Taking A Peek: Pacific Grove Historic Home Tour

Pacific Grove held its Historic Home Tour today, so I went around looking at the homes on display.  I must extend my gratitude and deep admiration for the homeowners who trusted that a few hundred clods like me would not kick, smash, crunch or steal anything.  I like to have friends over, but not several hundred, especially if they are like me:  I look for the architectural details, clues to original structure, modifications, irksome problems in design.  I like to see how kitchens are set up, how light comes into the structures, and how traffic flows to and from rooms.

Only one actual Victorian was available to tour today, a kit home built around 1900 that is now painted about 6 different vivid colors to accentuate the gingerbread cutouts and curlicues.  Very cute, colorful, dollhouse-ish.  No brave owners of large magnificent structures were to be found this year, although in years past some incredible homes have been showcased.  Instead, an imaginative architect opened his office and living space, revealing a fine use of the "bones" of the original building combined with more modern and usable spaces that I found very appealing.  A small bungalow in another part of town was renovated to look like a zen retreat in which the owner's beautiful quilt work was displayed.

The large old original building called Chautauqua Hall was the final stop where tourers gathered to look at very miniature homes (aka bird houses) designed by artists.  These were being auctioned with money donated to local charities.  I bid on one, but my dismal luck held, and I am empty handed as we speak.

For the most part, dinky little Victorian homes that now occupy lots where tent cabins originally stood in the days of the Chautauqua Retreat that Pacific Grove once was are now all modernized.  Inside, most homes have been enlarged, updated, made much more comfortable than they originally were.  Some houses are very tiny looking from the front and look as if only Snow White's dwarves could manage to be comfortable in them.  A number of grand old homes are unmistakably enormous and impressive.  I guess I'll have to remain curious and hope that someday one or more of them open their doors for interior viewing.  

It's a pleasant way to spend a Sunday once a year, one of many modest events that make Pacific Grove a tidy and cute little town.  Kudos to owners and docents for donating time and effort to make the tour possible.