The story below is from our November/December 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photo above: Courtesy of Roanoke Home Tours
Nine homes, including the Alexander-Gish house, will be on display for the holiday season.
Roanoke’s Old Southwest district is one of the largest historic districts in the state of Virginia. The Holiday Parlor Tour of homes in the Southwest district of the city celebrates 40 years of displaying the historic area in 2019. The tour includes nine homes on display, including the Alexander-Gish house.
Each home displayed on the tour will be decorated as it would be in the 1800s, including fresh fruit and greenery, and will provide a tour of each structure. The Alexander-Gish house will provide refreshments, and a shuttle by Commonwealth Coach and Trolley will run the tour route.
The tour originated as a fundraising effort to restore the Alexander-Gish house in Highland Park.
“The Alexander-Gish house was a catalyst for raising awareness and importance of historic preservation, and its value and impact on Roanoke,” says Phillip Morgan, director of the Alexander-Gish house.
“It was the beginning of the urban renewal that now includes all of downtown Roanoke with its lofts, realizing that ‘urban living’ also includes neighborhoods like Old Southwest, adjacent to downtown.”
Morgan says the pioneer attitude of residents moving to the area and restoring the older homes of the Old Southwest district of Roanoke caught the attention of the city, who considered the input of residents regarding preservation of these historic homes.
The attention of Roanoke to the efforts to restore and preserve this historic district of the city led to the creation of Survey Sunday, where “volunteers catalogued all the structures within our boundaries that eventually led to Old Southwest being listed as a historic district. This led to zoning additions and improvements for the protection of the neighborhood,” says Morgan.
Morgan says the co-chairs of the tour begin searching for next year’s tour homes as early as the current tour and begin searching in earnest in late February.
“Many times people approach the tour committee about being on the tour, and often members of the committee approach residents to be a part of the tour,” says Morgan.
The Neighbors Helping Neighbors program of the Old Southwest provides volunteer and paid labor for the repair and maintenance for neighborhood residents who cannot financially make the repairs themselves. Interested volunteers are encouraged to contact the organization about ways to get involved.
“We are always in need of volunteers for one activity or another. We really rely on volunteers and generous corporate sponsors to help us through the year(s),” says Morgan.
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