By GRETCHEN ACKERMANN
Special to the Times-Herald
DEARBORN— Friends of the Dearborn Symphony is hard at work getting ready for the 34th annual day-long Dearborn Symphony Home Tour May 16 in Country Club Estates.
The tour begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. The headquarters is the Dearborn Country Club, 800 N. Military, where tickets can be purchased for $20 the day of the tour.
Pre-sale tickets are $15 and available at outlets listed at www.dearbornsymphony.org or by mailing a self-addressed stamped envelope and a check to: Friends of the Dearborn Symphony, P.O. Box 2063, Dearborn, MI, 48123.
All proceeds go to fund musical programs and scholarships.
Six homeowners will open their houses for viewing, and musicians will be play classical music in each house, a feature that is unique to the tour.
Louise Leveque and Linda Tafelski are Home Tour chairwomen.
”If you appreciate art, be ready to see an abundance of artworks by local artists, family artists and famous artists,” said Mary Bugeia, who has written articles about each house in a booklet that serves as the Home Tour ticket.
Each house has a unique collection of art depicting highlights of places travelled around the world including Italy, Greece, Germany, England, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Mexico and China. One painting is an original signed by Norman Rockwell.
In another house, one family artist created oil paintings and came up with a scene using cutouts of postage stamps, and a unique item is a figure of the Statue of Liberty created using scraps of metal.
Bugeia said the houses range from a proudly maintained home built in 1929 to one recently remodeled with additions and one built as recently as 2012. The yards are carefully manicured to show off spring plants and flowers and at one yard a reflecting pool housing tiny fish.
In addition to the houses, this year’s Point of Interest is The Commandant’s Quarters, 21950 Michigan Ave. This historic military structure will be open for free tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of the Home Tour.
The CQ was built in the early 1830s and is Dearborn’s oldest building. The CQ is considered one of the more significant buildings in Michigan and was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1970.
The first Commandant of the Arsenal, Col. Joshua Howard proposed naming the surrounding area after General Henry Dearborn, a New Hampshire physician and Revolutionary War hero.
In 1949, the CQ was purchased by the Dearborn Historical Commission. A year later it was restored to what is there today.
At the DCC, artists, crafters and vendors will offer an array of items for sale, including jewelry featured at the Dearborn Symphony Jewelry table.
An optional buffet lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is available for purchase at the DCC for $20.
Free parking is available at the nearby Christ Episcopal Church, 120 on N. Military, where free shuttles will transport tour goers to the DCC for registration, and then to each of the houses on the tour.
Free parking also is available at the CQ.