Bootlegger's Ball Kicks off Home Tour Weekend

[Metro Jacksonville]

Bootlegger's Ball Kicks off Home Tour Weekend



Riverside Avondale Preservation is kicking off Home Tour Weekend this year with the First Annual Bootleggers Ball, a 1920's-themed speakeasy benefit ball from 7:00PM to Midnight on April 20th.

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http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-apr-bootleggers-ball-kicks-off-home-tour-weekend

[fieldafm]

The Bootleggers Ball is HIGHLY recommended. 

[Kaiser Soze]

Unfortunately it benefits RAP.

[NoCarMan]

Thanks for covering this MetroJax!  Channel 4 was fun this morning. I got to dress up and we had a model show off one of Erin Healy's designs that is going to be featured as part of her trunk show at the party Friday.  I for one am looking forward to trying as many of the classic cocktails as I can handle. 

[Bill Hoff]

I'll definitely be attending the Home Tour, probably via e2ride's bike tour. Should be fun.

[mtraininjax]

And of course, I will be a host in one of the houses. So come one and come all, should be nice cool weather and the pedicabs will be out in force.

[ben says]

And of course, I will be a host in one of the houses. So come one and come all, should be nice cool weather and the pedicabs will be out in force.

Which house?

[Riverrat]

Just curious - did anyone go on the home tour? Any thoughts or opinions to share with the rest of us? Thanks!

[ben says]

My fiancé was the 'house captain' for the Walsh Street home. I didn't do the tour, but I did stick around to both: a) see the crowd and b) check out that one particular home.

Some thoughts...

1-Damn, didn't expect the tour to be that busy. It's my first, so maybe that's why I was a little surprised. Considering how bad the weather was...there were a lot of people rolling in. I think they clocked in over 2,500 people on day 1.

2-Damn, that house was nice. Driving by, you'd think "oh, just another tiny Riverside bungalow." Passed a million like it everyday. Once you're inside, you feel like you're in a flat in central Amsterdam, or any chic Paris apartment. It was jaw-droppingly amazing, looking at the foreclosure pictures, then seeing what the owners have done to it.

3-I heard, consistently, that CoRK wasn't "worth going by" at all. That came from mostly the older crowd.

4-Heard the Oak street house, while gorgeous, wasn't really "home tour" worthy. Just an expensive home with a bunch of tiny rooms.

5-Heard the Bourbon Alley home was a complete surprise. Really fun inside, looks "like a million bucks," and surprisingly, furnished quite "cheaply" (and I don't mean that in a bad way).

Overall, from what I hear, quite the successful weekend.

**Disclaimer: all this is second-hand. Meaning, I heard it myself, but it's just from me asking random people at the Walsh Street home what they thought of the tour. **

[Riverrat]

Ben, thanks for the feedback! I actually know the owners of Walsh and was able to see the before/after...and without a doubt, night & day. You're right, it's an awesome house and you'd never suspect it from the outside!

[obie1]

good info for those of us not present Ben.
When you say not tour worthy, do you mean not remarkable in any way. How do they choose which houses each year? I am surprised that many people are willing to have strangers walking through judging all the time so maybe there is not a lot to choose from when they are planning the tour. Why was cork not worth going to? Not architecturally significant or was the art boring or what?

[ben says]

good info for those of us not present Ben.
When you say not tour worthy, do you mean not remarkable in any way. How do they choose which houses each year? I am surprised that many people are willing to have strangers walking through judging all the time so maybe there is not a lot to choose from when they are planning the tour. Why was cork not worth going to? Not architecturally significant or was the art boring or what?

When I say "not tour worthy," I mean, yes, you're house is clearly worth a lot of money, but no, there's nothing truly remarkable about this house vs. a house that was a dump foreclosure and now is a jewel of the neighborhood. (This is my opinion, and obviously, what I heard was from some people, but not all).

I'm not sure how they pick the houses. I know they don't pick on expensive houses alone. My educated guess says they pick (most) of the homes based on rehabs and/or history. JG, Haldumar, Walsh, Riverside Ave, Bourbon Alley, Roselle, Challen (to name most) have one or both things in common: 1) was once a dump, now is a shining example of a well-done rehab, and/or 2) tons of history involved (I'm thinking of Challen in particular, which has been there since 1902 (or 1907?), before the streets were even platted (it was a general store)).

I also don't know why people would want strangers walking through their homes?? I understand if you wanted to sell (it's like a huge open house!). But I don't understand if you live their permanently. Maybe I'm just too neurotic.

Lastly, I'm not sure why people didn't like CoRK. Was too busy to have serious conversations with people for too long.

[ben says]

On second thought, re: CoRK. Just speculation, but realizing that mostly older people didn't like CoRK, I'm thinking it was a little "too far" on the "other side of Park" for most people. Didn't hear anyone mention boring art. Just heard at least a 1/2 dozen people say "ehh, if you're going to skip one...."

[grimss]

I, too, was surprised by how cool the homes were. After last year's tour, I was expecting a let-down (in 2011, Cheney-Cummer House, Beerbower house, awesome 1904 columned home on St. Johns--real show pieces). But this year, there was a real emphasis on livable, obtainable homes. The Challen home was absolutely, unbeliveably awesome. I was a volunteer at the John Gorrie on Sunday, and talked to a lot of folks about what their favorites were. The most frequently mentioned were Challen and Walsh, but also lots of votes for the mid-century modern on Montgomery, the Art Moderne house on Bourbon Alley, the bungalow on Riverside, the John Gorrie and the house on Post. A very wide distribution, which is the hallmark of a good tour. (BTW, I thought CoRK was awesome--made me so proud to be a local!)

As for how the houses get chosen, the committe that heads the event puts together a wish list, and then hits up the RAP board and anyone else for connections to the owners of the desired properties. Not everyone says yes--it IS a big deal to let thousands of strangers through your home--but those who agree to do it do so out of community spirit and a desire to support RAP and the community. Even Delores Weaver, who is surprisingly determined to not anyone but bona fide buyers into the Gorrie, thought it was an event worth supporting. (Even though she kevetched about all the people parking in front of the Gorrie.)

[Debbie Thompson]

We liked the tour,and loved that it included a cool mid-century modern home as well as older historic homes.  It's not my cuppa tea to turn historic homes into urban lofts, that's for warehouses and the like in my opinion, so while it was nicely done, I wasn't crazy about the Walsh Street house.  That fuddy-duddy comment aside, I thought the tour was great.

As an "older" person, I enjoyed CoRK.  My favorite was the Synapse installation in the corner done by the art students.  That was really cool.