Looking for a worthy heritage site to honor with a charitable donation? Want someone’s word besides ours?
Menokin is honored to be included in the list of end-of-the-year heritage giving recommendations compiled by historian and donor advisor, Taylor Stoermer.
Thanks in advance. We’ll be working hard to keep up the good work.
http://taylorstoermer.com/2015/12/28/my-2015-end-of-year-heritage-giving-recommendations/
October 9-10, 2015
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Students will learn about material preparation and historic precedent: hewing, sawing, riving building materials.
Students will have an opportunity to rive and dress shingles, lath. Students will learn about layout of timber framing, will use traditional chalk line, squares, chisels, saws, mallets and augers to cut mortise and tenon joints, and will assemble some framing.
Students will learn about joinery, and see a demonstration of the bench work of the joiner’s trade. Students will have an opportunity to work with planes, layout tools, chisels and mallets, rulers and gauges, and try their hand at making simple moldings.
We will provide all materials and tools. If students wish, they are welcome to bring any personal antique tools with them they would like to talk or learn about.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
MATT WEBSTER
Matt Webster is Director of the Grainger Department of Architectural Preservation for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He oversees the preservation of over 590 original and reconstructed structures in Williamsburg’s Historic Area. Matt previously served as director of Preservation at Drayton Hall in South Carolina, as well as Director of Restoration at Kenmore in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
GARLAND WOOD
Garland Wood as master carpenter leads Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Trades carpenters. Over the last thirty years this team of tradesmen and women have made the materials and framed and finished over 40 buildings in Williamsburg’s Historic Area, while presenting the trade to the curious public.
TED BOSCANO
Ted Boscano is a journeyman joiner at Colonial Williamsburg, having first trained under Garland Wood as an apprentice carpenter. Ted’s interest in finish work led him to pursue bench work, and he now leads the Williamsburg’s Historic Trades joiner shop in the traditional production of windows and doors, molding and furniture.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY – October 9
SATURDAY – October 10
WHEN:
October 9 – 10, 2015
WHERE:
Menokin Foundation, Warsaw, VA
WHAT:
Very hands-on and interactive course work; instruction and techniques will be covered for the following:
• Shingle making
• Chopping mortises
• Making tenons
• Peg making/drawboring
• Planing
• Using molding planes
• Discussion of paneling work, sashes and doors
• And more!
About The Instructors
Matt Webster
Historic Preservation Architect
Garland Wood
Master Carpenter
Ted Boscano
Joiner and Carpenter
By pre-registering, you are expressing an interest in attending the workshop and would like to receive detailed information when it is available. Pre-registration is not binding in any way.
(For Part I of this Series, follow this link.)
PART II After two weeks sorting through stones, tagging them and recording their findings, Menokin’s summer interns were ready to get outside and in the field.
With life-sized print outs of Menokin’s HABS drawings delivered and spread out in the yard, Bethany, Sarah and Chris spent two days with architect Nakita Reed and a contractor moving stones onto the drawings.
It was an evolving process, which is to say it wasn’t quite as straightforward as it seemed on paper. Of course, nothing worth doing ever is. The team had the help of a small front loader and were tasked with placing stones that weigh hundreds of pounds the right direction and within the lines of the drawings. Halfway through the day with many of the pieces in place, it was still hard to visualize how it would all come together.
“I don’t know what I thought it would look like,” said puzzled intern Sarah Rogers, “but I’m not sure this is it.”
By the end of day one, though, there was a clear sense of accomplishment and the hard work had paid off. Entire pieces of each elevation had been laid out in stone, giving everyone a clear view of how useful the endeavor would be.
The life size HABS drawings will benefit future contractors, who will be tasked with putting some of the pieces of the Menokin ruin back together. Additionally, the drawings give meaning and purpose to Menokin’s rock yard. Now, visitors to the site can see where all those stones go and how they fit into the larger scope of work at Menokin.
For Sarah, Bethany and Chris, the four-week internship went by fast. They provided an invaluable service to Menokin and in return all expressed deep gratitude for their time there.
Of her time on site Bethany Emenhiser said, “I learned that things don’t always work out in the field the way they look on paper. I learned how fun and important it is to do field work because you learn to be flexible. Menokin was a great place to learn that.”
Read all the details below, and click here for a printable registration brochure. Get quackin’. Space is filling up!
While investigating the natural habitats of waterfowl in the Rappahannock River Valley watershed, campers will learn to document what they see and discover with cameras, notes and sketchbooks. By the end of the week, campers will have a greater understanding of the waterfowl and their habitats. They will also have had the opportunity to experiment with a variety of drawing techniques to prepare them to enter the Junior Duck Stamp Contest in March 2016.
The Junior Duck Stamp Summer Camp Program is for 5th-8th graders, ages 10-14 years.
July 20-21 and July 23-24, 2015
1:00 pm until 5:00 pm
YMCA Members – $20 per child
Non-members – $50 per child
*Several full scholarships are available through the generosity of the Rappahannock Wildlife Refuge Friends. For more information, please contact Alice French at afrench@menokin.org.
A water bottle, sunscreen, bug spray and shoes/clothes that can get wet.
Each camper will receive a sketch book, a pencil and eraser, and a paper portfolio for drawings. Pastels, crayons, colored pencils, and paints will be available for use.
July 20-21 and July 23-24, 2015
1:00 pm until 5:00 pm
Questions? Contact Alice French at 804.333.1776
DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT: July 10, 2015
DAY ONE: Wilna (July 20)
DAY TWO: Menokin (July 21)
DAY THREE: Westmoreland State Park (July 23)
DAY FOUR: Wilna (July 24)
Menokin’s Education Coordinator, Alice French, has prepared a video lesson about architecture. In this episode she talks about roof framing and the purpose for a queen truss.
Glass House Project team members Ward Bucher and Nakita Reed from Encore Sustainable Design helped Alice with the details of this lesson on their recent working visit to Menokin in February.
Enjoy!
Working in less than ideal conditions this week, these Menokin Project Team members have spent the last four days outside in the cold and wind (note the attractive head wear) to add some urgently needed bracing to the remaining walls of Menokin’s office dependency..
In addition, the metric survey of the entire structure, required by the architects and engineers on the project, is underway, as well as updating the evaluations on the conditions of the stone and the framing.
Meet the people who are doing the work and look for updates as the project continues.
John Fidler,
Preservation Architect
President, Preservation Technology, Inc.
National Register of Historic Places, and on State and City registered landmarks across the USA including a ruined plantation house, iconic 20th century Modern masterpieces, replica Ming dynasty Chinese pavilions, museums and downtown skyscrapers.
Ward Bucher, ENCORE Sustainable Design
developing spaces people love. Author of the Dictionary of Building Preservation.
Specialties: Historic Preservation – Restoration, historic tax credits, Nat. Register nominations
Sustainable buildings – Green, LEED, geothermal, low-flow, etc.
Commercial base buildings – office architecture and retail architecture
Nonprofit institutional – offices, gyms, cafeterias, shelters, classrooms, etc.
Interiors – board rooms, offices, stores, lobbies, residential, historic
Museums
Multifamily residential
High-end custom homes
Patrick Handler, Oak Grove Restoration
Restoration Company has evolved from a high-quality woodworking shop into a full-service general contracting and consulting company specializing in historic preservation and the careful conservation of irreplaceable historic architectural fabric. Our diverse client base includes state and local governments, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, private homeowners, historic sites, and house museums.
Bill Mowatt, The Downland Partnership
The Downland Partnership offers unrivaled experience, quality and value for money throughout a wide range of measured survey products.
Their technologies include high definition laser-scanning, the latest in Leica total station technology and photogrammetry.
The Downland Partnership offers a wide range of products from simple site surveys to complex and detailed record surveys of historic buildings, intelligent BIM models and 3d spatial data of oil and gas installations. They also operate an experienced and successful resource carrying out surveys on the railways and undertaking high precision monitoring.
In the spring of 2013, architecture professor Jorge Silvetti led twelve Harvard Graduate School of Design students through an exploration of the complex design and interpretive questions surrounding the c. 1769 Menokin site.
Discover the students’ innovative solutions for the evocative crumbling ruins and surrounding landscape at this 500-acre site in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
This exhibit will feature images of the final concept presentations of the students of the spring studio course. Curated by Jorge Silvetti, the show will feature graphics designed by Carmine D’Alessandro and custom exhibit panels designed and produced by Forrest French.
Visitors will be introduced to the exhibition with an overview of The Menokin Project, putting the work of the students into context of the revolutionary thinking that Menokin inspires. It’s easy to understand that inspiration when reading the observations of the students during their time here…
Bios of the students and descriptions of the Design Program at Harvard in which they participate will also be highlighted.
The exhibit will run from January 30th until April 27th at the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond, VA.
Virginia is steeped in history, much of it originating in the Northern Neck. Yet the reality of our locals schools means bare-bones budgets, and few or no field trips for students to learn about and explore the myriad historic venues right here in their back yards.
Enter History on the Go. This local program provides regional elementary and middle school students an overview of some of the great educational resources available to them within the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.
Collaborating cultural institutions develop presentations and coordinate with the schools for an immersion event. Five or six stations are set up in the school gymnasium or auditorium. Each class rotates around the room to visit every station, spending 15 minutes learning about, and participating in, a different activity related to that particular site.
On December 4th participating organizations brought their messages to Richmond County Elementary 4th and 5th graders. A whopping 176 students shared in these programs:
Belle Isle State Park – Animal Adaptations. This station exhibited various animal skins and casts of various footprints. Students learned about living and hunting habits of native species in this region.
Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library – 18th century school, reading and writing. Students discussed a one room classroom environment, using a replica of a classroom. The students practiced writing on slates and used a quill pen on paper. Discipline and games were also discussed.
Middlesex Museum and Historical Society – Historical documents and court 
cases. Students reviewed copies of original court records re slaves, property and possessions, and insurance documents and discussed the importantance of record keeping.
Reedville Fisherman Museum – Life cycle and history of oysters and watermen. Showed live oysters and discussed the body makeup (heart, how they breathe, etc.) Students use tongs to transfer oysters and discussed the work of the local watermen.
Richmond County Museum – Indian exhibit and pictograghs. Pointed out the living habits and clothing, medicine, diet, use of tools of Virginia’s indigenous peoples.
Menokin Foundation – Maps and Watershed. Menokin’s Education Coordinator Alice French, and intern Allie Lyth, introduced the word and concept of conservation. Students got a brief history of Francis Lightfoot Lee and how Menokin is using historic conservation in preserving his house.
They also learned about Menokin’s environmental conservation practices and got to compare a variety of maps,* learning about the types of information these different kinds of maps give us. They then looked at our site and surrounding sites showing the entire Northern Neck in its Rappahannock River Watershed.
*Maps
Captain John Smithʼs early maps of Virginia
Topographic contour maps
Aerial maps
Road maps
Waterway mapsMenokin’s Activity involved studying a map of waterways and locating the headwaters, the tributaries, and the mainstream, and connecting the ends of the river to identify the watershed. The students then became a human
watershed and passed water down through it, learning how water moves within a watershed, that everything surrounding a river affects our water, and that we all use the same water over and over, and that is why conservation is so important.
By participating in programs like History on the Go, Menokin continues to focus and act on its mission to provide educational and cultural opportunities to our regional communities and beyond.
The students of Mrs. Ptucha’s 6th-grade science classes at Richmond County Intermediate School had the opportunity to dive into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed recently – with paint and brushes. The students participated in a Project WET activity, Make-a-Mural.
They created a mural depicting various aspects of the Northern Neck watershed area, including its landscape, people, cultures, and natural residents – both plant and animal.
The objective of the project was for the students to define the term watershed;
identify their local watershed and illustrate it, including water resource issues within it.
Using resource information such as an Enviroscape of Menokin and Watershed Maps, and a diagram of the main components of a watershed (Air, Land, Water, People & Transportation, Architecture, History and Tradition) the students listed examples of each category that are included in their local watershed.
Lastly they studied History & Traditions: what are ways resources have been used in the past that are different from how they are used today? Using the example of Menokin’s cultures and traditions, these ideas were discussed:
With all of this new-found knowledge and food for thought swirling in their heads, 
the students were then asked to begin on the mural. Using foam core panels, and acrylic paint, each student worked on designated portions of the watershed – air, land and water.
As you can see from the finished mural above, the results are outstanding. Using color and expression in a way only children can master, the finished product is a true work of art 
and is hanging in the hallway at the school.
Funding for the A River Runs Through Us Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience was provided by the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Programming funds were also made possible from a generous environmental grant from the Dominion Foundation.
The program was coordinated by TREE (Three Rivers Environmental Educators) and Alice French, Education and Outreach Coordinator at The Menokin Foundation. This was the first of several programs developed by TREE for Richmond County School and their STEM initiative.
Menokin: Rubble With A Cause 