Hope Lodge (1748)

NORRISTOWN » There’s a new twist for Norristown Garden Club’s Holiday House this year. For the 71st Annual Holiday House Tour, public buildings of historic significance, built in the 18th and 19th centuries, will replace private homes for the 2021 tour. These five fascinating and authentic historic public buildings are located along the equally historic Skippack Pike/ Route 73 and each will be beautifully decorated in a manner appropriate for each site.

According to General Chair of the event, Caren Puschak, the tour will be held over two days — Thursday, December 9 and Friday, December 10 , and only in daylight hours (10 — 4), since the properties would not have had electricity in the era depicted during our tour,” said Puschak of East Norriton.

Norristown Garden Club will embellish the exteriors of all of the sites in a manner appropriate to the property for the holiday season. The staff and volunteers of Hope Lodge, Peter Wentz and Pennypacker Mills will present the interiors of those properties in keeping with the customs of the times they represent. They will also lead ticket holders on guided tours of the enticing first floors of each site.

Bethel Hill Church and the Highlands will be decorated— both inside and out — by the garden club, and will feature fresh flowers and greens and creative ideas. A bonus this year: an Emporium of hand-crafted items where you can ‘shop till you drop’ will be found at the Highlands.

Please see www.norristogardenclub.org for ticket information. Please note: Holiday House ticket requests must be received by December 2nd to allow for time to mail the tickets. There will be no tickets available at the door during the tour.

The stars of Norristown Garden Club’s 2021 Holiday House Tour tour, which benefits the club’s scholarship program and other community activities, are:

According to Kevin Horan, President, Friends of Hope Lodge, “The two time periods (colonial and colonial revival) depicted are the way the first and last private owners of the house styled and fur

SUBMITTED PHOTO Besides the church proper there are other buildings on the property to decorate for the Holiday House Tour ) Honey Bawduniak (Audubon) is measuring for a garland that she and other club members will create for what used to be an old schoolhouse.