Thanks to our friends at the Waterford Citizens Association (WCA), the village always celebrates Independence Day with a bang. This year, the July 3 potluck supper on the lawn of the Old School was highlighted by the traditional pie contest--an eye-popping 13 entries filled the tables, and the judges, including Foundation executive director Ken Rosenfeld, managed to fulfill their duty of carefully considering each one. An impressive fireworks display followed at Water Street Meadow.

On July 4, the traditional parade through the village was followed by a picnic. WCA annually sponsors this two-day patriotic celebration, in cooperation with the Foundation. 

Waterford's Fireworks [Image by Sky Richardson]

Led by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy President Nicole Hamilton, they set out to locate Monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars, as part of an international campaign to boost the survival rate of the species, which has been severely challenged by drought, over and above all the other risks an insect that takes on a 2,500-mile migration each year contends with. The Farm is a registered Monarch Waystation.   

The first egg is found.

The volunteers set out to collect eggs and caterpillars in order to rear them artificially, ensuring that a higher percentage of the already-reduced populations make it to adulthood, breed, and continue the generations that travel from temperate to tropical North America annually.

The first egg.

At first intimidated by the challenge of locating such a tiny speck, and after some false starts, the group found the first egg--then another, then several tiny caterpillars, and then more eggs. At the end of the hunt, one volunteer watched a Monarch flutter away from a milkweed leaf, approached, and found a very freshly laid Monarch egg underneath.   

Volunteers countywide are raising the caterpillars in special cages at home, and after the butterflies emerge, they will gather for a "butterfly social"--the insects will be released together, allowing them to more easily find mates, breed, and start the next generation.

We anticipate that one release will be early in August, and will announce it when the date is set. 

Contact Hamilton at nhamilton@loudoun-wildlife.org if you would like to participate in the Monarch rearing program. 

To commemorate the  70th anniversary of the Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit (October 4, 5, 6, 2013), the Foundation invites all descendants of former Waterford residents to Heritage Day on Sunday, October 6. Special activities for descendants are planned for that day, including a discounted Fair ticket, name tag with your ancestor's name, a
special reception, and a chance to record your family's story. We also hope to have some historic family homes available for a scheduled visit by the families involved.

A photo donated by the Shuey family to the Archives shows local thespians The Waterford Players, assembled for an official Christmas performance cast photograph.

The Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit is one of the go-to festivals for pottery collectors on the East Coast. The variety of classic, contemporary, and folk techniques and patterns from some of the country's finest artisans give Fair visitors an enticing array of colors and shapes from which to choose.

Winton and Rosa Eugene [image from American Craft Magazine]

Each individual piece carries a message about the cherished heritage from which these two artists have come. Their works evoke imagery and memories from a past shared by African-Americans and Caucasians alike. Their work has been featured in museums and art galleries across the south and as far away as Germany and China. Their larger "story" pieces are prized by collectors.

The Eugenes produce traditional forms such as jars, pitchers, bowls and vases--but the designs which they carve into and/or paint onto the surface of the pots are the focal point of their art.

The Kissick Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina, includes in its collection some of the Eugenes' "face jugs," a southern American traditional form that may trace its origin to the early 1800s in the Edgefield area of South Carolina. The form spread to North Carolina and Georgia.

See the Eugenes' and our other potters' work at the 70th Waterford Fair on October 4-6, 2013.  

A bowl, jug, and pitcher from the Eugenes' studio.

Thanks to the generosity of Sylvia and Robert Shuey of Loudoun County, two pieces of Waterford history have returned to the village. The Shuey family was prominent in Waterford during much of the 19th century, marrying into the Bond and Atlee families, among others.

The items were purchased by Sylvia Shuey when furnishings from the School on Second Street and John Wesley Methodist Church in the village were being sold by the owners, in the 1960s or 70s.

The pew has the straight arm-rest edge along one end that matches other pews presently at John Wesley, but has a scrolled edge on the opposite end, implying that it may have been installed on an aisle, or have been used by the choir in front--most of the pews remaining at John Wesley (completed in 1891) are much longer, with more elaborate trim and turnings.  Some have surmised that these more primitive benches came from the Second Street School during the period it was used as a school (1867-1957) and church for the African American community (1867-1891).

Just as the pew may have come from another building, the double desk, matching other double desks at the Second Street School, may have originally come from the Old School. Along with many other initials, a last name carved into the desk is "Shawen," a white family that first came to the village in the 1700s. Some have surmised that after a young Shawen student--and no doubt many others--carved his or her name into the desk, the parents at the Old School decided to get new desks. Some of the old ones may have been passed along to the black community, who received much less money per pupil from the county than the white schools received.