Cabin Lore - the Hawksbill Cannery

I see these colorful can labels around the county from time to time.  There are a couple of them, on cans and in frames, at the Hawksbill Diner in Stanley, and this weekend I found these two examples in Gathering Grounds in Luray.

The Gathering Grounds piece has a few of the tokens and chits that were issued by the cannery, I guess to workers and others.  There was an auction last year for a token printed with 4 cents on it - these items date from the late 1800's into the early 1900's.

So that inspired me to do a little research to see what I could learn about it, and off to Google I went.

As with the building on Zerkel Street where we hope to operate the brewery soon, the first things that came up in my search were trade publications.  The cannery was listed as a hotels supply vendor in the one I found, dated 1922.

There are a couple of photos in the "Luray and Page County Revisited" book by Dan Vaughn.  The author has included a photograph of the cannery under construction in 1906, located on North Hawksbill Street in Luray.  It was called Luray Canning Company at that time.  The business was renamed Hawksbill Cannery after I.N.Dovel bought it in 1914.

A subsequent photo shows well drilling for a proposed but failed expansion in Stanley.  Apparently there was a fire in 1950, but it was rebuilt by Dovel's son and by 1954 was one of the leading canners of watercress - that's one of the labels that they have at the Hawksbill Diner.

In any case, I have always like the color and graphical style of these labels.  I'm on the lookout for some.  And we're going to use them for inspiration in the brewery logo - we'll have to see what the designer comes up with on that one!

Spring Flares at Hawksbill Cabin

We were lucky with our garden at Hawksbill Cabin - there is a nice variety of plantings with something in bloom for most of the spring and summer.  Last weekend was just about the peek of it, with the lilac and azalea bushes maxed out.

It was a nice surprise that the trillium we discovered last year returned - I was fortunate enough to catch it while it was in bloom.

The azaleas cover most of the sloping front yard in front of the addition.  There are one or two others off to the east side of the house, but this is really a pretty spectacular spring time show.

This year, we were out doing yard work and an older couple drove by slowly.  They were looking up at the house and made several passes. We figured they were lost, so we waived them down - they told us that they drive by every year to check out the azaleas.

Apparently they knew Bill, the original owner, who planted them.  They said that at one point these shrubs were large enough to obscure that part of the house!



When I found the trillium last year it was a great surprise.  I have taken several hikes in May and early June up in Shenandoah National Park and never caught sight of one.  Just my luck that we have one - a single one - growing over in the side yard.

I don't know what it would take to get this one to spread over there in the wood lot, but I would like that.  It's okay if it doesn't, I'll just enjoy finding it every year in the last week of April and first week of May!

Cabin Lore: The Hawksbill Pool

Fairly soon after we closed on Hawksbill Cabin, we stopped for dinner at the Hawksbill Diner in Stanley - for those who have visited us, you'll remember that the diner is one of the landmarks I use to guide your drive in to our place.  Mary and I had a steak dinner - the quality, size of portions, and especially the price offered nothing to complain about - but the thing we noticed and remembered that day was an old advertising poster they had on one of the walls.

It mentioned the Hawksbill development going up on the outskirts of Stanley, VA, and included five or six black and white photographs of a swimming pool and complementary recreational facilities. Eventually, we found a copy of the poster at an auction, acquired it, and have it hanging in the entry hall of the Cabin.  (Here's a link to the post about the auction:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/03/auction-action-part-2.html )

One of the cool things about the poster is the notation about 1/2 acre cottage lots for sale.  Hawksbill Cabin is actually built so that it spans two lots, and the parcel we bought had another lot with it, for a total of an acre and a half - we also bought three adjoining lots behind us, which I often refer to as the wood lot.

The largest photo on the poster is of the pool and recreation building near it.  On Sunday, when Tessie and I went for a walk over at the Hawksbill Park, we walked along the stream beside of the pool, and I snapped a photo after noticing that they are working on opening it for the season.

The story goes that they used to use water from Little Hawksbill Creek to fill the pool.  They had a filtration system, but that water must have been very cold - the largest photo on the poster features it.  Now they have a modern system and the pool is very popular, with grounds that are crowded with families on the weekend enjoying the recreation and having picnics on the grounds.

I particularly like the building near the pool.  I've never gotten to the bottom of the rumor behind this, but I have heard that it is an old ice factory that was relocated here from the DC area, as part of the original development.  It definitely looks like it could be a repurposed ice factory, with the large widows on both floors of the buildings.  The downstairs has all the pool admin functions, while the upstairs is a great party room - maybe Mary and I will book it sometime for a shindig.

There is more to the story about the Hawksbill development - but I'll have to save that info for future posts.  For now, let's all look forward to the pool's opening in a few weeks, a sure sign that spring has arrived after a brutal winter!

Cabin Lore: The Neighbors' Tree House

The front of the tree house, from the Lawyers' yard.
Beaver Run is visible in the background.

Among the earliest buyers and builders in the Hawksbill Pines neighborhood were the Lawyers - that was their actual last name, and the cross street at the top of the hill was named after them.  They settled in and built a weekend home up there with excellent party amenities, including walk in cold storage out in the barn - the same one that Dan now brews out of.

They lived in the house at the end of the block for a good long time.  There is still evidence of wonderful summer parties there in the house - the current owners will take you for a walk down in the basement where many a guest signed in.  Times were good in the summer in the Pines!

Some time after the couple retired to the neighborhood, their first house became too difficult to live in.  They owned the lots next door, so they built an easy 60's era ranch over there.  It's actually a two-story home built into the hillside, so the basement opens to the yard in the back, while the main entry is at ground level in the front.

The view of the tree house from Hawksbill Cabin,
across the hollow.

Eventually Mrs. Lawyer was confined to a wheel chair.  They weren't going to let that stop them from enjoying the great outdoors, however, so they built a grand tree house out in the woods.  It's at least a 30 foot walk out the deck to get to it, and the house is easily 30 to 40 feet above ground.

I can imagine summer nights out there with friends, enjoying a cookout dinner and playing cards into the night.  In the spring, the serenade of the peeper frogs would be absolutely amazing, and in the summer, the fireflies would be such a treat.  Combine that with an unobstructed view of Big Meadow Mountain in Shenandoah National Park and you wouldn't have much to complain about.
 

Cabin Lore: Another Look at the Wirkkala Fixture

After the light fixture in our guestroom was featured in last month's Atomic Ranch, and I posted about it here, there were several requests for a better scan of the letter.  The purpose of this post is to oblige those requests - but I am also going to put up the scans from Mary's research into the auctions mentioned in Atomic Ranch's response to her letter. 

Here's the scan of Mary's letter to Atomic Ranch, and their response.

The response makes a reference to two auctions for similar fixtures, and Mary sleuthed them down.  I've taken the liberty of scanning her results and fusing them into images I can use on the blog.  The auctioneers' data is included for future reference - I know we get readers that share our interest in modern design, so these might be useful to them.

First, here is the Wright auction that was referenced:

The Wright auction features an image of a similar fixture, along with details of how they were signed.

We had a brief conversation with Kevin Thompson back in 2008 and asked him about the fixture.  He told us about his parent's enthusiasm for Scandinavian design, and thought they bought these from a Scan store in the 1960's.  He remembered the colored shades, and that the round bulb in ours was a replacement.

Here's the second auction from Quittenbaum:

Here's the Quittenbaum auction, which is probably a better depiction of what our fixture looked like.

It would be a real treat to see these in person - and it would be lovely if the original shades and all three bulbs had survived.  For one thing, they'd be valuable - since the auction estimates ranged from $600 to $3,000, back in 2008 and 2010.  

But that's how it goes.  Instead we have a great bit of Cabin Lore to enjoy!

Cabin Lore: The Thompsons

To begin with, we didn't have a lot of information about Hawksbill Cabin - but we've been able to piece some of the history together over the years that we've been coming here.  For example, we found the year 1948 etched in a section of a concrete footer, and also in the concrete that sealed the top of the chimney - so we knew approximately the era it was built.

A few months after we bought the place, we researched the surrounding plots and found that the three that bordered us to the north were owned by Kevin Thompson.  After a little checking around, we learned that Kevin was the son of Bill and Phyllis, the couple that built the place, which they called "Windward."  Kevin is playing the guitar in the first photo here, with his sister Shawn singing along - also shown are Bill on the left, and Bernie Courtois, a neighbor, on the right.

These photos are dated from 1965, and our friends and current neighbors Noel and Steve shared them with us - Noel is Bernie's daughter.  Noel is the source of a lot of additional 'cabin lore' - we learn something new from her everytime we visit, which isn't often enough!  Here's a second photo, from the same evening, that includes Bill and Phyllis, Kevin and Shawn, Bernie, and two visitors.

Frequent readers will recognize the location of the second photo, out on the brick terrace in front of Hawksbill Cabin.  The Thompsons would summer at the place, thus the established-looking furnishings in this outdoor space, although there are a few items from the current-day house that are missing - the apple tree would be in the background, where it looks like a pine stands, and the dogwood just visible to the left has been replaced with a maple.

We eventually had a visit with Kevin, and we bought his three lots.  He came by to visit us, since his mother Phyllis was still alive at the time and lived in Alexandria.  He told us some family stories - from the looks of these photos, it's clear they enjoyed the place as much as we do - and we invited him and Phyllis out sometime to see how the place was doing.

Been a few years since then, and we don't know if Phyllis is still around; Kevin lived in Waynesboro at the time and we haven't heard from him since then either.  What we do know about them is that they built a fine home in the Valley - one we enjoy getting out to whenever we can.

The Letter to Atomic Ranch

We've been reading Atomic Ranch magazine for a while now - it's a great resource for midcentury modern furnishings and architecture, and Hawksbill Cabin was designed within that context.

One of the furnishings that conveyed with the house is a light fixture that we kept in the bedroom.  We've been puzzled by it, and have even thought about changing it out in the past.  At the end of the day, our senses got the better of us and we've kept it - with the thought we would look to repair it, if that is possible.

We have a bit of "cabin lore" on the fixture, from Kevin, who grew up here - he said it was probably bought from Scan Design or a similar store in the 1960's, when they were building the addition.  He thought it had colored shades in the old days, and confirmed that one of the bulbs had been replaced.

The Atomic Ranch post confirmed that it is a designed piece (Tapio Wirkkala designed them for Idmin Oy) - and even the two hourglass shaped bulbs are designed pieces.  They referred us to a couple of auction sites to watch for parts, such as bulbs or shades.  Those included:

• www.liveauctioneers.com
• www.wright20.com

It was good to have our instincts on this confirmed, we'll have to keep working on the restoration.

(Info about the edition of Atomic Ranch the letter appears in is here:  http://www.atomic-ranch.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=64)

Cabin Lore: The White House Bricks

This is the first post in a new category called “Cabin Lore,” which I’ve wanted to start since I began the blog in 2007.  From time to time, during renovations to Hawksbill Cabin, or as we get to know the neighbors and others who knew the folks who built the place, we learn something new about our little mountain house.  These periodic posts will document those fascinating little tidbits that we find out along the way.

When we made our second visit to Hawksbill Cabin, it was for the purpose getting a house inspection done.  While the inspection didn't identify much of the damage we eventually needed to repair (I’ve written before about the extent of major renovations that had to be done under the “big projects” label to the right), the owner’s family was at the house that day, and their little girl pointed with pride to some bricks in the floor while we waited for the inspector to finish.

“Those are bricks from the White House!” the little girl told us, pointing to two bricks in the floor near the pellet stove, since removed.  We moved closer to take a look and sure enough, there were two bricks with little bronze plaques on them, identifying them as “original White House materials.” 

We admired the bricks for a few minutes with the unanswerable question, “How did they get here?” rolling around in our thoughts.  Soon enough it was back to the inspection and checking out the other aspects of the property – to tell the truth, most of our efforts that day were focused on negotiating the allowance for the one beam that had obviously been damaged by termites.

Soon after we closed, we found a message etched in concrete near the fireplace that said “Thanksgiving 1948,” and there another reference to 1948 etched in the mortar at the top of the chimney.  We knew that the original owners had built the place pretty much by hand in the years right after World War II, but now we could find direct evidence of that recorded right in the building materials.

And that would also put the date of the Hawksbill Cabin right in the time frame of the Truman reconstruction of the White House, which took place from 1948 to 1952.  There is a link to a photographic exhibition on the renovation below, here: http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_photographs/whitehouse_truman-renovation.html

The White House renovation was extensive and left the whole interior a vast open space after demolition.  At some point, salvaged original materials were made available to the public – and so, Hawksbill Cabin got a pair of the bricks...original White House material, in fact, possibly dating to the 1790’s!   

While Mary was doing research for the book she edited (Civic Art:  A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Amazon link below), she found a few historic photographs of National Park Service employees handling these items, preparing to ship them to citizens who’d requested them.  I’ve misplaced them, but will add a post when I come across them again.

There are also quite a few references to auctions for this material.  I won’t link them here, and in any case, I’m not really interested in the value of the bricks.  To me, they are just a part of what makes Hawksbill Cabin such a welcoming, relaxing place.  I can’t wait for my next visit – I’ll make sure to take a minute to look at the bricks.

Note:  While the White House renovation isn't mentioned in great detail in the book, since I mentioned that Mary edited it, I thought I might close with an Amazon link to the tome "Civic Art"