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Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour offers lavish look inside Northside homes
By Sophia Mastroianni
Guided tours for this annual holiday event departed from Calvary United Methodist Church every 12 minutes.
Huddled beside one another in the cold, tour participants sang Christmas carols as a right of passage to enter six of the Northside’s oldest, most vibrant homes on the annual Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour.
The guided tours, which took place on Friday, Dec. 7 and Saturday, Dec. 8, gave participants access to a late 19th to early 20th century experience of what the holiday season meant for those living in the lavish, Victorian-style homes of Allegheny West.
Tour groups met at Calvary United Methodist Church on Beech Avenue, where a Christmas shop was set up for guests to enjoy before and after the tour.
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Tour guides departed from Calvary United Methodist Church on Beech Avenue. -
Pews are hand carved and families had to purchase one each year. -
Calvary United Methodist Church, the first stop to the tour, is the only structure that has over 160 Tiffany glass windows in the world. -
The first house on the tour was used as a movie set for film projects. -
An elegant chandelier calls back to the birth of the traditional American Christmas in the late 19th Century. -
An intricate handrail is complemented by a Christmas green wall. -
Holiday lights help to put this violin on display for tour participants. -
The Beer house, decorated for the season, used to be a boarding house. Numbers are still listed on the upstairs doors. -
Closets cost extra, so this house’s main bedroom still has no closet. It’s located in the upstairs hallway. -
Many of the homes include pianos and detailed windows and ceilings. -
A small stained glass picture adds color to the room. -
Multi-toned wood forms captivating layers on this mantle. -
Pine, holly and mistletoe fit well with the architecture of the houses on tour. -
This miniature Christmas village fills the room with a warm glow. -
Even this homeowner’s bookcase was decorated in holiday colors. -
A wooden banister and staircase welcome guests to this Victorian home. -
A poinsettia draws attention to the elegant stained-glass windows of this entrance hallway. -
The bulbs on the tree in the Holmes house, last on the tour, are all over 150 years old. -
Table is decorated for a feast.
