Open houses: Springtime means home tours, and youre invited

By Susan Martin | News Home & Style Editor

on April 24, 2014 - 4:32 PM

Looking for home restoration ideas? A new color palette, perhaps? Table-setting tips for a summer brunch? Several local home tours are coming up fast.

Think of these weekend outings as something fun to do while waiting for all those regional garden walks and tours to kick off in June. And theyll give you yet another good excuse for postponing cleaning out your garage.

Here are the details:

Historic Linwood Tour of Homes

This years tour along Linwood Avenue takes place from noon to 5 p.m. May 4 with the theme Streetscape of Buffalo History.

The architecture from one end of the street to the other exemplifies the gradual change in styles and design during the heyday of Buffalos grand era. The southern part of the street has grander homes; as you travel north the homes become smaller to reflect the change in social structure in Buffalo at the time, said chairman James Mack, whose 121-year-old Queen Anne is on the tour.

Other architectural styles include a Second Empire, Richardson Romanesque and Federal, as well as a home designed by noted architects Silsbee and Marling.

Visitors will come across all the architectural features one admires in old homes: handcrafted woodwork, elaborate staircases, leaded and stained-glass windows. These homes were built generally between 1860 and 1920.

Excerpt from:
Open houses: Springtime means home tours, and youre invited