Feeling Scroogy? Take the Haddonfield Holiday House Tour

This year's Holiday House tour in Haddonfield, on Thursday, Dec. 13, opens the doors to four homes you've always wanted to peek into, including a Victorian on Washington Avenue that's listed on the National Historic Register and a one-year-old house on Merion Avenue modeled after a Tuscan villa where owners are inviting visitors to see all three floors.

“There are a lot of design touches with an Italian perspective and every room has a wonderful view,” Betsy Anderson, co-chair of this year's tour committee, said of the latter home.

Proceeds of this year's tour benefit the Friends of the Indian King Tavern, also a stop on the tour, where one of the rooms will replicate a 19th-century Quaker wedding reception.

The project submitted for consideration by the Friends of the Indian King Tavern was unanimously chosen as this year's recipient, said Anderson. The volunteer group hopes to upgrade the educational program and materials for third-grade students in Haddonfield, Haddon Township and Haddon Heights who visit the tavern as part of their study of New Jersey history.

“Indian King lost a lot of state funding,” Anderson said. Proceeds of the tour cannot be used for operational expenses, she said, and the anticipated additional revenue from the tour will help the “provide the money and manpower to do what they want.”

Owners of the four privately owned homes receive some support but no financial help as they prepare to open their homes to as many as 3,000 visitors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and again between 5 and 9 p.m.

The Haddonfield Garden Club stepped up with lavish decorations inside the Indian King Tavern, said Anderson, and also have provided holiday floral arrangements for the Haddonfield Library, where tickets can be purchased for the tour during regular hours.

Tickets, $15 in advance and $20 once the tour begins, also are on sale at the
Haddonfield Information Center on Kings Court, or on line through the borough's website: www.haddonfieldnj.org. Tickets purchased on line can be picked up on the day of the tour at the information center between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Classic homes with classic looks

Deborah Mervine, one of the organizers of the first holiday house tour in 2000, was preparing last week to open the Beechwood Avenue Colonial style home she and her husband Tom have owned for five years. It's the sixth time one of their homes has been on a house tour.

“I think I'm a professional sap,” she said.

“I don't really have to do anything I wouldn't do for the holiday anyway, but I have to do it earlier,” she said, specifically mentioning having windows cleaned and rearranging some furniture and rugs.

A perfectly shaped Christmas tree in the family room was decorated with range of the kind of personal ornaments that families collect over decades and an assortment of Santa figures was adjacent to an antique farm table. A portion of train set from 1914, owned by Mervine's father, is on a bench in that room.

For Monday, Dec. 10, Mervine enlisted the help of a friend to polish silver serving dishes that along with Spode Christmas china will be set out the dining room table for an imaginary buffet.

The kitchen will be cleared of unnecessary implements. In the living room, greens were arranged on an antique mantle, where angels temporarily replaced brass sconces. Here, also, is her favorite Christmas ornamentation, a tree filled with globes, each displaying a photograph of family members as they grew. “My mother-in-law (Fran Mervine) made them and we love unpacking them each year, and then looking at each when we repack them,” she said.

The fourth private house on the tour, on Lafayette Avenue, was designed by the owners about 10 years ago. “It's gorgeous,” said Anderson.

Also open during the day for those on the tour is the Markheim Arts Center, at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Walnut Street, where art and crafts will be on display and some light refreshments will be available.

This year's Haddonfield Friendship Ball, a hand-blown gold and blue globe designed by Rich and Karen Federici of Vineland, has been on sale since Black Friday at Accent Studio at 123 Kings Highway East. The $25 commemorative item sells out each year. A portion of each sale will be contributed to the Friends of Indian King Tavern.

Volunteer hostesses will be on duty at each of the homes and owners are there as well to answer questions of the visitors.

No photography or food is permitted in the homes. Participants in the tour should wear socks because shoes must be left at the door.

Previously a holiday house tour had been conducted in Haddonfield to benefit West Jersey Hospital. The Haddonfield Historic Society resumed the tours for Christmas 2000.