Lynchburg Day Trip, Part Two ... Porch Research

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you probably already know that one of my long-term projects is researching and recreating millwork elements for our front porch.  Our house was built as a gingerbread Gothic Revival ... during a renovation in 1967, all of the trim was stripped and replaced with colonial-style flat trim.  The front porch lost its Gothic Victorian gingerbread long before that.

I believe that this is the oldest photo that we have of our house, taken in the 1930s.  Notice the ladder leaning against the side of the house.  I have another photo that shows painters working on the front door surround.  My theory is that the front porch railing and tapered box columns were new at this point.

Our porch currently looks like this.  We rebuilt it in 2005, replacing rotting framing, posts, floor, and trim.  It has been in this state for so long because we found no clues about what it may have looked like originally.  Whatever we do is going to be our interpretation and recreation of an 1800s porch ... a fact that has made me very nervous.

Cedar 4x4 support posts, and a railing made from 2x4s and 36" grade stakes.

Last winter, one day while I was pondering my porch problem, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  I don't remember exactly what terms I used in my search, but whatever it was helped me find buried treasure ... this photo of the John Marshall Warwick house in Lynchburg!

Source

The Pinterest pin linked to an album of photos on Flickr, where I found this photo of the house's facade.  (There are nine photos in the album.  Click HERE if you want to see them for yourself.)

Source

Our second stop during our Lynchburg day trip last weekend was to see this house in person.  It definitely did not disappoint.

This porch has everything that I have considered using on the redesign of our porch ... double front columns, sawn balusters for the porch railing, fretwork corner brackets ... even a curved iron handrail on the stairs.  

What this porch brings to the design of our porch is the use of those little double corbels on the fascia board over each column.  

I'm more energized than ever about the prospect of finally putting pretty stuff back onto our front porch.  Can't work on it now, though, because spring is the time for garden work.  Any time I use for porch work takes away from other things that I need to be doing at this time of year.  That's okay.  Now that I have finally seen a porch that matches the feeling that I want our porch to have, I will file this away until the time is right to act on it.  This porch design keeps getting better as I wait to work on it, as I discover new ideas and refine the ideas that I already plan to use.  I may not be physically working to rebuild the pretty parts of our porch yet, but this project is definitely running in the background of my imagination.

(Want to see earlier posts where I show how the design of our porch has evolved?  Click the HERE to see all posts labeled "Porch".)

The Garden Symposium in Lynchburg, Virginia

This past weekend, The Husband and I went to Lynchburg, Virginia, to attend the annual spring Garden Symposium at the Lynchburg Old City Cemetery.  This is an event that I look forward to every year!  It is incredibly well organized, and there are fabulous speakers.  Combine this with the atmosphere of the cemetery, and it makes for a wonderful weekend!

The Old City Cemetery is a treasure!  It is owned by the city of Lynchburg, and operated in cooperation with the Southern Memorial Association, a non-profit foundation.  The cemetery's 27 acres contain five museums and an impressive collection of historic bulbs, shrubs, trees, and ROSES ... all beautifully maintained in a park-like atmosphere.

The roses are all pruned and staged for their big show later this spring.

The Symposium was lightly attended this year.  This made for a very intimate atmosphere for us in the audience, and gave us ample opportunity to have all of our questions answered.  The weather was threatening, with cloudy skies all day, but the rain held off until we were on our way home on Saturday evening!

This is the Confederate Section of the cemetery, with row after row of simple headstones.

The speakers this year were superb, as always.  Peggy Singlemann, Director of Horticulture at the Maymont Foundation in Richmond, spoke about using flowering shrubs to spice up our gardens.  Cherie Foster Colburn, a landscape designer and author from Houston, Texas, presented a program on how to create a garden to be enjoyed at night.  The final presenter, a man I am proud to call a friend, was Rev. Doug Seidel ... who spoke about the history and tradition of plants in cemeteries.

After the formal presentations, we went out into the cemetery (where it was WAY colder than the late March date would have suggested), and Doug walked through the Cemetery's rose collection and told stories of the various rose varieties growing there.  We were all totally captivated!

The roses won't be blooming until May, but the Hellebores were certainly putting on a beautiful show!

If you have been here for very long, you already know how much I love to spend time in cemeteries.  I adore a cemetery's peaceful atmosphere and the great love that exists among the stones. 

I love the simplicity and pattern of the simple head stones in the Confederate Section.  The rest of the cemetery has a wonderful variety of fencing and flowers and stones ... almost worthy of a sculpture museum!

This was my very favorite epitaph.  I think it applies to most of us ... don't you?

I hope to be back in Lynchburg on May 7, to help with the annual Antique Rose Festival and sale.

Later this week, I'll take you to see another one of Lynchburg's treasures.  Stay tuned.

(The photos in this post were taken with my new camera ... a Canon SD1300.  I'm still getting used to it.  Please forgive the weird colors.  I trusted the 'Auto White Balance' feature, and I shouldn't have because everything turned out a lovely shade of icy blue.  I did my best to correct it in Photo Shop, but they are all still a bit off.)

The Annual Lynchburg Garden Symposium!

Gardeners within commuting distance of Lynchburg, Virginia, are going to want to mark their calendars to attend the Old City Cemetery's annual "Ready, Set, Bloom!" garden symposium, Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26, 2011.  This year, the rose speaker is one of my favorite people ... Rev. Douglas Seidel, who is probably THE most knowledgeable rosarian I know (no offense is intended toward all of the other knowledgeable rosarians I know, of course.). 

'Dublin' climbing on the porch of one of the Cemetery museum buildings.

According to the brochure I received in the mail yesterday, this year's theme is "Extending the Life of your Garden".  The schedule is as follows:

Friday afternoon, we will take a walking tour of Diamond Hill and experience period architecture, old plantings, and stories of those who made Lynchburg one of the South's wealthiest cities.  Light refreshments in a period home will finish the tour. 

Here is a beautiful Diamond Hill Victorian.

Does the style of this Lynchburg beauty look vaguely familiar?

Friday evening, symposium guests will mingle with the three speakers in the Old city Cemetery's new reading room and conservatory, and enjoy drinks and light hors d'oeuvres.

'Climbing Souvenir de la Malmaisson' on the brick wall beside the Pest House Museum.

Saturday is for the presentations.  At 9:00am, Peggy Singlemann, director of horticulture at Maymont in Richmond, will present a program titled "Flowering Shrubs to Spice Up Your Garden".  We will learn how mixing in flowering shrubs will add bursts of color, wonderful fragrance, and fall color to our gardens.

The Brick Wall in the cemetery's Confederate Section, where most of the historic roses are planted.

At 10:45, Cherie Foster Colburn will speak about "Fireflies and Four O'Clocks:  Ingredients for a 24-7 Landscape".  This program is intended to help us extend our enjoyment of our gardens into the evening hours.  Cherie's web site is HERE.

The cemetery has a spectacular collection of trees!

After a box lunch (which is always delicious!), at 1:30 Doug Seidel will present a program called "Final Resting Places", a brief history of cemeteries and why people grew certain plants on and around the graves of their loved ones.  He will also demonstrate unique ways we can use these items as inspiration for our home landscapes.  After his presentation, Doug will lead a walk through the Cemetery gardens for a hands-on walk and talk.

Here is Doug Seidel, seated, and Dennis Whetzel doing their annual Antique Rose Show ... a rose identification workshop at Monticello's Tufton Farm open house every May.

I have attended this symposium every year, and last year I was honored to be the featured rose speaker.  I did blog posts from Lynchburg about it last May, which can be found  HERE and HERE.

This is Stephen Scanniello during the first Symposium in 2008, demonstrating how to divide and replant over-crowded colonies of rose suckers.

The Lynchburg City Cemetery is very unique, and it is one of my all-time favorite places.  It is owned by the city of Lynchburg, who still actively carries out burials in the Potter's Field, and it is managed by the Southern Memorial Association.  It is a rosarium, an arboretum, a museum, a park, a wedding destination, and a beautiful place to spend the day.  Proceeds from the symposium will benefit the Horticulture Endowment of the Old City Cemetery.

Interested in attending?  Be sure to let me know, and we can meet up and do something while we are there.  There is a WONDERFUL deli downtown!!  You can buy your Symposium tickets HERE.  The cost for all activities is $125 ... Friday tour $15, Friday night reception $30, Saturday workshops $70, Saturday box lunch $10 ... it's definitely money well spent!

Will I see you there?