Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004230413
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tickets are $10 for a complete tour or $2 for a single-house admission and can be purchased at any of the homes the day of the tour.
A highlight of the tour is a free concert by the Roanoke Symphony Quintet at Fincastle Presbyterian Church from 1-3 p.m. Quintet members are Susan Midkiff, Jane Wang, William Johnston, Adam Crane and Mary Hege Crane.
Lunch will be available for $5.25 at the church from noon-2:30.
The complete tour includes refreshments served from 2-4 p.m. in the garden of Fred and Ferrel Phillips. Tickets are available at each house. For further information, call the Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs, 703-343-4519, 9 a.m.-noon Monday and Tuesday.
To get to the tour route, take exit 42 off Interstate 81, take U.S. 220 toward Fincastle and turn left onto Virginia 779 where signs will direct visitors to the first house on the tour, which is the home of Nancy Via Firestone. The Firestone home, Willow Springs, is a Williamsburg-style house in a 23-acre mountain setting that features bulb plants, flowering trees and perennials.
At the Firestone house, visitors can get brochures for the remainder of the tour or follow signs on 779 to 630, 670 and 669 and 640.
In addition to the Firestone house, homes and churches open include:
The home of Joe and Laura Logan at 2472 Glebe Road - The place was once a summer home and has been added onto several times. Special features include five large chimneys and brick salvaged from Tucker Hall at Washington and Lee University. Perennial and herb gardens are adjacent to a new pool and the property also features a formal English boxwood garden.
Shively House - A pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania stone house dated to 1766 and a brick addition from the mid-1800s.
Woodsedge - Passive solar home belonging to the Phillips family; has a mountain view.
The Fincastle Gallery - Home of Jake and Phebe Cress; includes original 1784 log structure now used as a cabinet shop for Jake Cress. A frame section was added in 1880 and a kitchen wing in the 1930s.
Bluebird Hill - Home of Barbara Redman, who has her painting studio in her home; situated on 115 acres and features a vast art collection, German Meissen china and furnishings representative of her travels in Europe and the United States.
Fincastle Presbyterian Church - Church walls date to 1771 when the church was an Established Church of England. Special features include the original lamp fixtures, the historic cemetery and a pipe organ.
Fincastle United Methodist Church - Present sturcture on site of older one was built in 1840 and has a gallery built for slaves. Furnishings include four chairs made in 1845 and the belfry bell cast in 1811.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church - Built in 1837 in the style of gothic Revival influence with parish house added in 1966.
Last year's Roanoke tour brought in $4,744 for The Garden Club of Virginia, according to Susie Feinour. Feinour and Glovie Lynn are co-chairwomen of this year's tour.
Garden Week in Virginia officially opened Saturday and continues through April 29 and offers 37 tours of public and private gardens. Exhibitions of antique Oriental rugs, which were prized possessions of wealthy early colonists, will be at Gadsby's Tavern Museum in Alexandria, Centre Hill Mansion in Petersburg and Richmond's Museum of Fine Arts.
by CNB