THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9411300155
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSAN SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Four South Norfolk families have been hanging pine boughs, spreading holly and making bows for weeks. The lights are up at their homes, the trees are decorated and the wreaths are hung. Dining room tables and mantles twinkle with candlelight. The scent of cinnamon and apples floats through the air. Everywhere you turn, it looks like Christmas.
The families are preparing to open their homes to visitors this weekend for the sixth annual Christmas Open House Tour in South Norfolk. The tour, sponsored by the Woman's Club of South Norfolk, takes place from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets cost $5. The proceeds will be used for a medical scholarship for a 1995 Oscar F. Smith High School graduate.
The tour will begin at the South Norfolk Congregational Christian Church with refreshments, crafts, music and fellowship. The basement of the church has been transformed into a trolley depot. Visitors can buy a ticket and ride the trolley from house to house.
Brenda and Steve Taylor and their daughter, Katie, have decked their bannister and mantle of their home on Park Avenue with holly, pine, apples, berries and lots of red bows. Even the hall chandelier is wrapped in greenery.
``We wanted to maintain the charm and flavor of a classic, old-fashioned South Norfolk Christmas,'' said Steve Taylor.
The Taylors' house was built about 1920 by George Lafayette Grimes, the first contractor in South Norfolk, as a home for his daughter, Hilda Starboard.
Visitors to the Taylor house should notice the tin roof, the refinished hardwood and marble floors, the antique family furniture, the ceiling rosettes and the wood molding in each room.
Downstairs maize-colored, formal, antique satin draperies are swathed and swagged over fringed shades with brass pulls and bridal veil, lace panels.
Steve Taylor's grandmother, Irene Taylor, made all the window treatments in the house. She once owned Taylor's Drapery Shop in South Norfolk.
``This was once a healthy, working-class neighborhood,'' Taylor said. ``People are starting to move back into this area, and it comes down to one house at a time as we restore and revitalize to bring the neighborhood back to better days.''
Jim and Nancy Baker are only the third owners of their large, two-story house on Chesapeake Avenue built about 1918.
Plaid ribbon, pine cones, baby's breath flowers, lots of greenery, hearts and wreaths decorate their house in a country Christmas theme.
A green garland with red berries, doves and gold horns entwines the bannister. Nancy Baker made most of the decorations, and the children helped by stringing together long strands of popcorn.
A 23-foot-long entry hall leads back to a cozy family room, where lights twinkle and the tree waits for Santa's visit. The 10-foot-high ceilings and the spacious rooms are just right for their three young children and a towering Christmas tree. There's a smaller, angel tree in the front room with ornaments made by the children.
Jim Baker did almost all the restoration work on their home. Visitors should notice the oak kitchen cabinets and the restored woodwork sometimes spliced back, piece by piece.
``All of the doors are the original ones, and the handles, pulls and knobs are brass,'' said Nancy.
Barbara and Tommy Peele live on Holly Avenue in a home built about 1922 for Curtis L. Williams. His daughter, Josie Williams White, still owns the home.
From the entry stairs to the bath to the back pantry, Barbara Peele is ready for Christmas.
Wreaths and poinsettias trim the walls and hallways. Greenery, bows and candles light up the transoms. A train chugs through artificial snow, and nativity scenes and winter-wonderland villages are on display on antique tables. Even the bath is decked out in red-and-gold towels and bath mats. In the pantry, crystal dishes gleam.
It's an animated Christmas at the home of Kay and James O'Carroll on D Street. They've been hauling boxes out of the attic and setting up Santas as they readied their 70-year-old house for the tour.
``If it blinks, sings, talks or spins, we have it,'' said Kay O'Carroll.
Carousels, reindeer, carolers and villages spin, sparkle, glisten, hum and sing. Tiptoe by and spy on the sleeping Santa in the family room. He snores. They have a dozen more Santas spread from the front porch through the living room into the dining room.
``Oh, my aching feet,'' groans one animated Santa as he soaks his feet.
Also on display is Kay O'Carroll's lifelong Elvis Presley collection. She has stamps, coins, earrings, cards, plates, a framed gold album and even a juke box stocked with Presley's hits. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
Steve, Katie and Brenda Taylor will show off their Park Avenue home
on the Christmas Tour in South Norfolk. Katie holds their Boston
terrier, Cleo.
The Taylors' mantle is adorned with holly, pine, apples, berries and
lots of red bows. Their South Norfolk house was built about 1920.
by CNB