Bird Haven Oral History Collection

Title: Bird Haven Oral History Collection

Subject: Bird Haven (Va)

Description: Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Bayse Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia.

Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s.

Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives.

Creator: Shenandoah County Library

Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC)