The PHW Office will be closed Monday, July 4 and Tuesday, July 5. Enjoy the long holiday weekend, and we’ll be open as usual on Wednesday, July 6!
See more vintage 4th of July postcards at Cardcow.com
Included in those new additions are also sixteen interior photos of 214 Sharp Street, once the home of John Markell (d. 1865), a local carpenter. The house has a number of fine interior features you would expect from a woodworker’s home. For those with the time and inclination to do some light legal reading in Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, John Markell’s will was contested to clarify the ownership of the house, yard, and garden at 214 Sharp (Warwick) Street after his widow’s death. Although not as sensational a reading as the various Baker Chocolate court cases, it is an interesting look at the personal property owned by the Markells and a valuable source of family names and relationships for researchers.
There is plenty of summer fun to be had around Winchester this July. To start the month off, head downtown on Friday, July 1 for the monthly First Friday events with musicians, special gallery events, and later hours for some businesses. See some of the events taking place in Old Town on their event page. First Fridays is sponsored by the Old Town Winchester Business Association and the Winchester Main Street Foundation. Check out the First Fridays in Old Town Winchester Facebook Page.
Come back on Sunday, July 3 for Rockin’ Independence Eve for a full day of music, family-friendly activities, and even a Snow White Grill hamburger eating contest, before ending the evening with a fireworks display. Rockin’ Independence Eve is hosted by the City of Winchester, Old Town Winchester, and Winchester Parks and Recreation and is free and open to the public. Find more information at Old Town Winchester.
On Saturday, July 9, head out to Kernstown Battlefield for a Highland games competition hosted by the Kernstown Battlefield Association and Clan Adrenalin. Refreshments will be available for sale. Activities run from 9 am to 5 pm. To learn more, visit KBA’s website or Facebook page.
Last but not least, on Saturday, July 16, the Blues House Music Festival & Motorcycle Poker Run returns to the Eagles Outdoor Pavilion at 700 Baker Lane, Winchester, from 11 am – 7 pm. Festival tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. Net proceeds from the event benefit Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County. See all the performers, ticket sale information, and other event information at their website winchesterblueshouse.com.
This week, we added 59 photos from the 1976 Architectural Survey to the PHW Flickr account. Five are the houses on Lafayette Place, a small alley off North Avenue between Loudoun and Braddock Streets. At the time of the survey, the alley was unnamed and those structures had North Loudoun Street addresses.
The remaining 54 photos are on North Loudoun Street in the 200-500 block range, including the now demolished former Sears building and GW Motors. The 500 block photos extend past the current Historic District, and the handwriting on those survey forms indicate those were researched at the same time by the same person as the National Ave. properties added a few weeks ago. As with the National Ave. forms, a few contain brief chain of title research and some original owner names.
As the Loudoun Street album is getting quite large, the best way to see the new additions is at the top of the photostream. Enjoy this trip down memory lane (or up the GW Motors ramp), and have a happy weekend!
Join Tim Youmans, Winchester Planning Director and amateur local historian, for a podcast-style presentation on the research that he has undertaken to document the origin and significance of all of the named streets and alleys, both public and private, within the current 9.3 square-mile area of the City of Winchester. The inventory includes over 515 current and former street and alley names. Some of the oldest street names date back to the mid 1700s while others are just now under construction within new developments. Watch the video below or at YouTube.
View a condensed version of the slides used in this presentation at the city’s website.
Opening and closing music:
George Street Shuffle
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
This week, PHW has added about 40 photos to the following albums on Flickr. As always, see all the new additions at the beginning of the photostream, or at the end of their respective albums:
Morgan Street (1976 Architectural Survey)
Kurtz Cultural Center (“Before Freedom Came” and other exhibits)
Kidzfest 2016
Annual Meeting 2016
We would also like to take a moment to congratulate the award recipients pictured in the Annual Meeting 2016 album, as well as two winners who could not join us last Sunday.
Awards of Merit
These awards recognize renovations of houses or buildings that contribute to improving the character of their neighborhoods and maintaining the overall historic fabric of the city.
Lawton Saunders & Larry Omps
317 South Cameron Street, the Old Jail
(not pictured)
Lindsey Richardson and Brandon Wakeman
414 North Loudoun Street
(not pictured)
Winchester Little Theatre
Phase 1 of the Restoration Campaign
315 West Boscawen Street
Accepted by Marjorie Lewis and Vonderene Swigart
Ben Belchic Awards
This award is named in honor of Ben Belchic, a founding member of PHW. Ben Belchic was also an active member of the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, so the Belchic award recognizes a significant contribution to understanding Winchester’s history. These awards are generally presented for written texts, such as books, maps, National Register nominations, and guided tours.
Mount Hebron Cemetery
Mount Hebron Cemetery History App
Accepted by John Lewis and George Schember
Bob Hampton and George Schember
Walking in the Footsteps of General Daniel Morgan
Accepted by Bob Hampton and George Schember
Patron’s Award
This award recognizes a person or business which has been an outstanding supporter of the goals and programs of PHW. This award usually recognizes a financial component (donations, fundraising efforts, etc.)
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
For ten years of in-kind support of PHW
Accepted by Julie Armel
Lifetime Achievement Awards
This award recognizes a person who has worked for the goals and programs of PHW over many years. Whereas a Henkel Award may recognize a short term, high-impact project, Lifetime Achievements are a recognition of “slow and steady” work for preservation efforts over the long-term.
Katie Rockwood and Patricia Zontine
Presented by Bruce Downing, accepted by Patricia Zontine and Tom Rockwood
The following PHW board members completed their terms this year. Please take a moment to thank them for their service the next time you see them!
Sharon Collette
Kathy Cresegiona
Nancy Murphy
Richie Pifer, Jr.
Sarah Smith
Doug Watson
Also, be sure to congratulate Tim Machado for joining the board this year, and Bruce Downing for stepping up to be President of the PHW board.
Habitat for Humanity of Winchester-Frederick County will be hosting an event for children aged 8-15 this Saturday, June 18th, to teach them about philanthropy and building skills. Children may build bird and dog houses, which will then be sold at Habitat’s ReStore. Habitat also will be collecting cans of dog food to donate to the SPCA. Space for these events is limited and registration is required.
For more information or registration forms, please visit the event page.
We hope you will forgive us for not having new photos this week with our Annual Meeting looming on Sunday, June 12. In exchange, we would like to share a recording of a TEDxRiversideAvondale presentation “Historical Preservation – A Radical Conservative Liberal Concept” by Wayne Wood. The presentation is an encapsulation of the historic preservation movement with all its quirks and contradictions which cut across political affiliations. Some of these themes will be very familiar and resonant to the creation of PHW and other preservation organizations and their battles to save historic neighborhoods and conserve often highly vulnerable pieces of well-made architecture. You may view the approximately 16 minute video at YouTube or in the embedded video player below.
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2016
Time: 2-5 p.m.
Place: The Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA
Cost: Free for PHW members and invited guests. Voting at the business meeting is restricted to dues-paying PHW members.
Activities: The annual business meeting includes the election of board members and presentation of the 2016 PHW Preservation Awards. Following the business meeting, which is expected to last about one hour, we will enjoy a light reception, homebrew beers, and (weather permitting) lawn games. The Hexagon House will be open for guided and self-guided tours (including the second story). For something a little more relaxing, you may sit down for a few minutes and color a house.
Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016
Time: Noon-1 p.m.
Place: OakCrest Companies, 126 N. Kent Street, Winchester, VA
Cost: Free and open to the public
Lunch: Bring your own lunch
Parking is limited and on-street parking is metered; we recommend utilizing the George Washington Autopark, across the street from OakCrest.
We hope to see you at one or both events!
We have added 43 new photos from assorted locations and events to PHW’s Flickr this week, with the majority being on South Loudoun St. from the 1976 Architectural Survey. See all the new additions at the beginning of the photostream. Happy viewing!
