The Wayne Theatre Alliance welcomes the holiday season with its traditional Christmas Home Tour on Dec. 4. Featuring eight sites, the Christmas Tour showcases the wide variety of architectural types reflected in the Tree Streets, Waynesboro’s oldest residential neighborhood.
The one-day tour begins at 10 a.m. and continues to 4 p.m.
Included on the tour are five homes in the Tree Streets, the Plumb House Museum, Fishburne Military School and the Belle Hearth Bed and Breakfast. Together the structures represent Waynesboro’s development from the late 18th century to the middle of the 20th century.
The Plumb House, the oldest framed dwelling in Waynesboro, will be dressed in the style familiar to the Plumb family who lived in the home for more than 160 years. Built while Jefferson was president, the original log cabin was ‘modernized’ with clapboards and plaster, which it still wears in the 19th century.
Another Waynesboro institution, the venerable Fishburne Military School, will also open its doors to the tour. Founded in 1879, the T. J. Collins-designed Gothic Revival barracks and buildings overlooking its parade ground and athletic field, is a major presence in the Tree Streets.
Down the hill from Fishburne is the 1909 Queen Anne house built by Dr. Ernest Mosby who lived and practiced in the house into the 1920s. Now operated as the Belle Hearth Bed and Breakfast, the house, with its Christmas trees covered in heirloom ornaments and dazzling lights, will take visitors back to the many, many holidays celebrated in the home.
The five family homes on the Christmas tour date from 1902 to 1941. The architectural styles range from Post Victorian to English Cottage to Georgian and Colonial Revival. Each house represents the changing fortunes of Waynesboro from the simple frame house now owned by Hamilton-Kennerly to the Hausrath home that was built for Col. Max Patterson by the Collins firm. The little red cottage on Wayne Avenue, a charming mixture of remnants of Victorian architectural conceits, is bookended by the Geiger home on Locust Avenue which was built from pre-civil war brick with slate from the old Basic City train station. Like the other homes, the Hammock home on Cherry Avenue will be an ideal way to warm to the holiday spirit.
Tickets for Wayne Theatre Alliance’s Christmas Home Tour are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the tour. Tickets are available at the WTA office at 533 West Main, the Waynesboro Heritage Museum, the Shenandoah Valley Art Center and Stone Soup Books and Café.
For more information, call 540-943-9999 or visit WTA’s website: www.waynetheatre.org.
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Chris Graham
