PUNTA GORDA — This city’s current building boomlet is a testament to its intimate downtown and historic district with brick streets.
Those factors are bringing in new residents who are renovating old houses or building new ones, as evidenced by the upcoming holiday home tour.
From the brick streets to the houses themselves, almost everything about the Punta Gorda Garden Club’s 22nd annual Holly Days Home Tour, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, is historical. One of the houses is new, but designed to look old. And two of the tour’s vintage homes are in the 300 block of Durrance Street, where the “Save Our Brick Streets” movement originated in 1981.
Volunteers reinstall bricks on Durrance Street in Punta Gorda's Historic District on May 9, 2015, following replacement of the sewer pipes beneath the street. Since 1988, volunteers and the city have worked together to re-brick 19 blocks following public-works projects. It began with a grass-roots protest movement after the city paved over a street block in 1981. A city ordinance now protects the historic brick streets. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 5-9-2015.
Back then, the city’s paving-over of one block of brick street created an uproar among longtime residents.
The protest was led by Pat and Patty Huntington, whose house at 319 Durrance St. will be featured on the tour.
“The Pats” did more than protest. They convinced the city to let volunteers re-set the bricks after streets were dug up for public works projects.
Since then, citizen volunteers have teamed with the city to re-brick 18 blocks following sewer and stormwater pipe improvements.
The 18th block of bricks, in the 300 block of Durrance Street, was redone in May after the city replaced the underground sewer.
Hundreds of those bricks are in front of the former Huntington home at 319 Durrance. Pat and Patty Huntington owned the house from 1973 until her death in 2013. Pat Huntington died in 2007.
Built in 1935 in Fort Ogden and moved to Punta Gorda in 1949, the house was purchased in March 2014 by Annette Franks, a motivational speaker, holistic health advisor and corporate wellness coach in Columbus, Ohio. She has renovated the house, currently her part-time home, while “leaving as much as of the original structure as possible.”
The Holly Days Home Tour also is part of the city’s Founders Day Week activities — Punta Gorda was incorporated on Dec. 7, 1887. This year’s theme is “Sparkling Christmas Memories.”
The recently restored, 1912 sanctuary of First United Methodist Church, at 507 W. Marion Ave., also is open for the tour. Tour headquarters is next door at the church’s Lenox Hall, where refreshments will be served and poinsettias sold.
Tickets are $15 at the Charlotte County and Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce offices. On tour days, tickets will be sold at the church or at the entrance to each of the homes. Proceeds fund the club’s local scholarship program and several community projects, including four public gardens.
The tour has been held annually since 1992, except for 2004, when the city was still reeling from Hurricane Charley.
Information: www.pggc.org. The club also is on Facebook.
Homes on the tour
Annette Franks and Dave Powers, 319 Durrance St. Annette Franks fell in love with Punta Gorda as a child while vacationing with her family at her grandparents’ condominium.
The sun room of a restored house at 319 Durrance St. in Punta Gorda. The house is featured on the 2015 Holly Days Home Tour, to be held Dec. 4-5. Courtesy photo.
“It was a place for our family to gather and play and rest and create. I always walked the historic district and dreamed of having a little bungalow here one day,” Franks said in an email. “When my parents decided to sell the family vacation condo, I was determined to find a place in the historic district.
“I saw this house the day it went on the market ... it felt absolutely like home to me. I love the location, the historic house and its charm and the lot size — I actually over two lots with my property. I envision beautiful outdoor gardens, creating peaceful spaces for the creative spirit to emerge.”
Franks and her life partner, musician Dave Powers, gradually renovated the house, replacing cloth-insulated wiring, glass fuses and other items that were not up to code.
“We sanded down all the beautiful woodwork, restoring everything we could back to its original beauty,” Franks said. “We sanded down the plaster walls, removing all the years of layered paints. New A/C and all new plumbing and ceilings and fixtures. It’s like a new old house.
“My intention was not to find a house to rehab. For me it was a definite ‘gut instinct’ to purchase the house. The rehab was just part of the big picture plan to eventually retire here.”
Colleen and Ed Benzo, 612 W. Marion Ave. Like Franks, the Benzos were drawn to their home by the location.
This house at 319 Durrance St. in Punta Gorda's historic district is featured on the 2015 Holly Days Home Tour presented by the Punta Gorda Garden Club. The house was built in 1957. Staff photo / Harold Bubi; 11-1-2015.
“What brought us to this house was everything outside the back doors,” said Colleen Benzo. “It was downtown, and has the yard we wanted.”
Built in 1957 by former mayor Phil Laishley, the house had terrazzo floors until tile was installed over it. The plumbing also was replaced by previous owners. The Benzos, who bought the house in 2014, redid the kitchen with granite counters and new appliances.
“It appears that the current family room was a porch and outside the interior. The outdoor light fixture boxes are still there, outside of the kitchen. We installed the current pool and pavers after our arrival.
“We also replaced all windows in the house with hurricane windows and installed a skylight and ceiling fans/fixtures.”
This house at 312 Durrance St. in Punta Gorda's historic district is featured on the 2015 Holly Days Home Tour presented by the Punta Gorda Garden Club. Staff photo / Harold Bubi; 11-1-2015.
Joyce Markley, 312 Durrance St. Almost across the street from the Huntington-Franks house is a 1926 shingle-sided house that may have been a church school house, said its current owner, Joyce Markley.
“The entry used to be the outside waiting area,” she said. “It has original push-button light switches. A blower vent system in the floor and attic was popular before air conditioning. It has stained-glass features” that are original, as are the crystal door knobs.
Ann and Martin Schulz, 308 W. Grace St. South of the historic district, a number of new houses are being built to go along with the existing postwar housing stock.
This modular house arrived at its site at 308 W. Grace St. in Punta Gorda in three pieces and was assembled earlier this year -- just in time to be featured on the 2015 Holly Days Home Tour. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 11-1-2015.
One of them is a factory-built modular house, by the manufacturer Palm Harbor, which was completed in April for Ann and Martin Schulz. It arrived on site in three pieces in January, and is designed to withstand winds of 180 miles per hour, the owners said.
“This house has the exterior historic charm with a modern open floor plan inside,” said Ann Schulz. “The garage and pool were added and locally built.”
Modular homes are built “in protected environments, like most prefab companies, while also saving time, energy and materials,” said Sherri Koones, the Connecticut-based author of the “Prefabulous” series of books about prefabricated housing. “While some believe there is a stigma to prefab construction, in fact, houses like this demonstrate that prefab homes are indistinguishable from site built ones.”
