I had been asked when education became PHW’s primary mission a few weeks ago. You might remember from the 50th Anniversary blog series post Education Becomes PHW’s Mission pegged this date as September 1970, following the loss of the Conrad House and prior to the creation of the Jennings Revolving Fund. But has the wording of the mission changed significantly over the years?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is as follows:
The earliest extant draft of the by-laws in 1967 includes a purpose statement to encourage “the preservation of ancient buildings and structures, and of places which hold historic interest in Winchester, Virginia and its environs and to collect and disseminate information and factual data. . .”
By 1973, the statement of purpose will sound quite familiar (punctuation and grammar as written in 1973):
Preservation of Historic Winchester, Inc., organized by concerned members of the community and incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, exist for the purpose of safeguarding the heritage of the City and assuring a quality of life for tomorrow represented by the best of the area’s past.
To the end that this goal may be encouraged among the people and the charm of their community maintained and improved, this organization shall through a program of education enlist support for and participate in the preservation, restoration, and ownership of sites, buildings, structures and objects significant to the (cultural, social, political, economic and architectural) history of the Winchester, Virginia area.
In the pursuit if these objectives, the fostering of civic pride, the uses of beauty, the welfare and pleasure of the residents, and the strengthening of the local economy shall be viewed as important by-products of the purpose defined.
The Jennings Revolving Fund was added in 1976, but the statement that education is the main vehicle by which PHW promotes preservation has remained largely unchanged since 1973. A grammatically incomprehensible revision in 1999, likely due to missing a line during retyping, was corrected in the 2003 by-laws revision.
(All known PHW by-law revisions on file from 1967, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1999, 2003, and 2010 were consulted to write this post.)