Five homes will be showcased Saturday

• AMANDA JUNK STAFF WRITER / (812) 464-7506 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
• Evansville Courier & Press
• Posted May 16, 2011 at 6:02 p.m.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Evansville Philharmonic Guild's annual Homes of Note House Tour

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Five homes will be showcased: 1428 Oriole Drive, 821 Cobblestone Drive, 601 Lant Circle, 321 SE 1st St., 420 SE Riverside Drive

TICKETS: $15 in advance, $20 day of tour may be purchased at the Evansville Philharmonic Office or by calling (812) 842-0428. Other ticket locations include Schnucks, Wildflower Boutique and Paul's Menswear. Day of the tour tickets may be purchased at featured homes.

MOLLY BARTELS / Courier & Press Kirk and Sherry Wright's Italianate villa is featured on the Homes of Note Tour, which will benefit the Evansville Philharmonic youth music education programs.

With carpenters, painters, landscapers and other workers hammering away on multiple projects around Sherry and Kirk Wright's Downtown home, the 12,000-square-foot Victorian mansion has been a hub of activity.

"There's work going on at every door," Sherry Wright said.

The renovations have been only a few weeks long in preparation for Evansville Philharmonic Guild's Homes of Note house tour, she said.

MOLLY BARTELS / Courier & Press The hand-carved marble fireplace is the focal point in the formal parlor.

Kirk and Sherry Wright take a moment away from renovations. "There's work going on at every door," Sherry Wright said.

Courtesy Jennifer Genet Cobblestone

The Wright home, built in 1869, is on the National Register of Historic Places

First street

One of the most unique parts of the house is the 55 ft. marble hallway. photo shot on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.

Above: The formal dining room of Kirk and Sherry Wright's Italianate villa at 420 SE Riverside Drive, with its mural by a Tri-State artist, will be a highlight of Saturday's Homes of Note Tour, which benefits the Evansville Philharmonic's youth music education programs. RIGHT: The Wrights' entrance hallway is set off with art purchased during trips to Italy. Below: The hand-carved marble fireplace is the focal point of the Wrights' formal parlor.

lant circle

riverside

oriole drive

The five-home tour is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and benefits the orchestra's youth music education programs, event chairwoman Diane Wessel said.

Wessel said the self-guided home tour is in a "scattered" format: It features homes from a variety of architectural eras, ranging from contemporary to traditional.

For the Wrights, the dream of owning a replicated Italian villa has lasted much longer that the few weeks they've been preparing for the tour.

They moved into the eight-bedroom home at 420 SE Riverside Drive three years ago, Sherry Wright said. Built in 1869 by Evansville grocer John G. Venneman, it was designed by Henry Mursinna, the same architect who drew plans for the Reitz Home, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

But to the Wright family it's known simply as "Casa Finale," or final home, because they say they never intend to move. It includes three kitchens - one of which is in an adjacent carriage house - multiple chandeliers, an elevator, a fireplace in each bedroom and soon, a 14-foot-high wall-to-wall ebony library, Kirk Wright said.

In keeping with Italian architectural design, the home also has a campanile, or tower, with arched windows with a view of the Historic District and Ohio River.

Along with the Riverfront views and original woodwork and marble, Sherry Wright said the ornate qualities of the decorative trim lining each room are some of her favorite features of the home.

"If you take time to look up, there's something new to see in every room," she said during a recent tour.

A 55-foot black and white marble hallway serves as a grand Italian entryway, adorned with period artwork the Wrights purchased on trips to Italy. It leads to the dining room, which holds a mural painted in the 1990s by Evansville artist Robin Church.

Aside from the warm colors and historic Italian architecture echoed in her home, Sherry Wright said she wants "Casa Finale" to be reminiscent of the culture she most remembers from her visits to Italy.

"The small towns of Tuscany, the art of Florence, the monuments of Rome, the waterways of Venice - I loved it all," she said. "And the people. They are living a little part of their life every single day; that's the way they live. That's the way I want to live here."

The Wright home is one of five houses on the tour - two on Evansville's East Side, two in the Downtown Historic District and one on Lant Circle near the Lincolnshire neighborhood.

Homes vary in style, and in some cases like the Wright home, blend traditional structure with contemporary design.

Karen Timberlake's Tudor revival-style home at 321 First St., also in the Riverside Historic District, was originally built in 1916 as a residence for prominent Evansville businessman Samuel L. May.

From 1948 to the mid-1970s, the home was headquarters for the local chapter of the American Red Cross and later served as an awareness center.

Since moving into the Old English country manor 11 years ago, Timberlake and her late husband added a kitchen, a feature the original structure lacked.

Also on the tour is the Georgian revival home at 1601 Lant Circle, at the intersection of Lant Circle and Bayard Park Drive, was built in 1929 by George L. Krauss and is now where Aaron and Stacy Gries and their three young children live.

The exterior features three dormers, painted brick facade and a 6,660-square-foot addition to the home completed in 1978, which includes four bedrooms and three and a half baths.

Wessel described it as "family-friendly."

"A lot of the artwork is pictures that the kids have drawn, so even though it's a big beautiful home, it's geared for the kiddos," Wessel said.

The other two homes on the tour have a more modern feel, each with its own classic decorative touches sprinkled throughout.

Charles Board and Janice Hobgood renovated their 1960s ranch home at 1428 Oriole Drive, on Evansville's East Side, for a more updated look.

A tile walkway inlaid with an intricate mosaic is a theme carried out throughout the space; Charles Board is the owner of Evansville Tile. One area of the home stands out: a patio with a pergola, full outdoor kitchen, fire pit and fountain.

Also on the East Side at 821 Cobblestone Drive, Danny and Pat Bateman's four-bedroom, two-story home includes traditional and contemporary design elements throughout.

Built in the 1990s, the Bateman home is filled with furniture handcrafted by Pat Bateman's grandfather, George Connor, a designer at Tell City Chair Company, an Indiana furniture company known for quality craftsmanship since 1865. A modern fireplace and a vaulted ceiling are architectural highlights of the living room, which starts a black and white color scheme carried out in many of the home's other rooms.

Much like the other home tour participants, Sherry Wright said she wants her home to feel cozy and livable.

"I don't want my children, my guests to feel like they're in a museum. I don't want to live in a museum. I want them to feel that it's warm and alive."

But it is an open house. The main floor is always ready for someone to walk in; it isn't unusual to give an impromptu house tour for someone who rings the bell.

"I always want my doors to be open. It's (the home) really made for a lot of life. I try to share it as much as I can."

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