Bungalow Heaven Home Tour

Great organization doing a good service to showcase these classic homes. Well organized and I applaud the owners for opening their homes for us all to take a step back in time.

A wonderfully organized event and opportunity to view a beautiful and historic neighborhood. Super friendly volunteers and attendees. Overall, a good event, but I wish the docents in the homes had more detailed and varying knowledge. Towards the end of the tour things were getting repetitive.
Here’s how it works: On a Sunday morning, in McDonald Park, the map to the tour is handed out. Then you begin your self-​guided walk around the neighborhood, stopping at this year’s homes to tour the interior. At each home, a tour group gathers outside to be lead thru by docents who give a spiel about the property. Further details are in the booklet included with the map. The homes are in varying degrees of restoration and represent different styles of the Arts & Crafts period.
Definitely worth checking out and a great way to spend a sunny Sunday, but may be a bit intense for those not already super into the Arts & Crafts period.

«Bungalow Heaven» is a collection of historic bungalow homes in Pasadena, California. The homes were primarily constructed in the early 1900s in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The residents help run the Annual Bungalow Heaven Home Tour, which provides an opportunity to tour the interiors of selected homes. The Tour is a great idea since it is otherwise not socially acceptable to walk through strangers homes.
The 23^rd Annual Bungalow Heaven Home Tour took place on April 29^th 2012. My wife and I were two of the many «home enthusiasts» in attendance. The Tour features the homes along North Chester Ave. and North Michigan Ave. between East Mountain Street and East Orange Boulevard. The homes have many distinctive features. The Craftsman Bungalow exteriors are characterized by their one-​and-​a-​half-​story height, slanted roof, wide front porch, and sleeping porch. The interiors often contain built-​in cabinets and seats, a California basement, and an emphasis on all things horizontal. Many of the homes along Michigan Ave. feature arroyo stones within their fireplaces and along the front porch and intricate windows within the wide front doors. These characteristics were particularly prominent in the «Living History Home» featured on the Tour. The Living History Home Tour takes you through the lives of character actors portraying the realty issues in the 1970s. The whole experience may leave you feelin’ groovy.
You can find more information and pictures by clicking on the link to my blog on my profile.

The 2010 Bungalow Heaven Tour was a blast! The houses are absolutely beautiful and give you so much inspiration for your own home even if you don’t live in a bungalow.
The homeowners and/​or the tour representatives in each home (the tour is self guided) know so much about the homes history as well as Pasadena history you feel like you’ve stumbled onto a little town.
You have to start right on time because homes are scattered all over and because they only allow a couple of people in the home at a time sometimes there is a bit of a back up.
Added bonus– a lot of homes are put on the market that weekend so you can see even more homes in the area.

Yay, we LOVE the Bungalow Heaven Home tour! The neighborhood has perfect streets for strolling (shady, tons of gardens) and features absolute eye candy for architecture buffs. The homes are all in amazing condition (give or take a few not-​so-​much) and the tour lets you come INDOORS to see all the cool period furniture collections, woodwork, nooks and crannies, built-​in cabinets (like, built-​in beds! ironing boards!) … oh, to live in the day’s of yesteryear…
Held this year on April 25, 2010, 10am-​4pm. The neighborhood assoc website has the info, and I think they’re on Facebook too.

If you have a love for historical homes, than you should definitely try to make it to the yearly Bungalow Heaven Home Tour in Pasadena. Bungalow Heaven is a neighborhood where the people living there actually worked to have it declared as a Landmark District. So why a Landmark District? Well, considering that Bungalow Heaven contains a rare and mostly intact collection of over 800 homes built from the 1900s through the 1930s, you can see why.
The architectural significance of Bungalow Heaven is that the homes reflect the start of the Arts & Crafts movement a la the Gamble House. As many of you may know, the Arts & Crafts movement rejected the ornateness of Victorian homes for simplicity in architectural style and a use of more natural materials.
This particular tour is self-​guided and at your own pace, but what’s so fantastic about it is that you get to visit the interior of 6 to 8 California bungalows and you’ll also get a booklet detailing the particular history of that home. I was just amazed that at the time some of these homes were first in existence, a couple thousand dollars would get you the home of your dreams. That’s certainly not the case now.
The tour runs $ 15 to $ 20 and happens every April. I think the tour is worth every penny and what better way to spend a spring day than exploring beautiful homes.
To see pics of the tour I took last year, see below: