: In a time when most museums expand their range by opening new
wings, renovating existing space or accessioning and
deaccessioning, the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley has gone all
out and opened a spanking new museum. The new institution is a
bold venture that heralds the distinctive arts and culture of the
Shenandoah Valley.
It is housed in a splendid Michael Graves architecturally
designed building that brings together under one sweeping roof
the impressive collections of furniture, fine arts and decorative
accessories gathered by the late preeminent collector Julian Wood
Glass Jr. Mr Glass maintained homes (and collections) in
Winchester, London, New York and Tulsa. His Winchester residence
was the 1794 Glen Burnie house and its gardens, where generations
of Wood and Glass family members lived and which he renovated as
a country estate.
The Glen Burnie house sits on what was a 1,200-acre land grant
awarded to James Wood in 1735 by Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, to
whom King Charles had entrusted some five million acres of land
in what is now Virginia and West Virginia. Wood parceled off 26
half-acre lots to establish the town of Frederick Town in 1744,
which by 1752 was known as Winchester.
Wood's descendents occupied the property until Mr Glass, the last
descendent, died in 1992. Mr Glass was a respected collector who
transformed the warm brick Georgian house into the country estate
that proved a fitting setting for his exceptional American
furniture and European and Old Master paintings.
