Historical Marker Unveiling

Please join us for the unveiling of the new Virginia Historical Highway Marker at the site of the Brown family’s home on the southeast corner of North Loudoun Street and East Fairfax Lane, now the Bank of Clarke’s parking lot.

An African American Family of Doctors
Here, in the late 1800s, Charles and Maria Fairfax Brown raised six children who became doctors of medicine or pharmacy based in Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, PA. Sara, a physician, was the first female graduate of Howard University named to its board of trustees. John, also a physician, was a founder of the Pittsburgh NAACP. Edward co-founded one of the first Black-owned pharmacies in PA. At Williams College, an organization for Black pre-med students was named for Harrison, an internist. Nancy earned a Phar. D. and co-founded the National Association of University Women. James, a urologist, was an instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. The siblings were noted for their philanthropy.

Thank you to the Bank of Clarke for approving and funding the marker. We invite you to start your Juneteenth weekend by learning about and celebrating this incredible Winchester family.

Free Admission at Belle Grove Plantation

On Monday, June 20, Belle Grove will be open 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. with free admission. This includes tours of the Manor House and the new, permanent exhibit, Unearthing Enslaved Lives at Belle Grove. It features the archaeology conducted at the Enslaved Quarter Site in 2015-2019.

The 60,000 excavated artifacts, and supporting archival research, reveal details about the more than 270 men, women, and children the Hite family enslaved at Belle Grove. They show how these individuals-built lives for themselves, despite the harsh conditions of slavery, and how their labors shaped the economy and history of the Shenandoah Valley.

Juneteenth Celebration

Hood Love and the City of Winchester is hosting the 2nd Annual Juneteenth FREE Night of Fun and Celebration

There will be speakers, vendors, food trucks and live music from the QuietFire Soul Show Band.

Bring your own lawn chairs.

LOCATION: Loudoun Street walking mall on the lawn of the Civil War Museum

African American Civil War Trails Marker Unveiling

Join us for the unveiling of a new Civil War Trails marker.

There will be a short ceremony to mark the occasion, with remarks from local dignitaries and community members.

The event will take place on the north side of the City Hall building (15 N. Cameron Street), on the grounds near the cannon.

Rebecca and Thomas: A Civil War Spy Tale

In observation of Juneteenth (June 19), celebrating freedom and commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., hear the story of Rebecca Wright (1838 – 1914) and Thomas Laws (1817 – 1896) as told through this one-act play performed as a reading. Wright, a local teacher and Unionist, and Laws, an enslaved man from Millwood, Virginia, relayed intelligence about Confederate troop movements in and around Winchester, ultimately leading to General Philip Sheridan’s decisionto attack. The play was written by Winchester resident and former teacher Sharon Dixon.

Admission to this event is FREE and registration is not required.

Juneteenth Presentation

The opening session of the 2019 Willa Cather Seminar at Shenandoah University will feature a panel of scholars examining Cather’s depiction of African American life in Virginia as seen through Cather’s final novel, Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940).

Panelists include Ann Romines, professor emerita, The George Washington University; Matthew Clark Greer, PhD candidate in anthropology, Syracuse University; and Jonathan Noyalas, director, The McCormick Civil War Institute, Shenandoah University.

Free; registration not required. Presented in part by the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, this program takes place in Stimpson Auditorium, Halpin-Harrison Hall at Shenandoah University.