Mount Prospect Housewalk celebrates 25 years
When the Mount Prospect Historical Society Housewalk kicks off on Friday, Nov. 30, it will be the 25th time that the society has raised money by coordinating a tour of private homes, both historic and modern, allowing people to see inside the homes they have driven past and wondered about for years.
This year’s tour will highlight Mount Prospect’s historic Busse’s Eastern Addition, just east of downtown on the north side of the tracks, and will run from 3:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, Nov. 30.
The interiors of five private homes will be featured. The exterior of four other historic homes will also be highlighted, as will St. Paul Lutheran Church and the Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum.
The homes featured this year, both inside and outside, are: 111 S. Maple St., owned by Dan and Chris Burkhard; 109 S. Maple St., owned by the Raymond Waters Family; 13 S. Maple St., owned by Tom and Barb Meier; 104 S. Elm St., owned by Scott and Juliet Moon; and 14 S. Elm St., owned by Mike and Cathy Pierce.
The exteriors of 9 S. Maple St., owned by Ken and Anita Chapman; 21 S. Maple St., owned by Pam Dammen; 10 S. Elm St., owned by Mike and Joanie Schwarzbeck; and 105 S. Elm St., owned by Bob Dooley and Bill Reddy will also be highlighted with historical notes featured on a lighted podium.
Since it began in 1988, as the brainchild of local newspaper columnist Jean Murphy, the interiors of a total of 125 homes have been featured on the annual tour. Murphy had previously been on staff at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park and had worked on their highly successful Wright Plus annual Housewalk. She felt that a similar event could work in Mount Prospect to help keep local history alive there, too, and since it began, the annual holiday event has raised over $200,000 for the society.
But it has certainly not remained static over the years. The Holiday Housewalk has evolved from a Sunday afternoon driving tour highlighting homes all over the village, to a Friday night neighborhood-specific walking tour. And the evenings/afternoon’s festivities have begun in such diverse locations as local churches, the Mount Prospect train station, a local bank and even in a heated tent, depending on the neighborhood featured.
This year the Housewalk’s marketing has also evolved, entering the 21st century with a vengeance. Patrons can now purchase Housewalk tickets from the comfort of their own homes via PayPal through the society’s website, www.mtphist.org.
Tickets can also be purchased using a smartphone equipped with a “QR (quick response) code” reader anywhere you see a Housewalk event poster. Using a QR code reader to scan this object, you will be taken directly to the Housewalk event/ticket purchase webpage.
Finally, the Housewalk has its own Facebook event page this year. Connect to the event through the society’s fan page, “join” the event and forward the invite to your Facebook friends. This is also a great way to get up-to-the-minute information, news and tidbits about the event.
So, on Nov. 30, four more homes will join the ranks of Mount Prospect Housewalk homes (since one of the featured homes this year has been on the walk in the past). And both ardent longtime Housewalk fans, and those who have never had the pleasure of touring local homes in the past, will enjoy an evening of holiday décor, lovely historic homes with great decorating and luminaria-lit streets. It is an evening that will have you, too, coming back year after year as a way to kick off your holidays while peeking into great local homes.
For information, log onto www.mtphist.org or phone (847) 392-9006.
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