Holiday Highlight:
IPC House Tour Includes Redmont, Mountain Brook Homes
The Independent Presbyterian Church’s Holiday House Tour is always a fun way to get Christmas decorating ideas, said Hilary Ross, public relations chairman for this year’s event.
“We strive to have homes with diverse architecture and elegance,” Ross said. “Those who go on the tour can see ideas that they might visualize and incorporate in their own homes.”
But the tour, now in its 64th year, has a purpose other than showcasing striking houses and providing holiday inspiration.
“The tour supports our church’s Children’s Fresh Air Farm Summer Learning Program,” Ross said.
The six-week summer program is for rising third, fourth and fifth-graders from disadvantaged backgrounds. Certified teachers give the campers academic instruction and supervise enrichment activities. The children are served breakfast, lunch and snacks and go on field trips, too.
The Children’s Fresh Air Farm has been a church mission since 1923, Ross said.
This year’s tour has four houses in Redmont Park and one in Mountain Brook’s Colonial Hills neighborhood.
“Three of the homeowners–the Beards, the Dixons and the Perrys–are IPC members,” Ross said. “This is the first time that we’ve had that many church members’ homes on the tour.”
Visitors to the home of Louise and John Beard at 2820 Stratford Road may be reminded of an old English abbey. The Beards worked with architect Jeff Dungan of Dungan Nequette to build a house with stunning views of Birmingham and to provide a setting for their collections.
The house’s exterior is limestone and brick. The foyer ,which faces Stratford Road, has a cathedral ceiling that takes design cues from London’s Westminster Abbey.
A pub with a wooden bar features the family crest. Close by is a wine room that doubles as a safe room. An exercise room houses memorabilia from Louise Beard’s many stage productions.
Maggie and Will Brooke are opening their home at 2500 Lanark Road for this year’s tour.
William Logan Martin built the Georgian Revival brick house in 1929 to overlook the southern part of Birmingham. Martin, a West Point graduate and Alabama Power Co. attorney, was the first of only three owners of the house.
Dr. Hugh Nabers and his wife, Grace, bought the house in 1959. Although they kept the original design, they added a bedroom and bathroom–and a trophy room to house the mounted exotic animal specimens Hugh Nabers hunted all over the world.
The Nabers family also focused on the gardens, planting boxwoods and holly trees outside of the French doors that the Martins had incorporated into the house’s design.
The house got another update before the Brookes moved in. The kitchen was extensively renovated, and the trophy room became a master suite.
Rita and James Dixon’s home at 11 Clarendon Road was completed in 2006. It was designed by architect Chip Gardner, and Melanie Pounds helped design the interiors.
The Dixons have furnished their house with French and English antiques and family heirlooms. In the dining room’s custom bookcases are the couple’s collection of Herend Rothschild Bird china. An antique frame collection with family photos by photographer Barbara Harbin is in the upstairs hall.
The house also features salvaged beams, an antique French limestone mantel and reclaimed wood floors.
Vicki and Marvin Perry’s house at 1621 Lanark Place in Redmont was built in 1925. Vicki Perry’s grandfather, Hill Ferguson, developed Redmont with Robert Jemison.
The house’s chateau-like architecture is set off by careful landscaping. It was renovated by a previous owner, and the Perrys added a garage.
Three fireplaces each have unique mantels. A family room with a soaring ceiling wasn’t part of the original house but fits beautifully into the design—and provides an inviting retreat.
Also in Redmont is another tour stop, the home of Staci and Ben Thompson at 2701 Argyle Road.
Built in 1922, the Thompsons’ Spanish Revival house shares it origins with Independent Presbyterian Church, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the County Club of Birmingham. All were designed by the architectural firm of Warren, Knight and Davis.
With its red tile roof and intricately-worked doors, the house is one of the few remaining examples of a one-level Mediterranean style.
Tour-goers will see baseball memorabilia that belonged to the father of Staci Thompson and collections of artwork and books. Staci is co-owner of Thompson House Antiques,
Independent Presbyterian Church will be open for the tour, too. Founded in 1915, the church was designed by architect William Warren of Warren, Knight and Davis.
IPC members will deck the halls of the sanctuary and parlor. Christmas tea will be served in the church’s Great Hall on both days of the tour.
Tour chairmen are Jennifer Cope, Margaret Shuttlesworth and Kathy Thomson.
The tour is set for Dec. 14 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Dec. 15 from 1-5 p.m.
Tickets are $20 and go on sale Dec. 1. To buy tickets, call the church at 933-1830, visit www.ipc-usa.org or stop by the church reception desk during business hours.
Tickets may also be purchased at the any of the tour homes and at the church during tour hours.
Shuttle parking for the homes in the English Village area will be available at the Junior League of Birmingham building, 2212 20th Ave. South.—Donna Cornelius
