Each year, Noblesville residents who own antique homes and buildings open their doors to visitors. For Amy Coyle, president of the Noblesville Preservation Alliance’s board of directors, it’s a time to celebrate Old Town — the historic district of downtown Noblesville — and meet new people.
Like last year, the Noblesville Preservation Alliance has partnered with Noblesville Main Street to provide the Historic Home Tour and Upstairs Downtown events in one weekend. Upstairs Downtown will be 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 15, and the Historic Home Tour will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 16.
Upstairs Downtown allows attendees to venture upstairs in antique buildings. Katie Nurnberger, board president of Noblesville Main Street and secretary for the Noblesville Preservation Alliance, said she didn’t know anything about Upstairs Downtown until she bought a building on the square and started restoring it.
“I realized how magical these spaces are that no one gets to see,” she said. “People are used to going into the storefronts on the ground level, but there are all these spaces and a lot of them have not been used for a very long time. So, I just think it’s a really magical tour because you get to kind of take a peek back in time in most cases.”
The event has guided and unguided tours. Kurt Meyer and Geoff Davis will lead the guided tour. Nurnberger said Meyer and Davis have lived in Old Town for a long time and know tidbits of history and are entertaining.
This year’s Historic Home Tour event will feature homes from the Gas Boom period of 1887 to 1907.
The Historic Home Tour began in 1987 and has been presented each year except 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendees walk through different antique buildings and homes, and Coyle said each attendee and homeowner gets a pamphlet on the history of the house or building.
“It’s really just a wonderful day celebrating history and our historic homes and structures here in Noblesville,” Coyle said.
She said the Historic Home Tour is the Noblesville Preservation Alliance’s biggest fundraising event. She said the organization tries to feature homes in different areas of Old Town. The committee that chooses the featured buildings conducts historic research on each location, she said.
“One of the great things about historic homes is that they’re different from each other,” Coyle said. “So, it’s nice to see what people have done over the years and nice to see what has been retained over the years.”
For the unguided Upstairs Downtown tour, tickets are $10. For the guided Upstairs Downtown tour, tickets are $20. The tour starts in the Adler Building, 136 S. 9th Street.
The Historic Home Tour tickets cost $18. The tour starts at the Sheriff’s Residence on the Square or at Preservation Hall.
The Historic Home Tour and Upstairs Downtown combo ticket is between $24 to $34.
For more or to buy tickets, visit preservationhall.org/event/36th-annual-historic-home-tour.
