Calendar
1 August Tomorrow!
Butterfly Count, Phillips
Farm, sponsored jointly
with the Loudoun Wildlife
Conservancy. 9 a.m.
Contact Nicole Hamilton,
nhamilton@loudounwildlife.
org, to register.
14 August
Marks Brothers and
Friends, concert, 7:30
p.m., Catoctin Presby-
terian Church, Waterford.
5 September
Waterford Community
Picnic, Old Mill, 5-8 p.m.
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Fair preparations accelerate
Preparations for the 66th Waterford Homes Tour
& Crafts Exhibit, October 2, 3, and 4, are moving into high gear.
Advance ticket sales begin August 10, online, by
phone, and at ticket outlets throughout the region. Go to the Foundation ticket page for
information on prices and outlets. There is an option to purchase a
two-day ticket for $25.
Houses on tour this year have been chosen and soon
will be listed on the website.
Thirteen new demonstrators will join our many
accomplished artisans, providing visitors with a front row seat for
observing skills, tools, and techniques from our nation's history.
Prospectuses for the Fair's popular art and
photography exhibits and competitions have just been mailed. Information on the
Foundation website now provides details on this year's Red Barn, Art Mart,
Florence J. Kiley Scholarship, and photography exhibits. Interested artists may
request competition information by email or phone. Further updates will appear
closer to the event.
This year's beautiful Fair poster is soon to be
printed; it will be available for purchase beginning on Friday, October 2. Members get a sneak peak on Varnishing Night, October 1.
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New membership
structure in effect
Foundation supporters who have received membership renewal letters
so far this year will know that the Board of Directors voted to simplify membership
structure in 2009, replacing our previous donor levels with a two-level
structure of individual ($50) and family ($100) memberships. Individual members
receive one ticket to the Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit, and families
receive three tickets. All members receive invitations to Foundation events,
notice of activities, and a subscription to our newsletter. We are grateful for the generous additional donations that many members provide, which are fully tax deductible.
And now, in addition to renewing by credit card online,
members can download a membership form from our website to mail in.
Members' tickets to the Fair will be mailed in
September. If you are uncertain whether your membership is current, please
contact Martha Polkey at the Foundation office, 540-882-3018. (If you last
renewed your membership at the 2008 Fair or subsequently, you will receive
tickets for this year's event.)
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Labor Day weekend picnic set
Mark your calendars for a picnic at the Old Mill from 5 to 8 p.m. September 5.
Bring your own family picnic or purchase a barbecue supper and drink
from Paeonian Grocery Gourmet.
Enjoy the history and nature of
the Phillips Farm: watch us cut the ribbon to the new Phillips Farm nature
and history trail, and join us for a guided tour.
It's a chance
to visit with neighbors and enjoy Waterford's treasures! More information to
come. |
Support us through Amazon purchases
There is another way members and supporters can assist the Waterford Foundation: by linking to Amazon.com through our website when you plan to purchase goods. The Foundation earns a bit from each such link. Go to this Foundation webpage to click on the box, save that link in your browser, and start shopping! |
Board of Directors
Susan
Sutter, President
Walter
A. Music, Vice-President
Bonnie
Getty, Secretary
Melanie
L. Herman, Treasurer
David
Bednarik
Margaret
Bocek
Charlotte
Gollobin
Warren
Hayford
Hans
Hommels
Stephanie
Kenyon
Lori
Kimball
Kathryn
Koblos
Debbie
Morris
Phil
Paschall
Patti
Psaris
Nick
Ratcliffe
Tom
Simmons
Bronwen Souders
Jim
Sutton
Miriam
Westervelt
Staff
Nancy
Doane
Executive Director
Margaret
Good
Director,
Properties & Land Use Programs
Kathleen
Hughes
Manager, Development Programs
Fran
Holmbraker
Fair Chair
Mary
Kenesson
Fair Assistant
Martha
Polkey
Communications & Operations Coordinator
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From the President
Dear Members,
Did you know that the Waterford Foundation attracts more
than 25,000 people from as many as 44 states to its Waterford Homes Tour and
Crafts Exhibit? Now in its 66th year, the Fair is the premier Loudoun County educational, cultural, and
tourist event.
Mark you calendars for this year's Fair, October 2, 3, and
4. We look forward to seeing all of you at this unique and wonderful event. If you
are interested in volunteering to work in the Fair, please call our office, and
Fran, our Fair Chair, will be sure to find a fun job for you. We simply could
not operate the Fair without the hundreds of volunteers that give so freely of
their time each year.
If your business would like to help sponsor the Fair, we
have three levels of sponsorship that include listing your business and its
website in our beautiful Fair booklet, along with free and discounted tickets. Your
business sponsorship helps us defray the costs of staging the Fair, thus
increasing the income that is the main source of revenue for operations
throughout the year. Please respond to our letters currently being sent to area
businesses, or please call our office.
Also, if you or your family would like to underwrite a page
in the Fair booklet, letters will be going out soon offering this opportunity
to have your name listed at the bottom of a page in the booklet.
Recently the Waterford Foundation signed the renewal of the
Land Use Agreement, which enables the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy to use
volunteers on the Phillips Farm to control invasive species, establish native
plants in the riparian buffer, and monitor water quality in the South Catoctin
Creek. We applaud their efforts as well as the leadership of Mimi Westervelt
and others on the Phillips Farm Committee.
Finally, I would also like to give a huge thank you to all
of you who helped us meet the Cabell Grant challenge! We received $100,000 from
the Cabell Foundation because we were able to raise the matching $300,000. Now
we are half way toward beginning construction on our new Cultural and Educational Center-what a feat! We will continue our
efforts over the next few months, and we look forward to working with all of
you toward beginning the construction of our beautiful new building.
Thank you for your support in all of our Foundation's many
activities.
Sincerely yours,
Susan Sutter President |
WEBSITE ADDITION
African American history explored on new web pages
Thanks to grant support from the National Park Service and
the Estate of Paul Mellon, we are pleased to introduce a new part of our website,
which describes key aspects of Waterford's
unique African American history. Focusing on where they worked (Waterford's
Mill), where they worshipped (John Wesley Community Church), and where they were
educated (Second Street School), the African American history web interactive brings to life the childhood
memories of village residents, displays period photos and items from the
Foundation archives, and provides narratives of this important part of
Waterford history.
From a historic map of the village, web visitors click on a
location, and then can choose to watch a video documentary, view an image
gallery, or explore an interactive thread, such as discovering personal
histories of individuals in a photo of the 1920 John Wesley Community Church
congregation, and taking an American history quiz on what students in Colored
School A, Jefferson District, learned in 1880.
Video documentaries include interviews with former students
of the Second Street School
and Foundation archivist and Board member Bronwen Souders. Narration is by James Kennedy, a descendant of Jonathan Kennedy, who was a student in the Second Street School in 1880. Jonathan's father was a trustee of the school.
Sincere thanks to our consultants, Glenshaw
Interactive and Boru TV, for their amazing talent in bringing alive this facet
of Waterford's
history. Enormous gratitude also goes to the Foundation's Education Committee,
especially John and Bronwen Souders, for lending their time and great expertise
to this effort.
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'Musical Remarks' concert
set for August 14 in village
 Jethro, David, Theo, Paolo, and Vincent Marks come home every summer to Mt. Gilead,
west of Leesburg, from musical pursuits around the world. On August 14 the Marks brothers and friends will give a special concert
at the Catoctin Presbyterian Church in Waterford, the first in a series of concerts in the "Musical Remarks" summer music festival. In addition to chamber music by
Beethoven, Taneyey, and Boccherini for strings and flute, the ensemble will
perform short sketches by local composers taking part in a composition
competition.
Admission is free, but contributions to the musicians and to the Raise
the Roof Campaign to rebuild the Old School auditorium in Waterford are welcome. The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the church, 15565 High Street, Waterford.(This concert is not
part of the regular concert season.) Don't miss this outstanding celebration of local
talent.
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Old Mill reveals history,
bit by bit
Dr. Cary Gravatt describes the purpose of a
piece of mill machinery for those attending a
tour and lecture. [photo by Mimi Owen]
On the evening of July 20, about 30 people crossed the
threshold of the Old Mill cellar for the first time in 60 years, listening to
Dr. Cary Gravatt's discussion of the mill's history, operation, and
significance. They were able to do so following the recently completed restoration
of the original cellar entrance by Cochran's Stone Masonry and Timberframing.
Cellar access previously had been only for the agile--through a cellar window. The
restored entrance makes doing further restoration work there easier, and it is
the first step toward more significant renovations enabled by a SAFTEA-LU grant
awarded last year.
This new grant provides funds for stabilization of the structure--requiring
more work in the cellar. Monies are also
available to provide access to the attic and stabilize that level of the
building. The attic and cellar are the
most historically significant areas in the mill, so providing better access to
each area will allow visitors a better understanding of mill function (as well
as make it easier to maintain the building).
As the work continues, more of the mill's nooks and
crannies, and the history they reveal about Waterford's agricultural and industrial past,
will be on view.
The cellar restoration was approved by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation (the easement holder) and the Loudoun County
Historic District Review Committee.
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Waterford welcomes visitors
The summer brings visitors to
the National Historic Landmark District of Waterford from far afield. Over the
past year or so, our guest book shows that "drop in" visitors to the Foundation
office have come from 27 states and 10 foreign countries (Canada,
Austria, Germany, Italy, England, Wales, Turkey, Iran,
Russia, and New Zealand).
The Foundation always welcomes children to the
village, as a participant in the Virginia Association of Museums TimeTravelers
program, which encourages the exploration of Virginia museums and historic sites.
Children can obtain a "passport" and have it stamped at the Corner Store, and
at well over 200 other sites in Virginia. For more information on this program and to download a
passport for your child, visit the TimeTravelers website. 
Children and parents from Bethlehem
Baptist Church
in Washington, D.C.,
walk up Bond Street
to tour the John Wesley Community
Church earlier this
month. Docents Sherry Satin and Judy Jackson shared Waterford's rich history with the group of 37
children, their teachers, and parent chaperones on a tour of the village and
buildings.
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Second Street School:
The students write
Occasionally a class of students attending the Second Street School Living History Program sends letters describing their day in the life of an African
American child attending this one-room schoolhouse in Waterford. Below we share with you two student thank you notes sent following the spring session.
Soon SSS Program coordinator
Judy Jackson will be preparing for a new season of this popular program. Loudoun's fourth-grade teachers will receive letters inviting
them to participate, and Education Committee
members will sit by the Foundation's telephones, waiting for the
onslaught of calls beginning at 9 a.m. sharp on the day that class
registration opens.
Volunteers to play the part of Miss Nickens, the nineteenth
century school teacher who leads students through a typical 1880 school day in Waterford, are always welcomed, and program coordinator
Judy Jackson invites aspiring docents to contact the Foundation.   |
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P.O. Box 142 Waterford, VA 20197 540-882-3018
www.WaterfordFoundation.org
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