This Place Matters 2009
Show your appreciation of significant places this May for National Preservation Month

Last year, the National Trust started a campaign called “This Place Matters.” It is a simple campaign: Take a photo of yourself in front of a place that is significant to you. Share why your place matters – be it a nationally recognizable landmark or your favorite local diner, they are all priceless to you, and we want to hear your story. This year, Preservation of Historic Winchester is asking you to do the same. Here’s how you can share your significant place with us:

• Make a sign or banner with the words “THIS PLACE MATTERS.”
• Take a photo of yourself, or a group of friends, at your favorite place holding your sign. Or you can make a “mini-documentary” and upload the clip on YouTube.com.
• Share your story and photo/video at www.phwi.org in the comments under the news event “This Place Matters,” which will be posted as our top event from May 1 to May 30. Files should be hosted online through a hosting site like Photobucket, Flickr, or YouTube to use this option.
• Alternately, if you do not have online file hosting, you can submit your photo and story directly to PHW’s email, phwi@verizon.net, or regular mail addressed to PHW, 530 Amherst St., Winchester, VA 22601.
• There is no limit to the number of places you may submit.
• All stories, photos, and videos submitted to PHW via the website, email, or mail will be collected and posted on tthis page. Photos and/or stories may be used in a display at PHW’s Annual Meeting in June.

Example: Sandra Bosley, The Hexagon House
Throughout my childhood, coming into town meant a trip past the strangely shaped mansion on the hill. My summers were spent tracking the progress of the daylilies on the front lawn and wondering who lived in that house. Whoever they were, they had to be lucky to have such a beautiful and unique building! Every Apple Blossom, a trip on foot along Amherst Street would be interrupted for a few minutes while I gazed longingly up the driveway, wondering who was using the building. All the while, I was still left wondering, “What is in that house? Who designed such a crazy looking thing? And when can I get in to see it?”

You can only imagine my delight when PHW was offered the chance to return to the building after a little more than a decade in the Kurtz Building. A few of PHW’s board members and I were invited to visit the house for a tour while it was empty. It was love at first sight, naturally. PHW did decide to return its offices to the Hexagon House, and I found myself in the positioned I’d envied as long as I could remember – the lucky person who was using the house. While the house is architecturally significant and provides a chronicle of the struggles of PHW and the community undertook to preserve this jewel from encroaching development, this place matters most to me because the Hexagon House is like home – and in my mind, there can be no higher compliment than having a place feel like home.

Debra Johnson, The Union Bank Building
My Dad was the Historian of the family. I was not, but something must have rubbed off on me, as old things had always fascinated me such as antiques & old buildings. The town of Winchester Virginia became my home in 1979. Our first home in this town (a fixer-upper), was purchased by PHW’s Revolving Fund & sold to us as affordable housing. A contract told us we would have to maintain the historic integrity of the home.

As time went on, I became infatuated with Winchester’s Historic District, & particularly the Old Town Pedestrian Walking Mall. In 1992, I was lucky enough to invest in another (fixer-upper) Historic Building as a new home for my retail business. By then I had the “History Bug”. In 1997, my husband needed a workshop for his business. At that time commercial buildings were far more affordable than homes. We found a neglected old building whose façade had been covered with blank aluminum, a modernization of the 60’s era.

The rear of the building was perfect for a workshop & the storefront was occupied by a paying tenant. I don’t think many people knew what existed behind the ugly old aluminum, but we did after peaking outside the upstairs windows. That’s when we really knew that “This Place Mattered”. When the right time came to restore this structure, we learned that it was the only Cast Iron Victorian building in the town, the Union Bank Building. After educating myself about this style of architecture, we applied for loans & historic tax credits. After much hard work and research, we were very proud to return the ugly old building back to it’s former glory. This place matters to me!

Avery Snyder, 124 East Clifford Street
This place matters to me because it is my childhood home. As most people, I have fond memories of the home in which I spent most of my youth. This home is a good size, but as a child it was huge. Growing up as an only child without any “in house” playmates, this house kept me company: Several bedrooms to hide away in, a huge attic that was my very own playroom and a gigantic yard to run around. Most of my happiest memories took place in this home ant that is why this place matters.

Sandra Bosley and Flurry, Whittier Park
Whittier Park is one of our favorite places to take a walk. Our favorite spot is this giant Eastern Cottonwood tree behind Calvary Baptist Church. The watershed area around the trees has provided for plenty of different species of plants and animals to call the area home, including ducks, yellow finches, and plenty of buttercups. The tree is one from Winchester that made The Remarkable Trees of Virginia Project website. It's not a sycamore, but this tree matters to us!

Submit your own special place! Click here to leave us your story and photo in a comment or drop your story and photo to us in an email at phwi@verizon.net.