Winchester’s Celebración is this this Sunday, September 22! Come downtown to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from 11AM – 5PM on the Old Town Mall. The festival will include a children’s art activity tent, Latin dancing lessons, a dance performance by a Mexican children’s dance troupe, artisan tents, “country” tents with each tent representing a different Hispanic country, and much more. “Celebración” benefits the Winchester Main Street Foundation (WMSF). Admission to “Celebración” is free to the public and the event will happen rain or shine.
For curated reading (and watching), the National Trust recently posted PastForward 2019 Preview: Saving Urban Neighborhoods —Mindy Fullilove.
From Open Culture, Visit the Homes That Great Architects Designed for Themselves: Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius & Frank Gehry. There are seven short videos (most 5-11 minutes long; one slightly over 30 minutes) to accompany the article text.
From Dead Store to Pop-Up ‘Social Infrastructure’ tackles a distressingly common problem for areas undergoing change. Instead of punishing owners with taxes or registries for vacant buildings, this nonprofit group has created a way to utilize the building for social gatherings. The occupation of the vacant building helps draw activity back to areas that seem off-putting without a business in residence. Better yet for the nonprofit, because the relationship is mutually beneficial, the owners do not charge the nonprofit rent.
Last, a fun and educational article from Atlas Obscura, Sometimes Trash Is Treasured in America’s National Parks. As the article states, “Under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA), anything found on federal land. . .that is 100 years or older is considered an archaeological resource. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which created the National Register of Historic Places, lowers the age threshold to 50 years but has other criteria, such as association with an important person or event.” Not all trash is created equally, and the article is a good look at how it is handled when left in place and what happens when removed trash cannot be put back at its origin after some overzealous cleaning.