There’s no place like home – Burlington home tours resume for first time since pandemic
For the first time in four years, architectural fans will finally be able to tour some of Burlington’s finest historic homes.
Preservation Burlington is offering its homes tour for the first time since 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled plans for 2020, and uncertainty regarding the virus carried into 2021 and 2022. Matt Viens, chairperson of the homes tour, said homeowners were still reluctant last year to have “300 to 500 strangers” coming into their houses.
That’s not the case this year, so the tour resumes Saturday, June 10. Six homes are on the map that will be distributed to ticket buyers. Here are the highlights, as described by Viens:
Pomerleau Real Estate/Follett House
One of the most-iconic buildings of Burlington, the Greek Revival structure that now houses Pomerleau Real Estate is “the most exceptional piece of historical architecture in Burlington,” according to Viens. The structure that looms on a hill on lower College Street overlooking Burlington Bay was built in 1840 for shipping magnate Timothy Follett.
April Cornell home, Hill Section
Burlington resident April Cornell is world-renowned for her clothing and interior-décor designs with an emphasis on floral and pastel-toned patterns. Her Colonial Revival, shingle-style home on South Willard Street in the city’s Hill Section incorporates the sense of design inside the home that one might expect from Cornell, according to Viens.
Lakeview Terrace
The tour will include the Lakeview Terrace home of Paula Routly, co-founder of Seven Days, and former Vermont Sen. Tim Ashe. Viens said the tour will likely include information about Lakeview Terrace itself, which began as a working-class neighborhood but in the past couple of decades has seen modest homes converted into grander structures taking advantage of the street’s views of Lake Champlain.
New North End home
Viens said the stop on Saratoga Avenue features a fairly recent home, built in the 1950s, though a highlight is the “exceptional” garden tended by homeowner Fern Crete. The Modernist-style house also has a “pretty unreal” interior highlighting Crete’s collection of antiques, art and taxidermy, according to Viens. “He has a knack for creating little vignettes within his house,” Viens said of Crete.
Five Sisters homes
The two houses from this neighborhood on the tour are “more humble” than others those taking the tour will see, according to Viens. One on Caroline Street is owned by Jason Van Driesche and Susan Munkres, and the other, on Howard Street, belongs to Nic Lawrence and Crystal Doyle. “They kind of highlight how the average person lives,” Viens said of the two homes. “That’s the history of Burlington.”
If you go
WHAT: Preservation Burlington’s 2023 homes tour
WHEN: Noon-4 p.m. Saturday, June 10
WHERE: Locations throughout Burlington
INFORMATION: $20. www.preservationburlington.org/annual-homes-tour/
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Preservation Burlington home tours back for first time since pandemic
