It’s official! The Architectural Treasure Hunt Contest has arrived in time for National Preservation Month. Click here for the contest form (PDF).
For printed versions, look for Old Town Compass and the Winchester Star each Friday in May.
Happy hunting!
While we are preparing for Apple Blossom in Winchester this weekend, the celebration of our traditions and town won’t end there. National Preservation Month is coming in May under the theme “Celebrating America’s Treasures.” With that in mind, PHW has teamed up with the Old Town Development Board to host an architectural treasure hunt downtown. Look for the official contest form in The Winchester Star every Friday in May, and in May’s edition of Old Town Compass.
Don’t forget about “This Place Matters,” either. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a map for you to add your special place and let the world see. Add yours and read about the other sites already posted here.
Stay tuned for more preservation-related activities coming in May, culminating with PHW’s Annual Meeting on June 5.
Where do you go to learn the hands-on trade of preserving and maintaining historic buildings? Traditional Building revisited their 2005 exploration of the preservation trade education this April in an article by Gordon Bock. Find the full article here.
Continue reading Preservation Trades Education
State officials from toured downtown Winchester on Monday as part of a two-day trip around the theme of “Prosperity Through Preservation.” Historic tax credits were discussed in conjunction with Winchester’s success stories, such as the Lovett building, as well as the ongoing projects at the Solenberger building and Taylor Hotel, among others.
Rebecca Layne of the Star reports:
[Doug] Domenech [Virginia secretary of natural resources] was often unable to hold back his enthusiasm, at one point describing the downtown as “the place to be.”
“It’s very impressive what’s happening here,” he said. “You’ve got the right combination of public and private commitment. There’s a real vision here to transform the downtown.
“We’re here to discover ways the Department of Historic Resources can be involved more in Winchester,” he went on, adding that the DHR administers the tax-credit program.
Jim Deskins, executive director of the Economic Development Authority and economic redevelopment director for the city, led much of the tour. “What the whole revitalization is about is reaching back into the past and dusting it off and putting it back into the future,” he said.
Click here for the Winchester’s Star coverage of the tour downtown (login required).
Click here for the related Open Forum by Bob Bartley (login required).
Click here for TV3’s coverage of the plans for the Taylor.
Winchester’s downtown was recently recognized by the Main Street program as the first in Virginia to reach $100 million in private investments. The watershed project, as cited by Karen Helm, executive director for the Old Town Development Board, was the Feltner Building at 9 Court Square in the mid-1990s.
Though less than $12 million total (without adjustments for inflation) had been invested downtown in the previous decade, then-President Wilbur M. Feltner got the bank to invest $2.5 million to renovate the building.
. . . .
“After a successful completed project,” Helm said, “there’s more of a sense of security that if somebody comes and makes an investment down here, they’ll get a return on their investment. I don’t think anybody likes to be the first to have confidence in an aging downtown, but Mr. Feltner did.”
Read the full article by Vic Bradshaw in the Winchester Star here (login required).
Find Old Town on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Town-Winchester-VA/
If you have a need for historic bricks in your project work, then you may want to consider bidding on a pallet of bricks recently removed from the City’s renovations to Cameron Street and Braddock Street. Starting on April 8th, you may bid on these historic bricks by going to www.publicsurplus.com, a web site specific to governmental surplus.
Celebrating Patsy Cline, Inc. (CPC) announces the opening of a new Patsy Cline exhibit at the Winchester-Frederick County Visitor Center, 1400 S. Pleasant Valley Road, Winchester, VA, beginning Saturday, April 9, 2011.
This special display was made possible by Ann Denkler, Professor of History at Shenandoah University. “These are exciting times for our organization,” notes Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf, Executive Director, Patsy Cline Historic House, as renovations are underway at 608 S. Kent Street. “This showcase of Patsy Cline items has never been viewed by the public and builds excitement for the anticipated opening of the Historic House.”
The exhibit is comprised of some original personal documents and collections mixed with reproductions of items belonging to Patsy Cline. The special exhibit will remain on display until the official opening of the Patsy Cline Historic House.
The Visitor Center is opened daily from 9 am – 5 pm. For more information on happenings in our community, visit www.VisitWinchesterVa.com. Don’t forget to follow the progress at the Patsy Cline house on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patsy-Cline-Historic-House .
A team of architectural historians from EHT Traceries were interviewed yesterday by TV3 News. The historians are surveying the buildings as part of PHW’s and Winchester City’s ongoing efforts to update the National Register nomination for the historic district.
To them, the buildings are a glimpse into a past life. It’s a source of pride. [Lauren Trice, EHT Traceries Project Assistant,] says “when you walk out and people see you out there looking at buildings, you sort of instill a sense of pride in them. It’s like yeah I live in Winchester I live in the Historic District, people care about this.”
Click here for the full story.
Winchester’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR) presented its annual report to the City Council on March 15. The report detailed the ways the BAR works to fulfill the objectives of Winchester’s City Council, outlines the relevant ordinances, and enumerates the applications approved, denied, and withdrawn from 2006-2010 among other data.
If you missed the meeting, click here to see the slide presentation (pdf).
Preservation Virginia is accepting nominations for its 2011 Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Sites list. The list is issued annually to raise awareness of Virginia’s historic sites at risk from neglect, deterioration, lack of maintenance, insufficient funds, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy.
Nominations must be received by April 7, 2011. Application information and forms may be found by visiting: http://www.preservationvirginia.org/EndangeredSites/