Preservation Society of Chapel Hill holiday tour to 'celebrate essence' of historic homes

This holiday season, seven historic Chapel Hill homes will open their doors to the public.

On Dec. 8 and 9, the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill will host its annual Holiday House Tour.

In honor of the society’s 40th anniversary, this year the tour will be held in the Franklin-Rosemary Historic District — the first neighborhood in Chapel Hill to be listed as a National Historic District.

“This is a special tour for us because we’re celebrating what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last 40 years,” said Cheri Szcodronski, the society’s interim executive director.

But this isn’t the first time the tour has been held in the Franklin-Rosemary Historic District.

“We do a different neighborhood every year,” said Szcodronski. “But sometimes we come back to neighborhoods that are especially popular. We’ve done this one a handful of times.”

The tour has also been held in the Cameron-McCauley Historic District, historic downtown churches, Battle Park neighborhood, Tenney Circle and Greenwood neighborhood.

This year’s tour features seven houses, including the society’s headquarters — the Horace Williams House — and the Betty Smith House, which was the first house to be saved by the society.

After Betty Smith, who wrote “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” died in 1972, the house was scheduled to be demolished to make room for an apartment complex.

Georgia Kyser and Ida Friday, who sat on the Chapel Hill Appearance Commission, stepped in to form the Preservation Society to buy the property.

“Of the seven houses this year, many are important to the history of Chapel Hill and the history of the preservation society,” said Evan Rodewald, the House Tour committee chairman.

Rodewald said the tour is the society’s biggest event, drawing more than 600 attendees last year.

It’s also a way of introducing the community to the history of Chapel Hill, he said.

“The tour raises money for historic preservation efforts by offering the community a unique way to see, experience and celebrate the essence of what we work so hard to preserve,” he said.

Beth Isenhour, second vice president of the society, has worked with the Holiday House Tour for more than a decade. She said she enjoys seeing the way homeowners have adapted the historic homes for their lifestyles.

“I’m excited for the community to be able to go into these homes that they’ve walked by for all these years, and now the doors will be open for them to go in,” she said.

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