Summit Hill House Tour returns Sunday after a 5-year hiatus
The popular Summit Hill House Tour returns — finally — on Sunday.
“It’s been a 5-year hiatus,” says Monica Haas, executive director of the Summit Hill Association, the nonprofit that hosts the popular event.
It was 2018 when people last got to tour properties on or near Summit Avenue for the event that is typically held every other year to raise money for the association’s community projects and programs.
“We had planned our full tour in 2020, but that was the pandemic, so we ended up canceling,” Haas says. “We tried a virtual tour a year and a half later, but there was not a lot of interest, so we ended up canceling that as well. This year, all the stars aligned to make it happen.”
This year, there’s a lot of interest.
“Ticket sales are going crazy,” Haas says.
It’s not just post-pandemic excitement driving people to purchase the $40 tickets.
“There are really great houses on the tour, many that have never been on the tour before, so it will be a chance for the public to see homes that they haven’t seen in the past,” Haas says. “We also have a couple on Summit that are really spectacular, from the Burbank-Livingston-Griggs house next to the University Club all the way to the Dittenhoffer mansion on the 800 block of Summit.”
There’s some literary interest on the tour, too.
“The house on Summit Court is rumored to be one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s former haunts, supposedly a friend of his lived there. they had a pretty great time as kids,” Haas says.
When it’s not on the tour, the 1888 Queen Anne on Summit Court — designed by Cass Gilbert and James Knox Taylor and tucked away near the University Club — is a short-term rental, since the owners are currently living in and renovating a neighboring home.
Called the “Gatsby Getaway” on Airbnb, the house is currently listed at $790 a night (the price varies).
The homeowners, architect Jeff Wrede and Realtor Linda Wutzke, are former west metro residents who decided to make a fresh start in St. Paul after their nest emptied. The Summit Court homes are two of the many older homes they’ve taken on over the years.
“The reason we like old homes is there’s so much detail you just can’t find in new construction,” Wutzke says.
Prairie-Style gem
Down the street on Lexington Parkway near Summit Avenue, a 1920s home on the tour has undergone more than 20 years of nurturing.
The Prairie-Style home is in good hands with spouses David Heide and Michael Crull, who are also colleagues and designers at the David Heide Design Studio.
There’s been plenty of work done on the interiors of the home through the years including, recently, a blue-tiled bathroom renovation that shows how a space can be updated while reflecting the aesthetic of the home’s original time period.
But the public might especially enjoy how the couple has reworked their backyard.
“Because we are on a busy street, you can’t really park out front,” Heide says. “So, with an addition, the house has been reoriented to welcome visitors off the alley and through the garage and that’s how we’re going to bring people in on the tour: They’re going to come up the alley and come to the garage and see our vintage 1966 Buick that’s all shiny and turquoise, then they’re going to come into the backyard oasis and through the back door, which is what we do, too.”
The yard isn’t just a transition, it’s a destination.
“Before, it was just kind of scrub trees and some bits of fence,” Crull says.
A focal point now is a screened, freestanding enclosure — their “summer living room” — that is something many Minnesotans might covet, especially during mosquito season.
“The little summer house pavilion in the backyard and a lovely brick terrace have redefined how we use the backyard,” says Crull.
Summit Hill House Tour
What: A self-guided tour of 13 mansions, historic family homes, duplexes and streetcar apartments that provide a cross section of one of the most well-preserved Victorian neighborhoods in America. There are also four churches on the tour.
When: Noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8.
Tickets: $40 for general admission tickets.
Info/tickets: Summithilltours.org
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