The 7th Annual SOHO Historic Home Tour is next Sunday, March 21st.  Enjoy a self-guided tour of six Arts & Crafts homes, designed by Irving J. Gill, William S. Hebbard, Frank Mead and Richard Requa between 1904 and 1913.  My Mom is going to be here next weekend, and I’m hoping to take the whole family!

From the U-T (click here for full article):

“I was 17 and in high school,” Cunning said, and at one point, Eleanor turned to her and since she had no children, remarked, “Someday it’ll be yours.”

Today, that simple promise has turned into a potentially million-dollar makeover to restore what is believed to be San Diego’s first Prairie-style residence, designed by one of its premier early architects, Irving J. Gill, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s also noteworthy as one of the few homes of the period that used lower-cost single-wall construction and for being part of a clustered housing arrangement around a common courtyard.

But for now, the house hidden behind a gate and a line of tall trees is a drafty, grimy mishmash of old and older design styles and awkward spaces not ready for 21st-century living.

“It’s a little embarrassing to have a house that is a treasure that’s in this condition,” she said.

Even in its unreconstructed state, the 4,000-square-foot-house will make a star turn, open to the public for the first time next Sunday, as the Save Our Heritage Organisation offers a self-guided tour of this storied avenue near Upas Street at the northwest edge of Balboa Park.

This is where San Diego’s merchant prince, George W. Marston, built his house in 1905 and other relatives and friends erected their own homes, many designed by Gill, whose reputation has grown over the decades as a pioneer in the less-is-more Modernist movement. SOHO operates Marston’s residence, also on the tour, as a house museum.

“It’s a street where some of the most famous families lived,” said SOHO Executive Director Bruce Coons. “It has some of the best architecture of the period and of course by one of the greatest architects. It’s one of the streets that is the least changed, and the houses are very much the way they have been.”