Home and garden tour returns to Richfield
By Kathleen Folkerth
RICHFIELD VILLAGE — After an absence of more than 30 years, Richfield’s home tour is back.
The Richfield Town Trust has organized a home and garden tour in the historic district of Richfield Village, to be held June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The walkable tour will feature three century homes and two gardens, according to Linda Fleming, a member of the Richfield Historical Society.
Fleming said the garden club in Richfield used to put on a home tour, which hasn’t taken place since 1975. And prior to that series of tours, Richfield partnered with Bath for what was called the “Tour of Country Living.”
The idea of revitalizing a tour came from an idea to have a plant swap, Fleming said, and it expanded to include the homes and gardens. The plant swap will go on during the tour at the Richfield Fellowship Hall, 3909 Broadview Road.
Fleming said the part of town where the tour is centered used to be called “uptown.” The area is around the Fellowship Hall, which is where participants will pick up their program and ticket for the event.
Fleming said each of the three homes on the tour are full of interesting details. The tour includes the following:
• An 1850 home features
an elegant Victorian parlor that has been filled with
items found at second-hand stores. The current owners
have added personal touches with draperies made of modern
fabrics. The home also features original floors and
panel doors.
• Another home may have
been built as early as the 1820s. Fleming said the most
interesting feature of this home is a semi-elliptical
arch between the dining room and parlor. The parlor
also features very long floorboards. The home’s
garden is full of perennials on different levels. It
also features a grape arbor and an outbuilding used
as an artist’s studio.
• The third home is estimated
to have been built in the 1850s. It has an oval Victorian
door and a wide front porch parlor in front. It also
has a vegetable garden, flowers and trees and a “wonderful
vista of open property,” Fleming said.
Two other homes have their gardens
featured. One has a sunken sandstone living area that
is decorated with plants and a fountain and found objects
used as sculpture.
“There are things to feast
your eyes on,” Fleming said.
Proceeds from the tour will benefit
the Richfield Town Trust and will be used to help make
the West Center of Richfield a hub of community life
and activity while maintaining the area’s charming
and historic character, according to organizers. The
Town Trust uses its funds to give out grants for improvements
to commercial businesses in the district.
Fleming said plans are already
under way to make the tour an annual event.
“We were asking [people
to participate this year] at the end of December and
January,” she said. “Some people were very
excited about it, but they weren’t ready to think
about it until next year. A lot of people have already
said they would be interested for next year.”
Advance tickets for the home
and garden tour are $10 and can be obtained by sending
a check made payable to the Richfield Town Trust to
4300 W. Streetsboro Road, Richfield, OH 44286. A boxed
lunch option also is available for an additional $5.
Lunch includes pasta salad, fruit, a drink and a choice
of ham and cheese, turkey and cheese or vegetarian croissant
sandwich.
Tickets also will be available
the day of the tour for $12. For additional information,
call Fleming at (330) 659-6819 or e-mail Karen Smik
at kls1650@adelphia
.net.
This Richfield century home is
one of three that are on the Richfield Town Trust’s
home and garden tour June 9. The event revives a home
tour that hasn’t taken place in the community
for 30 years, according to organizers. Visitors to the
homes on the tour will see unique design and a selection
of antiques, as shown above.
Photos: Ken Crisafi
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