Find design inspiration with these six upcoming DC home tours

Part of what makes the nation’s capital so exciting is that there is so much variety here — from the food to the people to the architecture. Every few months, events celebrate the District’s mixed bag of tastes, sounds, sights and perspectives. This fall and winter will be no different as residential architecture will be in the limelight at six upcoming house tours worth a visit. Each will offer award-winning designs and fine art collections for spectators, as well as benefits for charitable organizations.

First up is the sixth annual Palisades Village House Tour on Saturday, Oct. 13. This sampling of vintage and renovated residences in the Palisades and Foxhall neighborhoods will feature a total of seven homes, including a turn-of-the-century Victorian, a Tudor and a modern cantilevered house that overhangs a valley.

“This is a very eclectic mix of off-the-beaten track homes,” Carol Lynn Halal, co-chair of the House Tour Committee at Palisades Village, tells The DC Line. “The city is full of very ostentatious, cookie-cutter homes that are often on tours, and what we wanted to do … is a change. [Visitors] wanted more relatable homes, homes that were more intimate, that were inspirational, [and] that can give someone something to think about for their own home.”

Highlights of this tour include a Tudor home with a South American art collection and an award-winning contemporary home that Halal describes as “better than Bauhaus” because of its striking profile. Proceeds from the tour will benefit Palisades Village, a nonprofit organization that helps older adults remain in their homes. Past years’ tours have allowed Palisades Village to expand its health, wellness, social and safety programs.

One week later, the 51st annual Dupont Circle Citizens Association House Tour on Sunday, Oct. 21, will focus on private homes and institutions northeast of the neighborhood’s namesake park. The featured properties include a restored house that doubles as an art gallery; a three-story Victorian town house with unconventional architectural elements; and the Ampeer, an early-20th-century neoclassical mansion that was once home to Chicago Tribune heiress Cissy Patterson and is now the site of luxury “micro-unit” short-term and corporate apartments.

The nearby wedge-shaped Perry Belmont House — a beaux-arts style mansion on New Hampshire Avenue NW with exterior touches that evoke 15th- and 16th-century French chateau architecture — will host an afternoon tea. Proceeds from the tea and the tour benefit the citizens association’s programs and activities.

Following soon after this tour is CASA Crestwood hosted by the Crestwood Citizens Association on Sunday, Oct. 28, with proceeds going toward Thrive DC, a nonprofit organization whose mission is ending homelessness in the city.

“There is such symmetry to what our tour is doing because everyone has the dream of a home, to have a place where they can feel safe, to have a place where they can go to and not feel as though they’ll be under attack,” says Denise Woods, CASA Crestwood coordinator. “So, when people come on our tour, their participation actually will end up with someone being in a home.”

Sneak peeks into this year’s six-home show include a 1920s-era row house, a Wardman-style detached house with a pink neon sculpture that pays homage to artist Robert Graham’s Motor City monument to boxing legend Joe Louis, and a neo-Gothic church that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the same day as CASA Crestwood will be the first-ever LeDroit Park House and Garden Tour. On Oct. 28, eight of this historic neighborhood’s classic row houses will open their doors to showcase remodeled interiors. Two notable abodes sure to impress are late 19th-century structures designed by architect James McGill. Architectural styles found in this tour range from Queen Anne to Victorian. All proceeds will benefit the LeDroit Park Civic Association and the group’s neighborhood activities, such as beautification projects, landscaping and seasonal cleanups.

Later in the year, St. Albans School, a private boys school on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral, will host its annual Christmas House Tour. For the 36th year in a row, this house tour will offer stunning, stylish interiors, decked out in holiday decorations. This year the tour will be held Friday, Nov. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 1, in the historic Kalorama neighborhood. Proceeds will help the St. Albans Parents’ Association support the school through faculty grants and other programs.

Also keep an eye out for the Logan Circle Holiday House Tour on Sunday, Dec. 2. Planned by the Logan Circle Community Association for the 40th year in a row, this local festivity regularly features a diverse roster, representing the neighborhood’s mix of classic Victorian homes and modern high-rises. Funds raised from this tour will go toward neighborhood investments, historic preservation and local public spaces.

For those looking for options outside of one of the organized house tours, historic mansions like Tudor Place in Georgetown and Heurich House Museum in Dupont Circle are more than worth a visit, with frequent guided tours available. On Nov. 30, the President Woodrow Wilson House, Anderson House and Dumbarton House will also offer one price for three festively decorated historic house tours with music and cocktails included.

Annual springtime tours in DC include  the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s House & Garden Tour, the Georgetown House Tour, the Georgetown Garden Tour and the Shepherd Park Citizens Association Garden Tour.