Azalea Festival Home Tour to feature an eclectic mix of historic homes and churches
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Several homes and two houses of worship are featured as part of this year’s Azalea Festival Home Tour.
The tour features several private residences for visitors to explore some of the rich and beautiful architecture in downtown Wilmington and Carolina Heights areas.
One location on the tour is a Sears Modern Home which was a “kit house” from the 1940’s.
“Sears [Sears, Roebuck and Company] actually produced homes that you could buy via mail-order catalogs and have shipped to a town like Wilmington you construct yourself,” said Travis Gilbert, executive director of the Historic Wilmington Foundation.
Some homes on the tour have served as the backdrop in movie productions filmed in the Cape Fear.
“Several homes in Carolina Heights have a rich movie production history including one porch that was built for a movie set and was never taken away,” Gilbert said.
For the first time this year, two historic places of worship are featured on the tour — St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at 12 North 6th Street and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 16 North 16th Street.
The homes featured on the tour are:
■ 113 South 7th Street (DeCover House)
■ 17 South 6th Street (Henderson House)
■ 14 South 6th Street (Oscar Herbert Wright House)
■ 515 Princess Street (Bissinger House)
■ 1709 Princess Street (Thomas Hammer House)
■ 1801 Grace Street (Bridgers-Fulenwider House)
■ 1802 Grace Street (Donald B. Roberts House)
■ 106 North 16th Street (Marshall House)
Admission for the historic home tour is $40. The self-guided, self-paced tour is happening Saturday and Sunday. You can tour as many of the homes and churches as you want and in your order of preference.
Parking is available at both of the churches. If you park at St. Paul’s there will be free Boombalatti’s ice cream on Saturday while supplies last.
All proceeds benefit the Historic Wilmington Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1966 with the mission to preserve and protect the irreplaceable historic resources in Wilmington and the lower Cape Fear.
“We act on behalf of our region’s historic districts to promote their interests and promote the good work of historic preservation in a community that values its historic architecture and the charm of all of our stories that are best represented through the region’s-built history,” said Gilbert.
You can purchase tickets to the home tour at Legacy Architectural Salvage, The Ivy Cottage, Harris Teeter stores or the Historic Wilmington Foundation’s office at 211 Orange Street. Tickets are also available at historicwilmington.org.
