Nine Athens homes and one church will be featured in this year’s Athens Ladies Civitan Holiday Home Tour.

The candlelight tour will be 4 to 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 8.

Tickets for the eighth annual event are $20 in advance or $25 the day of the tour. Advanced tickets are available at Crawford’s Gifts, Pimentos, Garnet’s Antiques and Sweetest Things Tea Room. Same-day tickets may be purchased at any of the homes on the tour.

Guests who have their tickets stamped at all 10 locations and turn them in at the last home visited will be entered in a drawing for door prizes donated by Athens Ladies Civitan, Crawford’s Gifts, Crowning Touch Salon-Bethany, Dugger’s Florist & Gifts, Hobbs Jewelers, Merle Norman, Nip & Tuck Florist, Osborne’s Jewelers, SheaLeigh’s Boutique, Gifts & Home Decor, and Trinity’s Gifts & Interiors.

In years past, food has been available at each of the homes on the tour. This year, samples of holiday fare will be provided at St. Timothy’s Church. Complimentary catering will be provided by Chuck and Angie Clark of C&A Catering, who are longtime supporters of the fundraiser.

About the stops

The nine homes are located on three streets in Athens — Clinton, East and Beaty. The church is on Washington Street at the end of Beaty, making all stops accessible by foot, weather permitting.

Members of the Athens Ladies Civitan Club, Athens Limestone Junior Civitan Club and various friends of homeowners will be serving as hostesses at the houses and church. Tour homes are identified by Holiday Home Tour signs at each location.

Holladay House

The home of Trey and Deborah Holladay

301 S. Clinton St.

(The Holladay home is located on the east side of Clinton Street. Park on either Green or South streets to avoid crossing Clinton’s busy traffic.)

This Queen Anne bungalow with approximately 3,000 square feet of living space was built in 1900. The couple have been told it was the first house in Athens to have an indoor bathroom, but Deborah said she can’t confirm it. She has also been told it was once the home of the local coal dealer and that people would come to the house to get a scoop of coal to heat their homes. All fireplaces in the home are coal-burning.

The front part of the house is essentially unchanged from the original. The bathrooms and kitchen have been fully renovated and the back porch was turned into a den years ago. Deborah said she really does not have a decorating theme but has collected many decorations over their 31 years of marriage.

Each room will be decorated, and there will be several trees throughout. She described the style as eclectic.

Deborah, from Arab, and Trey, from Selma, met while attending Athens State University in the 1980s. They moved back to Athens three years ago when Trey accepted the job of superintendent of Athens City Schools. Deborah retired from teaching after 28 years but was recently asked to return to teach part-time at the Athens Renaissance School. The Holladays have three grown children.

Kuykendall House

Home of Wayne and Allison Kuykendall

309 S. Clinton St.

(The Kuykendall home is located on the East side of Clinton. Park on either Green or South streets to avoid crossing Clinton’s busy traffic.)

Wayne and Allison Kuykendall purchased this Greek Revival-style home 41 years ago, before there was an historic district in Athens.

Architect Hiram Higgins built the house in 1835 for a Mr. Jones. It was purchased in the 1840s by Judge William Walker, the first probate judge of Limestone County, and stayed in the family for 113 years until the Kuykendalls bought it in 1976. It is a two-over-two style with a central hall on both upper and lower floors and a dining wing on the north side. One more wing was added about 1880.

The home’s exterior yellow color is from an historic palette. The Kuykendalls added a detached story-a-half garage.

In the early 1980s, they moved and reconstructed a one-room, story-and-a-half log cabin in the back. The cabin was from the Witty estate off Easter Ferry Road.

Wayne was born in Valdosta, Georgia, but moved to Athens at a very early age. Allison was born in Nashville and moved here in 1967. All of their children were raised in the house; their middle daughter was born 11 days after they moved in.

Wayne has a great love for preservation. His mother was raised in an 1802 house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. As a child, he was fascinated with the house and its history. They both love the aura of an old house that can’t be duplicated in a new home. In all their travels, they have visited historic homes for more than 49 years.

Baker House

Home of Hal and Karan Baker

409 East St.

The Bakers have long had an interest in old houses, having renovated five historical homes in Columbus, Mississippi, one in Cullman and seven now in the Robert Beaty District. The house in which they have lived for seven years is really “their” house, Karan said. The others they consider “rescue and let the owners adopt.”

This Victorian house was built in 1902. The Newby family owned it for many decades. Miss Norma Newby, a teacher at Athens Elementary School, never married and lived her entire life in the house except for a few years toward the end of her life.

The house was in bad shape when the Bakers bought it. During renovation, they added baths, closets, a new kitchen, den, bedroom, loft, upstairs bath and their favorite — a screened back porch. They also converted an old smoke house into a pool house and workshop.

Karan was born and raised in Athens but left for college at age 17 and never expected to return. The old houses actually brought her back to Athens 30 years later. They love East Street and their neighborhood. “It is something special,” Karan said.

Newton House

Home of Tom and Melanie Newton

408 East St.

This 2,900-square-foot American Four Square house was built in 1913 and has about 15 rooms. The front door and sidelights, fireplace mantels and heart pine floors are original.

Sometime in the 1990s, the house experienced a kitchen fire and a single-story wing was added to the back. The Newtons bought the house in 2015 and occupied it in 2016. They have decorated it with a mix of antiques and eclectic furnishings. Colors are period from the Sherwin-Williams historical collection.

Melanie, who was raised in eastern Limestone County, and Tom, who is from Moultrie, Georgia, met in Huntsville. After living in Florida and Virginia, they moved to Athens to be closer to family. They share a love of old homes and buildings and a firm belief they should be saved.

They are currently renovating a 1927 building at the corner of Hobbs and Monroe streets that will be a restaurant and microbrewery, Locomotive Brewing Co.

Munts House

Home of Bill and Paula Munts

405 East St.

Bill and Paula Munts have lived in their sweet, deceptively large, 1914 Craftsman bungalow since 2013. Paula said little is known about the history of the house except it had fallen into disrepair and had a “sadness” about it. Some changes were made in the 1950s and again in the 1970s.

Each addition to the home has its own basement. The Muntses have added a swimming pool and deck and they have also brought the garage and the living space above it up to code.

Paula, who graduated from Athens State University, and fell in love with the area while attending school. Both are from Illinois and moved to Madison County in 1993. Once their nest was empty, the search for an Athens home began. Now the couple is happy to be in this beautiful, active town. Bill plans to be the brewmaster at Tom and Melanie Newton’s Locomotive Brewing Co.

Corder House

Home of Jimmy and Pam Corder

312 East St.

Pam and Jimmy Corder have lived in this Colonial Revival house since 1995. Neely and Edna Carter Carden built the original portion of the house a few years after their marriage in 1909. Neely, a native of Tennessee, was in business in Athens. In 1947, James and Ruth Cowart bought the house.

After the Corders purchased it, they enlisted the help of architect Bill Peters of Huntsville to guide the restoration and expansion of the house. His plans included enlarging the original kitchen, adding a large family room, a breakfast area, a guest bedroom and a large back porch.

Local builder Tom Little worked closely with Peters and the Corders to blend the old with the new, recycling doors, transoms, mantels, hardware and light fixtures throughout the home.

The original floors were refinished, and salvaged pine boards were milled and finished to approximate the original floors. Downstairs ceilings were returned to their original 12 feet. A good part of the house will be open for the tour.

Heisler House

Home of Jim and Wyn Heisler

400 East St.

Wyn’s mother, Wynelle Sherbert Whitker, grew up in this 1,700-square-foot Victorian house built in 1903. Her grandfather bought the house in 1923 for $1,800, and it has been in the family ever since.

After her mother married and left Athens, Wyn would come back to visit her grandparents, Henry and Claudia Sherbert. They moved back to the house when her parents divorced in the 1957-58 time frame.

Wyn went to junior high, high school and Athens College, then left and was gone for 40 years. She inherited the house when her mother died.

When she and Jim moved back in 2005, they started restoring the house and added the garage. She chose purple for the shutters because purple is her favorite color. She says the house is just the right size for the two of them and she especially loves it because of the many fond childhood memories.

Ward House

Home of Bill and Cherry Ann Ward

307 S. Beaty St.

This Victorian-style house was originally built in 1902 by a widow named Emma Griffis, but it changed dramatically in 1960 when Mr. W. R. Hightower bought the house and added columns, a bathroom and a carport.

The Wards remodeled the kitchen, adding 4 feet of space and French doors at one end for more light, and the downstairs bathroom. The house is approximately 3,600 square feet with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Both Bill and Cherry Ann are from Pickens County, but Bill has lived in Athens since age 7. When they married, they chose to live in Athens because he worked with the space program in Huntsville. Their two daughters were already in college when they bought the house, but they both loved older homes and this one came available.

The first floor of the house will be open for the tour.

Beasley House

Home of Andrea Beasley

312 S. Beaty St.

Andrea Beasley’s 2,800-square-foot Craftsman house was built about 1900 and stayed in the W. H. Walker family until she purchased it in 2016.

There are original floors and many walls. She left some walls the color they were when she bought it but chose to use grays to accent the baseboards and ceiling boards.

Andrea is from Athens and is a stay-at-home mom to her two children. She loves gardening, decorating, Spartan racing and being a mom to her babies. The family loves living downtown and all of their sweet, sweet neighbors, she said. She welcomes you to her home.

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church

207 E. Washington St.

For 150 years, St. Timothy’s has been a place of worship and prayer. From its 1880 steeple bell and 100-year-old Eucharistic candlesticks to its brick from a sister church in Iona, Scotland, St. Timothy’s is proud to be a longstanding member of the Athens community.

The great-great nephew of author Clement Moore, author of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” attended the church from 1949-1985.

The site of the present-day church was purchased by Col. George Gordon of Huntsville for $800 in 1869 following the Civil War. The first rector, the Rev. Thomas Beard, called the struggling parish his “Little Timothy,” thus the birth of St. Timothy’s Mission in Athens, Alabama. The first church was erected in 1880.

In the 1960s, after being condemned as unsafe, the original building was torn down and the present-day church was built in 1969. We hope you will take the time to visit the church’s sanctuary.