(The home of Councilman Burney and his wife, Wendy, was on the tour.)
Hundreds of visitors and residents crowded the city's sidewalks Sunday for the first House Tour to include homes in ALL of the residential historic districts, as well as the 1788 Friends' Meeting House. The Meeting House on Watchung Avenue is located in the North Avenue district, the city's only commercial historic district. (Photos of homes on the tour are posted on PT's Plainfield page at Flickr, the online photo hosting serivce.)
The tour also included two examples of classic 1920s Tudor Revival homes which will soon meet the age requirements for historic properties. (Remember the delicious anticipation of turning 12 and paying for an ADULT ticket at the Saturday afternoon movies? It cost more, but it meant you were no longer a CHILD. It's THAT kind of feeling if you own one.)
A committee composed of representatives of FOSH (Friends of Sleepy Hollow) and the various districts worked for months to organize, publicize and staff the day. Councilman Rashid Burney and his wife, Wendy, opened their home to the crew for the after-party.
Proceeds, after expenses, will be divided among FOSH and the historic districts to be used for projects such as beautification and community outreach.
The big question among organizers and docents at the after-party was where was the Mayor?
Her Honor's absence was particularly striking as house tours are a vital part of drawing new residents to the community. With the prices of homes in Plainfield's historic districts buoying property prices throughout the city, this is no small potatoes.
(NOTE: PT was notified by an email received at 10:50 AM Monday that the mayor was indeed seen at one of the homes, being photographed by a man with a camera, presumably the city information officer.)
As one could deduce from seeing the large numbers of people walking the streets with TOUR MAPS in hand and pointing at other homes as they went along, many of the attendees were visitors not familiar with Plainfield.
And these people are prime prospects for buying a home in the city, as PT's experience both with Plainfield house tours and as a real estate professional attest. (In fact, PT decided to move here after being invited out from Brooklyn by a Plainfield friend for a house tour in 1982.)
One committee member remarked, "There are only TWO kinds of people who come out for house tours -- VOTERS, and POTENTIAL voters."
This is a point that was not lost on mayors McWilliams and Fury, who never failed to attend a house tour, visiting all the homes, and schmoozing with visitors and volunteers alike.
Perhaps Her Honor had something better to do.
-- Dan Damon
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1 comment:
The homes were wonderful and the plan of the tour was splendid, but Plainfield did not shine with so much brush and wood debris left on the streets making it extra hard to park. With such an advantage for showing off our city, one would have thought that Public Works would have been instructed to clean the streets, at least where the show homes were located.
I phoned Public Works a few days before Sunday to request they do a pick up but was advised that no brush will be collected until October and that those homes with debris had already been cited by letter.Hmmm!
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