18th Annual Home Tour
This year’s tour brought the neighbors in Edgewater Glen together to celebrate the restoration of some of the areas historic homes. The preparation began with a letter sent to members in the area and then to home owners who had restored their homes in some way. Among the special homes open for viewing was the Nicholas Kransz, Jr. home at 1502 Glenlake. The current owners, the Wangerin’s had participated in the 1990 tour and had just completed a beautiful exterior paint job and were willing to show their home. Another home of interest was the Taylor’s home, which had been the home of area developer Roy Knauer on Glenlake. But our research uncovered even more special homes.
Maureen and Mike Volini volunteered to show their unique bungalow. Then the Robbs offered their unique home designed by Edgewater architect, Julius Huber. The Braatz-Buck home turned out to be one of Neils Buck’s homes designed for John Lewis Cochran. Special properties like the Jeffers home with beautiful side yard garden and Dawn Wyman’s home, with a new front porch, a classic foursquare built by the Kransz Webber Company added great interest to the tour.
The tour started on Granville at the United Methodist Church where Pastor John Hudson and his wife set up a beautiful archive room with photos and artifacts celebrating 100 years of service to the community. Nearby the Pace Spears home, once owned by William Lill, Jr. of Lill Coal Company, offered another unique structure for viewing by some 225 tourgoers.
The day was a busy one and to our surprise the publicity had attracted members of the Kransz family who had lived at 1502 Glenlake. They came as a group to the starting point and Bob Remer escorted them to 1502 where they met the Wangerins and docent Thom Greene and toured their old homestead. They brought photos with them and showed them to those who were touring that afternoon. We have been able to make some copies of these originals and the photo below is one of them.
A special thanks to the Jeffers for not only opening their home, but allowing us to serve refreshments in their solarium and on their deck. Thanks to all our volunteers who make the tour so special. Many of the volunteers gathered to celebrate afterwards at That Little Mexican Cafe on Bryn Mawr just as the predicted rain shower began.