How Some Other Folks Live

If you’re the type of person who, while passing by lit-up windows or open doorways of well-appointed brownstones occupied by total strangers, can’t help but gawk in wide-eyed wonder and envy, you’re in for a treat this weekend.

The Park Slope Civic Council is holding its 52nd annual House Tour on Sunday, May 15, opening up historic and otherwise remarkable homes in South Park Slope for the admiration of the public. The house tour is self-guided, with the featured homes receiving visitors from noon until five pm. You can pick up a brochure for the homes, along with shoe covers, at .

Candace Woodward, a trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council and chair of the House Tour Committee, has been involved in organizing the tours for the past 11 years.

“What I’m looking for is a home that’s not only beautiful but is interesting and looks as if interesting people live there,” she said.

“One home this year is just full of artifacts from the owner’s travels. Also in the tour, which is something quite unusual for this neighborhood, is a 4,000 square foot loft home that really kind of blows your mind as you enter at Seventh Avenue.”

Participants on the tour can also visit a 1858 frame home that’s been tricked out for green living with geo-thermal heating and cooling systems, recycled floor boards, and a garden watered by underground drip hoses attached to the house’s own well.

After the tour, architectural historian Francis Morrone will be giving an illustrated lecture at the Park Slope Jewish Center titled “South Slope 1900: Life and Times.” He’ll be profiling typical residents, rich and poor, and examining how folks here lived at the turn of the last century.

Tickets for the tour are $20 in advance, or $25 the day of the event. Proceeds from the event go to the Park Slope Civic Council’s grants program, which funds local arts and school gardens, among other projects. Last year’s House Tour drew around 900 people.

“Let’s face it,” said Candance Woodward. “It’s fun to see how other people decorate. and what colors they use on their walls and things like that.”