August 31, 2012

Bird Haven Featured

Doorway to Old Workshop
Funny how things happen together. Just four days ago I posted Bird Haven Revisited and got a response from a reader saying that the property had been purchased by some people who were fixing it up to run as a tourist farm. Then today I picked up the September edition of the Mountain Courier and saw the lead article is Bird Haven Revitalized and a photo of a young family who are managing a new farm on the property.

Bird Haven was purchased by Tom and Leslie Carr of the D.C. area. They hired local farmer Jordan Green to manage the farm in a way that replicates his own environmentally sustainable farm.

The article also gives some of Bird Haven's history and has a picture of some of the crafts made there. A sidebar features an excerpt from Paul Hannah's 1929 article about the crafts center entitled "The Shenandoah Community Workers." If you are interested in reading Hannah's article in it's entirety, you can find it reproduced in "Shenandoah County Geography Supplement" which is sold at the Mt. Jackson Museum. That booklet was originally published by the Shenandoah County School Board in 1931 and was reprinted in 2007 by the museum.


7 comments:

  1. This is really too serendipitious. I happened to check Bird Haven and/or Shenadoah Community Worker a couple of times a year. I first saw and followed your blog back in 2008.. and then tapped in again last year. My grandfather, Everard Lindstrom was employed at SCW as the engineer on the project back in the 1920s and worked there for a number of years..into the 30s. My family remained friends with the Clark Family into the 50s or 60s. As a child our family visited several time with the Clarks(Spiz) and played in the creek. I last visited in March this year after spending time in Winchester and before returning to Dallas, Tx. I hope to visit again this fall in early Nov. when I visist Massanutten and Richmond. Would it be possible for us to touch base with each other at that time?

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  2. Reid,
    Thanks for following my blog and for the info about your grandfather. Shenandoah Community Workers and Bird Haven are not well known on the Web but perhaps that will change. In the meantime, my posts can at least provide a starting point for folks who are trying to find out where their SCW items were made.

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  3. Hi again, Linda. I saw the Courier as well, and marvelled at the timing. Also, because I'm doing a post about Jordan on my blog this week. :) Unfortunately, you have copied an error...the new owners of Birdhaven are Tom and Leslie Carr, not Tim. Wonderful people and an asset to the community. Thanks for re-visiting Birdhaven. I have a keen interest in the place (no real reason except I inherited my grandmother's Birdhaven lazy susan) so will look for more info by and by.

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  4. Thanks, Carol. I have corrected the name.

    Will your post about Jordan appear on EverythingHomeWithCarol.com?

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  5. Linda

    am planning to be in the Massanutten area Nov 3- 9 and would love to make contact with you at that time.. if possible.

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  6. Reid, your profile does not provide any contact info. ????

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  7. Reid and Carol, I got a comment from the new owner on my related post "Bird Haven Revisited." Take a look!

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