Marietta Pilgrimage Christmas Home Tour invites visitors back indoors

Hunter Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·3 min read

Dec. 3—The Marietta Pilgrimage Christmas Home Tour is back this weekend, offering a chance for history lovers to tour historic, holiday-decorated homes in the Kennesaw Avenue Historic District.

The tour, hosted annually by the Marietta Visitors Bureau and Cobb Landmarks & Historical Society, will invite guests back indoors after last year's tour was limited to viewing the exteriors of historic homes.

The tours are scheduled for Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guests can tour the homes in any order they wish.

Each year the tour includes historic homes in different parts of town. Four of the five homes this year are clustered along Maple Avenue, with the fifth nearby on Stewart Avenue.

"One, you get to see these beautiful homes decorated for the holidays," said Mason Jordan of the Marietta Visitors Bureau, which promotes tourism in the city. "But two, you get to see the history of the homes. One of the wonderful things about the district we're in this year is all the homes were built in the early 1900s ... So there's a lot of great history that gets shared."

Docents, a sort of guide, will be stationed in the homes to explain the history behind the buildings, all of which have been restored and are currently used as residences.

This year's lineup of historic homes is the Gentry House, the Northut-James-Ferrer House, Magnolia Cottage, the Cox-Brown-Parker House and the Mayes-Crissey-Clements House.

Features in these homes, which include bungalows and Victorian houses, include original hardwood flooring, coal-burning fireplaces, pre-Civil War bricks, exposed beams and other historic features.

The current homeowners have free rein to decorate the homes however they want.

"Some of it is pretty classical Christmas, the colors you'd expect to see, and some of it is very fun and imaginative," Jordan said.

The gala that normally accompanies the tour has been canceled this year due to the pandemic. Guests will be required to wear masks when inside the historic homes and on shuttles that will help transport guests.

"Due to some COVID concerns, the home tour can be monitored a little bit better, people are able to go in and out in small batches with masks on," Jordan said. "A gala where people are eating and drinking for a full evening all in the same place has a few more COVID concerns, so we decided this is not the year to probably do that."

Several public buildings will also be open for refreshments, bathrooms and tours. Those public buildings are the William Root House Museum, First Presbyterian Church, Kennesaw House (home of the Marietta Museum of History), the U.S. Post Office (occupied by the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art), Brumby Hall and Gardens (occupied by the Gone With The Wind Museum), Maple Avenue United Methodist Church and the Fair Oaks property (occupied by the Marietta Educational Garden Center).

Parking is available at lots off Mill Street, at the Cobb County Parking Deck off Cherokee Street, or at street parking downtown.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online or in person at the Marietta Welcome Center or the William Root House.

Proceeds benefit the Marietta Visitors Bureau and Cobb Landmarks.

"To support Christmas Pilgrimage is to support history in Marietta and to promote tourism in Marietta," Jordan said.

For more information, visit www.mariettapilgrimage.com.