A variety of storybook homes, quaint and set back from the curb, a few with split-rail fences and wrap-around porches, many with vast and colorful gardens and side patios, others still with tall front-and-center brick chimneys, and some with funky looking rolled eaves, popped up in Ann Arbor between 1890 and 1925. Inducted in 1972 as a part of the National Register of Historic Places, Ann Arbor’s Old West Side District, running west from Ashley St. to 7th Ave and north from Pauline Blvd. to Huron St., embraces its heritage and celebrates its tradition while applauding modern design influence and the family-centric character it has come to claim.
The theme of this year’s Old West Side Homes Tour is See What's New in the Old West Side. And along with the recently established Argus Farm Stop, which offers baked goods, dairy, meats, produce, artisan products such as goat’s milk soaps, and displays a rooftop garden covered, at the moment, with tall, green and yellow corn stalks, the tour features six private homes scattered throughout the neighborhood from Koch St. and Turner Park Ct. to West Liberty St.
The residents of the six homes on the tour vary from new Old West Siders to families who have been living in the neighborhood for decades. “The challenge,” says tour chair Susan Kaufmann, “is to pull together a diverse group of homes that best represent the unique architecture, landscaping and interior design of the neighborhood.”
While walking from home to home highlights the diversity of architecture in the Old West Side, ranging from old German farmhouse features to New England colonial influence, from California craftsman-style and beach-front bungalows to a touch of Southern gothic, a shuttle is available throughout the duration of the tour.
$10 Advance ticket sales run until 3pm on Saturday, September 20 at Washtenaw Dairy, Jefferson Market & Cakery, Downtown Home & Garden, Nicola’s Books, Norton’s Flowers.
Day of tickets cost $12 and can be purchased at the start of the tour—St. Paul Lutheran Church, 420 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI. Tour runs from noon to 5pm.
