The Great Architects of Bankers Hill
Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend 2012
On March 17 and 18, Save Our Heritage Organisation presents its Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend. This year features the early 20th-century homes of Bankers Hill. On Saturday, March 17, attendees can select from their choice of walking tours and new lectures. The main feature, the annual Home Tour, will be held on Sunday, March 18.
Both grand and modest works of master architects will be highlighted on the 90-minute walking tour of Bankers Hill as tour guides reveal little known facts and new information on the architectural history of the area. The 2012 Home Tour chairperson Allen Hazard describes Bankers Hill as “one of San Diego’s most intact and architecturally rich historic communities in San Diego.” Walkers will take an exteriors only guided tour and experience some of San Diego’s greatest and most significant homes by master architects Irving Gill, Carlton Winslow, William Templeton Johnson, Richard Requa and Frank Mead, and others.
Visitors can also participate in walking tours of the Historic Seventh Avenue, featuring the highest concentration of homes by Irving Gill in San Diego, as well as important work by the Pacific Building Company, Mead & Requa, and more. Homes highlighted include the Marston House, as well as Gill’s early Prairie School homes, all built in the first decade of the 20th century.
Lectures will take place throughout Saturday at the rarely opened Wednesday Club, designed by Hazel Wood Waterman in 1908. Presentations will include Lost Sixth Avenue with award winning filmmaker and historian Dan Soderberg, as well as The Chicago Connection in San Diego – How the Prairie School influenced San Diego by research historian Allen Hazard, with more to be announced.
Photo credits: Sandé Lollis
An exclusive Twilight Reception at Gill & Hebbard’s masterpiece Marston House will conclude a day of in-depth architectural activities described by Hazard as a “unique and intimate experience of hors d’oeuvres and fine wine.” The party will also include private tours of the preeminent Arts & Crafts home in San Diego.
On Sunday, March 18, the event shifts its focus to the rare interiors of five historic homes in Bankers Hill. Visitors will enjoy interpretations based on in-depth research of their history and architecture. The self-driven home tour showcases five houses designed by master architects G.A. Hanssen, Richard Requa and Frank Mead, Emmor Brooke Weaver, and William Templeton Johnson. Prominent gardens of several homes will also be featured.
SOHO has been producing architectural and historic home tours for over four decades and the annual SOHO Historic Home Tour Weekend is known for its important informative merit. According to Education & Communications Director Alana Coons, these historic sites “add a quality of life and sense of place that has been proven to be essential to a community’s health, both physiologically and emotionally.”
The Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend is SOHO’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Guests can purchase tickets to any of the weekend events in advance by visiting SOHOsandiego.org, or calling (619) 297-9327.
Bankers Hill Walking Tour: Saturday, March 17, 11a.m. – 1 p.m.
SOHO Members and Non-members $15
Historic Seventh Avenue Walking Tour: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m, Saturday, March 17
SOHO Members and Non-members $10
Lectures: Saturday, March 17 (1 p.m., 2:15 p.m. and 3 p.m.)
SOHO Members $10; Non-members $15
Twilight Tour & Reception at the Marston House: 6:30 – 9 p.m., Saturday, March 17
Members $45; Non-members $55
Historic Home Tour: Sunday, March 18 only, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
SOHO Members $30; Non-members $40
All tickets on day of the tour $50
Purchase at the Marston House, the 2012 Home Tour Weekend headquarters
Category: Entertainment, Local News
