‘Behind Closed Doors’ uncovers Warren's hidden treasures

Home and garden tour Saturday, pre-party Friday evening benefit Warren Heritage Foundation

By Ted Hayes
Posted 6/22/17

In all his years helping the Providence Preservation Society organize historic house tours, Water Street resident Mark Goldberg has learned that there are a few essential ingredients to pulling off a …

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‘Behind Closed Doors’ uncovers Warren's hidden treasures

Home and garden tour Saturday, pre-party Friday evening benefit Warren Heritage Foundation

Posted

In all his years helping the Providence Preservation Society organize historic house tours, Water Street resident Mark Goldberg has learned that there are a few essential ingredients to pulling off a good show: Interesting homes and beautiful surroundings are a must, but there are two other major keys, good kitchens and nice bathrooms.
“You need them,” he joked Monday morning, sitting in an open area of his lovingly restored 1760 home just up from the Wharf Tavern.
Friday night and Saturday, about 15 of downtown Warren’s most loved homes and gardens will open to the public when the Warren Heritage Foundation holds its first-ever house and garden tour, “Behind Closed Doors.”
The goal is to raise funds for the foundation’s mission to preserve Warren’s architectural integrity. Mr. Goldberg believes opening downtown’s more elegant homes and gardens is a perfect way to do it:
“In any tour I’ve done, we’ve always tried to show what the community is doing to preserve and protect” its architectural history, he said. “We’re proud of these homes; all the homeowners are too.”
From the John Wheaton House on Union Street to the colonial-era Rufus Barton House on Broad, Saturday’s tour (and Friday’s pre-party at a lavish Victorian on Broad Street) shows a comprehensive cross section of Warren’s architectural past. In all, about eight homes, two private gardens, two small museums and an artist’s studio are on the tour.
The tour’s organizers had no trouble coming up with a good list of properties to include; it being the first home and garden tour in Warren in 25 years, there was a lot of excitement from homeowners who volunteered to open their doors.
Organizers settled on the properties they did not just for they significance, but also for their ease of walking. At its heart, the tour is meant to be a leisurely stroll through beauty.
“The best thing about this tour is that it highlights all of the things that are most special about Warren,” said the foundation’s president, Marcia Blount. “We have it all. This will be a true insiders’ look at one of the most picturesque, artistic and historically rich towns in the East Bay.”
Two ways to take the tour
Though the main tour is Saturday, it starts with a party Friday evening at the Smith Waterman House at 32 Broad St. (which is not part of Saturday’s tour). The pre-party runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and there will be music, hors d’ouvres, a bar and music. The home was chosen for the pre-party as its owners guided its restoration with an eye toward entertaining. Tickets to the pre-party are $75 and include a pass for Saturday’s tour.
If you just want to attend the tour Saturday, tickets are $20 in advance at the Warren Heritage Foundation website, or in person at DISH, 155 Water St. On the day of the event, tickets and a tour booklet may be purchased for $25 at the Warren Methodist Church, 27 Church St.

Properties on the tour include:

1. United Methodist Church, 25 Church St. (sign-in and information)
2. John Wheaton House, 90 Union St. (home and garden)
3. Hoar-Hall House, 172 Water St. (house)
4. The Barton House, 211 Water St. (house and garden)
5. Lafayette Club, 239 Water St. (artist’s studio).
6. Child-Merchant Carriage House, 42 Baker St. (Federal Blues Museum)
7. Narragansett Steam Engine Company, 38 Baker St.
8. Driscol House, 26 State St. (house and garden)
9. Eddy-Cutler House, 30 State St. (garden)
10. Benjamin Cranston House, 12 School St. (house)
11. St. Mark’s Chape, 16 School St. (house)
12: Mill building, 16 Manning St. (house and garden)
13. Sally Vance House, 51 Broad St. (garden only).
14. Rufus Barton House, 47 Broad St. (house)

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