CENTERBURG — The Second Annual Tour of Homes was held in Centerburg on Sunday. Part of the annual Hometown Holiday in Centerburg, the tour was sponsored by the Heart of Ohio Women’s Club.
“This is a project for Christmas to benefit Interchurch and The Salvation Army,” said club member Sharon Shuff. “There are seven homes on the tour, scattered around Centerburg. We lucked out today with the weather. It’s cold but it’s sunny. This is the second year for the tour.”
Some of the homes on the tour, such as the one owned by Jeff and Sandy Wyrick at 103 E. Main St., have a long history. The house is believed to have been built in 1890.
“At least that’s what is on the deed,” said Jeff.
“We’ve been here two years,” Sandy added. “This is the house I’ve always wanted to live in. It’s one of the old ones with this woodwork and all.”
“We gutted the kitchen and the bathroom,” Jeff said. “That’s when we found the chimney [in the kitchen] that we didn’t know was there.”
The Wyricks used the newly exposed chimney as an integral part of the period design of the kitchen. But a chimney was not all they found.
“We did find some letters,” Sandy said.
“Yes, we did find some letters in the wall when we did the gutting,” Jeff said. “They’re from 1937. One is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sent to the guy who lived here. And another one is to a lady who used to live here, from her brother. It talks about the weather and all kinds of things. These were found at the bottom and we think they might have fallen down the wall from upstairs.”
The Wyricks have done a little bit of work on the floors and other woodwork. The bathroom has been redone in period style with a pedestal sink that looks old fashioned, but was brand new from Home Depot.
“And the tub, we found that down the street at the antique store,” Jeff explained about the old-fashioned bathtub on short legs.
The house on Landrum street owned by Kevin and Jennifer Kincaid was another oldie but goodie.
“We purchased this house about a year ago,” said Jennifer. “It’s so beautiful with the woodwork, we decided we wanted to show it on the tour. It was built in the 1890s.”
We’re working on the third floor attic right now,” explained Kevin. “Just over the last year we’ve been working on the flooring and the woodwork. I’m just glad there wasn’t any painted woodwork. It’s just a gorgeous house.”
Other houses on the tour were more contemporary. Two of those homes had a similar attraction to them.
Karen McCann, who lives on Webster Road with her husband, Mark, has an unusual hobby. She collects miniature homes and other pieces to make an old-fashioned little village under her Christmas tree. In fact, the village is so big it now has to be laid out next to the tree.
“We’ve been here 11 years and I put our house on the tour because of the village,” Karen said. “I’ve been doing this for abut 20 years. When we moved here, Mark and I took the door off the laundry room and put it on some saw horses. That was our first village. Now it’s 4 feet wide and 40 feet long. My husband builds the table every year for the village.”
Finding all of the little buildings and figures is not as hard as it would seem, according to Karen.
“I find these pieces everywhere,” she said. “I have some that have been given to me by family and friends. This one building we bought in Tennessee on our honeymoon. These firefighters I got in Tennessee and I got them because my husband is a firefighter. I try to personalize it. He also shoes horses, so that’s why I have the blacksmith shop.”
Joyce Smith on Perry Road also has a Christmas village she has been working on for about 20 years.
“I know the Heart of Ohio Women’s Club always sponsors and supports a lot of good causes, and I wanted to be a part of it,” Smith explained of her decision to open her home to the tour. “I’ve lived here 14 years and started out as a modular. My brother comes up on weekends and helps rehab the entire house. But my attraction is the Christmas village. I’ve been working on it for about 20 years. I wanted to get my son involved in trains, but he wasn’t really interested in it, so I picked it up as a hobby.”
And it is quite a hobby for Smith. A Lionel train runs through an 1890s style small town with not just houses and stores, but carnival pieces on different levels. In the upper left corner is the Christmas tree, looking out over the town.
“I just kept adding houses,” she said. “My mother always had a village under her Christmas tree and that’s what got me interested. Now I have a whole town. My sister started me out on the carnival pieces. She bought me the merry-go-round. I liked the motion and went from there. I get the pieces from all over, Odd Lots, Kmart and Wal-Mart, places like that.”
Visitors on the tour were quite impressed with the homes.
“I’ve enjoyed it very much,” said Holly Helfant. “It’s inspired me to decorate more and to clean my house. It’s very nice. You get to meet a lot of interesting people. Not just the hosts, but people from the community.”
“I like to see all the pretty decorations. They are beautiful,” said Phyllis Fuller. “We’ve been to all the houses, and they’ve put in a lot of work.”
