April 1, 2008
Walking tour, Historic architecture of Petersburg
Willie Graham, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Curator of Architecture, will lead a free walking tour through Old Towne Petersburg’s historic architecture explaining how the popular frame and brick technology changed and developed over the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The tour is sponsored by the Historic Petersburg Foundation (HPF) and will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 12.
Graham will begin the tour at HPF’s headquarters at 420 Grove Avenue. From there, participants will be led down Cross, High, Sycamore and Old streets before returning to HPF headquarters via Grove Avenue. The program is estimated to take one and a half hours.
The walking tour is limited to 25 participants. Reservations must be made in advance by calling HPF at 732-2096 and will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.
As the curator of architecture at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Graham oversees reconstruction and restoration efforts. His research focuses on traditional building construction technology. A recently completed project is a multi-decade restoration of Peyton Randolph’s townhouse and the reconstruction of its rear-yard domestic and work buildings. Another research effort currently underway is the research and design for the reconstruction of David Douglass’ 1760 Williamsburg theater. This project includes preparation of drawings for the creation of a virtual model of that building as an initial element of Virtual Williamsburg, the digital recreation of the town as it appeared on the eve of the Revolution. He has promoted the use of advanced technologies to probe buildings as a way to understand better how they were built and used. He lectures and conducts fieldwork on early buildings in America, the Caribbean and Europe.
HPF is a 41-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to serving as a catalyst in the preservation and development of Petersburg’s historic neighborhoods and commercial areas and promoting widespread knowledge of the city’s unique architectural and historical heritage.
For more information on the presentation, call HPF at (804) 732-2096.
YAY Keith and I are signed up - was afraid this late in the game the 25 spots would be filled up. Here’s to hoping that it isn’t raining =)
This was GREAT! Keith and I enjoyed it!! Willie is quite the subject matter expert and you could tell he really enjoyed passing on his wealth of information.
The weather held up nicely until about we got around High St. and Sycamore St. and then….the deluge began. We had to scoot out a bit early to pick up the grandbaby but it was a very, very nice experience.
I had no idea there was so much history in Old Towne. I got a new digital camera and took some pics (no where near as good as some of the stuff I’ve seen in the Petersburg Pool) Now if I can figure out how to get my photos from FLICKR into the Pool thing…I’ll be doing good.
Chuck, I can help you with the Flickr to Petersburg pool…
What was your favorite architechual factoid from the tour?
I would have to say my favorite was the bit where Willie said he crawled under the (for lack of better descriptives) black & purple house on High Street and found out that it was actually 2 homes that had been put together. THAT WAS AWESOME!
Hmmmmmmm…..
Sounds interesting. I’ll keep a lookout for a black/purple house.
Shawn,
It’s this house:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redden-mcallister/2410558651/
Which is directly across from this house:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redden-mcallister/2411383668/
*crosses fingers that this will work after clicking submit*
Oh yeah!
Where I lived before here with a TON of houses that looked similar to this one. Lots of copulas, bellevadeers.
Are they put together front to back?
Thanks for adding all the sweet pics Chuck. Good eye for detail, like that star in the porch detail… :-)