10Th Annual Historic Home Tour

The St. Cloud Historic & Neighborhood Preservation Association presents its Tenth Annual Historic Home Tour, Saturday, June 28, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

An official event of St. Cloud's summer celebration GRANITE CITY DAYS. Come visit the South Side/University Neighborhood, founded in 1856. The tour homes will be arranged on an easy walking route through the South Side and Barden Park Historic Districts, with detailed information on each home's history and architecture. Styles featured on the tour will range from Queen Anne Victorian to Craftsman to Colonial Revival. As you walk through the neighborhood you will see fine examples utilizing historic, locally made, St. Cloud yellow brick, and varied colors of locally quarried granite.

Admission is $12 in advance or $15 at the tour desk day of the event. Tickets may be purchased after June 1 at the following outlets: St. Cloud Byerly's, Coborn's Sauk Rapids, the new Coborn's Superstore on Cooper Ave. S., and Cashwise Video. Please make all checks payable to "SCH&NPA". No children under 12 can be admitted; and inside homes, guests may be asked to wear socks and carry their shoes while in the homes, unless you wear orthopedics or removing your shoes is too difficult for health reasons. Homes are not wheelchair accessible. New this year will be walking tours telling the stories of the people and happenings from a time when this neighborhood was the finest in all of central Minnesota.

Other highlights include meeting the young women competing for the titles of St. Cloud Ambassadors, door prizes provided by local businesses, and discount coupons for downtown establishments in this year's tour booklet.

Home Tour proceeds will assist in our efforts to give down payment grants for families and individuals who want to live in our historic downtown neighborhood. For information on grants, a list of neighborhood amenities, homes for sale in our neighborhood, and questions contact richkelly1@yahoo.com. We would love to have you as a neighbor.

The event is sponsored by St. Cloud Historic & Neighborhood Preservation Association (SCH&NPA) and St. Cloud Granite City Days. SCH&NPA was founded in 1988 as a community non-profit corporation of homeowners, civic leaders, and others concerned with rescuing and restoring the structural history and neighborhood integrity of the core city. We hope to educate the public about the irreplaceable architectural treasures being lost and give incentives for people to rediscover our core city neighborhood. Through volunteer efforts of various kinds, this group works to fund restoration and new homesteader incentives, design educational projects and monitor political activities affecting the quality of life in older city neighborhoods. We are founding members of the St. Cloud Neighborhood Coalition.