Carnegie Hall, Lewisburg -- site of conference meetings
 (photo courtesy of the Greenbrier County CVB)

PAWV ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2003
September 4, 5, & 6 - Lewisburg, WV

Post- Conference REPORT

 

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Conference
Information

 

Part Two - Saturday afternoon and evening

The weather was top-down perfect for Saturday afternoon’s tours of two of the area’s most outstanding historic homes.  Spring Valley and Valley View were both visited by large caravans of conference attendees. 

Both homes are still the seat of farming operations and remarkably both remain in the hands of descendents of the homesteading pioneer families that first owned them two centuries ago. 

The homes are very different in design and materials and the contrast was quite interesting to attendees.  The homes are quite large, splendidly decorated and carefully restored. 

Lovingly preserved mementos of the pioneering Tuckwiller and Dickson families were displayed and many original family furnishings were to be seen.  The bucolic settings of each of the two monumental homes made the visits seem like a scene from a Currier and Ives print.

John Wade and Ann Bell, Hosts

 An already perfect Saturday concluded with a wonderful picnic on the lawn of Deerfield, the mountain top residence of John Wade and Ann Bell near Lewisburg.  Deerfield is a recreation of a typical noble West Virginia farmhouse that might well have been built on the site about 1840.  The large brick structure includes a detached guest wing which is a fully restored, 1790, two-story log home. 

Stunning vistas of the surrounding countryside were enjoyed from the lawn behind the house where dinner tables were arrayed for the evening.  A light breeze carried the scent of delicately seasoned sea bass as well as the equally alluring music of the area’s most popular jazz combo, The Tony Hayworth Trio.
  Chef Tony Juker, owner and master of the kitchen of Lewisburg’s well respected Tavern 1785, created a dinner that exceed all expectations.  The evening proved to be the perfect cap to a perfect conference.

Tony Hayworth Trio play from porch at Saturday's wrap party

PAWV extends a very warm thank you to all those who helped make this memorable conference possible and that would include most prominently those wonderful people who graciously opened their homes to our membership and guests, Paul and Mary Lindquist of Montwell, Page Dickson of Spring Valley Farm and Richard and Ann McClung of Valley View Farm, and John and Ann Bell of Deerfield
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