Hello everyone,
I thought I would take a few moments and put together my review of the Historic Tacoma Craftsman Home Tour. We held our first home tour this past weekend on Saturday the 15th. The weather was overcast and moderate in temperature. We had seven homes in the tour representing the full range of the craftsman style. We had many volunteers that without their hard work and dedication the tour would not have been possible. The ticket sales were excellent! We had great local coverage in the Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma Weekly, and the Volcano. Additionally we were able to have a large number of posters hung through out the neighborhoods in Tacoma. Due to the great coverage in the paper we sold out! Over 450 tickets were sold which was a fantastic surprise.
I was docent at two houses during the tour. I asked everyone that attended how they heard about the tour. Hands down was “the paper” and number two response was “she told me” followed by a point of a finger at the individual who provided the information. I am guessing it went something like this.
“Oh, look there is a Craftsman Home Tour this weekend!.”
“Honey, you’re going to go with me on this home tour!”
I think that might be the general way some people found out.
We had no problems with anybody who attended. All were respectful of the homes and were very polite and kind to everybody who was at the home they were touring. Our feedback was excellent. The only suggestion that I received was that the map to the homes could have been a bit bigger with more names of cross streets. Not bad for our first run. We had vendors in four of the homes. I have heard positive comments from the vendors on the number of contacts they made with potential customers looking for period appropriate items for their craftsman’s.
Historic Tacoma will be planning another home tour again. I don’t think that we will be hosting one next year as the logistics of this one were far more difficult than we had expected. Given a year off I am sure our education committee will be ready for the challenge in 09!
I will be posting some photos of the tour homes on my website later this week. If you are interested please visit my web site by clicking here. Photos will not be up until Tuesday.
If you are interested in learning more about Historic Tacoma and what we are trying to accomplish please send me an email and I will be happy to provide you with more information. If your community does not have an organization like Historic Tacoma I highly encourage you to start one! Historic preservation is a grass roots effort. Get involved and help save your areas historic legacy.
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