick structure at 510 was built circa 1796 for Henry and Kate Moore. Henry operated a granary on the property, while Kate was renowned for her dress shop and ladies’ merchandise. The home was purchased from PHW in 1977 by Bill and Virginia Miller, and they undertook the task to save these two structures.

During the initial renovations, traces of the shelves which once lined the living room indicated its use as Kate Moore’s shop. The dining room mantel of yellow pine features acorns, a motif seen on several other early Winchester mantels. Extensive corrective work was required to level the log house, which can still be seen in the slant of the mantel in the log house.

17 East Monmouth Street
The Home of Tommy and Sarah Beavers

Conrad Crebs bought the land that this house sits on from James Marshall on March 4, 1799. This clapboard-sided log house likely was built for one of the eleven Crebs children. Some portion of this house was standing by 1823 when the property, including “lot and improvements,” was transferred to John Crebs, a grandson of Conrad Crebs.

It is one of the oldest structures on Monmouth Street, and as such it has seen many alterations over the years to keep up with fashions. The last was a twentieth-century addition of pebbledash siding and a Craftsman-style porch. The current owners removed the stucco and replaced the porch, as well as adding solid paneled wood shutters. This façade improvement earned them an Award of Merit from Preservation of Historic Winchester in 2013.

610 & 612 South Loudoun Street
Owned by Dr. John Chesson

These two buildings were originally owned by Conrad Crebs, a Hessian soldier from Hesse Cassel. Crebs came to America as a soldier under British General John Burgoyne during the Revolutionary War. He was later captured and brought to Winchester as a prisoner of war. He remained here after his release, married, and built several houses on Potato Hill.

612 South Loudoun was Conrad Crebs’ residence. The two-and-a-half-story Federal-style log dwelling is clad in beaded weatherboard siding, capped by a copper roof with dormers. The interior features four huge limestone fireplaces, while the living room includes an exposed log wall. The narrow, winding stairs to the second story lead to a seven-sided hall. A small study has a trap door and pulley used to haul large items from the living room to the second story.

610 South Loudoun was used as Conrad Crebs’ wagon-making shop. There are two large, forge-like limestone fireplaces and intriguing round holes in the interior exposed log wall, presumed to be relics of the shop. Both properties were purchased by the PHW Jennings Revolving Fund in 1979. Renovations will begin soon at 612 South Loudoun.

602 South Loudoun Street
The Home of David and Margery Wingenbach

The house at the corner of South Loudoun Street and East Monmouth Street is an impressive example of early Federal-style limestone construction in Winchester. The façade features dressed, coursed stones, while subsequent elevations consist of loosely coursed rubble. The interior framing is hand-hewn post-and-beam construction. The rafters in the attic are marked with saw-cut Roman numerals so they could be assembled from the beams measured and cut at ground level. The original floors are retained on the second story and in the attic. Six of the original seven fireplaces are functional, the seventh having been converted to a furnace flue in the cellar.

The house stands on land granted to Charles Grim by Lord Fairfax in 1759. Charles Grim was a member of Daniel Morgan’s Riflemen during the American Revolution. The property passed to his son Jacob Grim, then Jacob Anderson, before being purchased by Conrad Crebs in 1786. Accounts vary as to whether the Grim family or Conrad Crebs built the existing stone house; one theory suggests Crebs enhanced a structure built by the Grims.

By 1908, the Charles Grim House was altered for commercial use, later a tourist home, and subsequently modified into three apartments. Traces of this modification can be seen in the stone patchwork above the entrance and the first floor windows where there had been two doors and a porch.

221 South Cameron Street
The Home of Eugene and Sarah Smith

This house sits on part of Lot 202, which was granted to (Johann) Adam Haymaker, an immigrant from Hachenburg, Germany, in 1759 from Lord Fairfax. The Haymakers were primarily gunsmiths and blacksmiths, but also boasted skilled mechanics and carpenters in the extended family. In Adam Haymaker’s will of 1808, Lot 202 was subdivided and the portion along Clifford Street was given to his grandson, also named Adam, to be held in trust until his twenty-first birthday by Christiana Haymaker. It is presumed the house at 221 South Cameron was built by this Adam Haymaker circa 1820. Later, the log structure was imbued with Italianate style through the addition of brackets and a porch with turned posts and sawn balustrades.