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Traditional Christmas lights up historical homes
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| Edna Pierce, the keeper of Pasadena’s history, will open the doors to the past next Saturday for the annual Heritage Park and Museum open house. |
By YVETTE OROZCO
The three houses were once more than a memory.
They were home to three families in Pasadena’s history, a history that can often get overlooked when it sits in the shadow of the fourth-largest city in the United States.
But for Edna Pierce, it is Houston that sits in the shadows.
Peirce is the curator of Heritage Park and Museum, which forms a circle of three houses built in the early part of the 20th century, and has kept history alive through research and preservation for a major part of her life as a long-time Pasadena resident.
The houses are easy enough to miss, sitting on the corner of Eagle and facing the ongoing, heavy traffic on Main, but a closer look reveals more than a relic of the past.
Next Saturday, Dec. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m., residents will get a chance to a see up close a genuine old fashioned Christmas as Heritage Park hosts it annual Open House to usher in the holiday season.
“Every house will be decorated for Christmas,” said Pierce.
With their high ceilings, vast living space and long hallways, the homes already look like something out of a Victorian holiday postcard, but next weekend’s event will just add to the ambience as choral music provided by several Pasadena Independent School District schools, colored lights and wassail complete the traditional picture and experience.
“We just open the houses for people to come and see what we got,” said Pierce.
The Pomeroy House, homestead of one of Pasadena’s first families, the Parks family’s Strawberry House and the adjacent Anna’s House, where the Pomeroy matriarch lived, are all part of the city’s past, but Pierce has worked to keep it a part of its present and future.
On the outside, the homes appear compact, but when visitors walk through the long halls, through the opulent dining rooms and into the spacious bedrooms, they get a history lesson in style, substance and practicality.
“These homes were built with better construction and the higher ceilings kept the houses cool,” said Pierce.
Original furniture, paintings, rugs and tables become a visceral experience of visiting the homes, but with busy schedules and busy lives, most people, said Pierce, pass the homes everyday without a second look.
“We decided that we would do the Open House because people don’t have time to stop and see what we have,” she said. “We thought we’d have a mixer and open the homes so they could see.”
Some visitors can even hear the sounds of the past.
Pierce remembers Clyde Pomeroy reminiscing how he and his siblings used to form a circle in the living room and listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the Sears standing radio.
Each family donated their homes to the City of Pasadena as historical markers in the mid-1970s.
“I would like to get people interested in our heritage,” said Pierce. “What we leave and do today, we leave our children for history next time around.”
To find out more about Heritage Park and Museum, call (713) 472-0565.
They were home to three families in Pasadena’s history, a history that can often get overlooked when it sits in the shadow of the fourth-largest city in the United States.
But for Edna Pierce, it is Houston that sits in the shadows.
Peirce is the curator of Heritage Park and Museum, which forms a circle of three houses built in the early part of the 20th century, and has kept history alive through research and preservation for a major part of her life as a long-time Pasadena resident.
The houses are easy enough to miss, sitting on the corner of Eagle and facing the ongoing, heavy traffic on Main, but a closer look reveals more than a relic of the past.
Next Saturday, Dec. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m., residents will get a chance to a see up close a genuine old fashioned Christmas as Heritage Park hosts it annual Open House to usher in the holiday season.
“Every house will be decorated for Christmas,” said Pierce.
With their high ceilings, vast living space and long hallways, the homes already look like something out of a Victorian holiday postcard, but next weekend’s event will just add to the ambience as choral music provided by several Pasadena Independent School District schools, colored lights and wassail complete the traditional picture and experience.
“We just open the houses for people to come and see what we got,” said Pierce.
The Pomeroy House, homestead of one of Pasadena’s first families, the Parks family’s Strawberry House and the adjacent Anna’s House, where the Pomeroy matriarch lived, are all part of the city’s past, but Pierce has worked to keep it a part of its present and future.
On the outside, the homes appear compact, but when visitors walk through the long halls, through the opulent dining rooms and into the spacious bedrooms, they get a history lesson in style, substance and practicality.
“These homes were built with better construction and the higher ceilings kept the houses cool,” said Pierce.
Original furniture, paintings, rugs and tables become a visceral experience of visiting the homes, but with busy schedules and busy lives, most people, said Pierce, pass the homes everyday without a second look.
“We decided that we would do the Open House because people don’t have time to stop and see what we have,” she said. “We thought we’d have a mixer and open the homes so they could see.”
Some visitors can even hear the sounds of the past.
Pierce remembers Clyde Pomeroy reminiscing how he and his siblings used to form a circle in the living room and listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the Sears standing radio.
Each family donated their homes to the City of Pasadena as historical markers in the mid-1970s.
“I would like to get people interested in our heritage,” said Pierce. “What we leave and do today, we leave our children for history next time around.”
To find out more about Heritage Park and Museum, call (713) 472-0565.
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