I am one of those walkers you might see out and about early in the morning. I’ve made friends with many dogs out walking their owners. I wave at the regulars at Starbucks and Barrelista on Main Street as I pass by.

I live near downtown Martinez so I meander through the old neighborhoods. I love it. Martinez is home happy. No cookie cutter clutter downtown. Every home is unique. We have Victorians, bungalows, and cottages. The yards are well cared for. It is a pleasure to walk through this town and call it home.

As I stroll through the neighborhoods, I see beautiful homes and wonder if they are as wonderful inside as they are outside. Have you wondered too? Once a year, I get to satisfy my curiosity. And so can you. The 13th annual Martinez Historical Home Tour is this weekend. It’s an event not to be missed.

“50 Years of Homes” is the theme for the Martinez Historical Home Tour happening Saturday, October 12, 2019, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

My husband Jeff and I were introduced to the Home Tour project in 2010 when our little bungalow was invited to be on the tour. We’ve gone on every tour and volunteered as docents since then. We wouldn’t miss it. Ranging from period perfect to incredibly creative, the homes are always captivating and inspiring. I’ve been known to come home from a tour and completely rearrange my furniture.

The Home Tour began in 2007 as a fundraising event for the Martinez Historical Society. More features have been added over the years to include local music, museums and restored classic cars. As a special treat this year, the 30-piece Diablo Regional Concert Band, formed in Martinez more than a century ago, will be on the lawn performing (not with the original musicians) as guests arrive at the Shell Club House. Strike up the Band!! They begin at 10:30 AM. Bring a lawn chair or blanket and enjoy a free concert on the lawn.

Like the homes in Martinez, The Diablo Regional Concert Band has a long history. The band is the same, the name have changed. The Martinez Military Band had taken shape by the late 1880’s. In the 1890’s The Martinez Brass Band practiced in the Masonic Lodge’s lower hall and by 1910, the Martinez Liberty Band was practicing in the fire house. By 1919 the group had become the Martinez Municipal Band.

The band was important to the community. Without radio, television or modern media, the ensemble was received with enthusiasm by Martinez citizens. People came from all around to hear the music. The ensemble held concerts, performed for city festivities and even played at funerals if requested. Midcentury, the group became a marching unit as well and to this day still participates in community parades. In the 1950’s it became The Martinez Community Band.

Today, The Diablo Regional Concert Band is a self-supporting ensemble of 30 volunteer musicians. The band includes flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, baritone horns, French horns, tuba and percussion. Today, most of the musicians live in Costa County, from Martinez to San Ramon to El Cerrito. If you are interested in having the band play for a community function or if you are interested in joining, please call Cora Martens at (925)451-6222.

When I read about the homes on the Martinez Historic Home Tour web site (www.martinezhometour.com) and saw the ages of the homes on the tour this year, I thought of a meme I had seen on Facebook. “I went to my class reunion and couldn’t believe how many old people were there!”

When I think of “historical,” I think of anything before I was born. This year, half of the homes were built during my lifetime. Time flies by when you’re having fun. I remember the 1980s like it was just last week. Remember mullets, leg warmers and big hair?

The homes this year were built over a half-century span, from the early 1930s to the early 1980s, with the oldest architectural style actually being the youngest home. The homes cover styles from Neo Victorian, to Tudor Revival, from Craftsmen to Minimal Traditional, from California ranch to Postmodern architecture, and a Ranch style remodeled to a contemporary open floor plan. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview this year, and I can tell you that every home is gorgeous. You will enjoy traveling through Martinez history through architectural styles.

You will be enthralled with the many home owner collections. In one home you’ll see and hear a Wurlitzer organ and player pianos. In another house, crosses from around the world adorn one a wall. While in a third home, car, airplane, and railroad artifacts fill a bright and sunny room.

The gardens have unique plants, ornaments, and incredible views of the Carquinez Straits. We have the homeowners, Carrie Maldonado, Bennie and Marie Huie, Janis Zelmer, Bill and Becky Bryant, “Rob Schroder and Susan Hatch Schroder, Jeff and Elizabeth Thiel, and Jim and Edie Porter, to thank for graciously opening their homes for us this year.

The 2019 Tour homes are located just southeast of downtown Martinez on streets such as Ulfinian, Harbor View, Pine Street and Andrews Drive. All but one was built on the 70 acres formerly owned by the Christian Brother’s Novitiate and Winery.

In 1879, property near Vine Hill was purchased as the site of a Roman Catholic college, which was later erected by the Christian Brothers Society of St. Mary’s College and given the name of the De La Salle Institute. This became the birthplace of the world-famous Christian Brothers Winery. The Brothers produced wine in Martinez from the mid 1880’s until 1932. It all began with 12 acres of grapes that the brothers did not want to go to waste when the land was purchased to build the school –which was instead built in nearby Moraga. After the Christian Brothers moved to Napa in 1932, homes were built where grapes once grew.

To find out more about the 2018 Martinez Home Tour, check out their amazing website at www.martinezhometour.com. Just keep clicking on the bold lettered words and you’ll find all sorts of cool information about historic homes in Martinez. (You can even see photos of my house in the 2010 previous home section. It was clean the day photos were taken!)

The Martinez Home Tour hours are from 10am to 4pm. Ticket purchases end at 2pm. The tour begins at the Shell Clubhouse, 1635 Pacheco Blvd. Every 10 to 15 minutes a shuttle bus will take visitors to the Home Tour area. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the tour. They may be purchased online at www.MartinezHomeTour.com or in person with cash or check at these local businesses:

I’ve Been Framed

Peirano Jewelers

The UPS Store

Retro Now

By MARIA BANUELOS CONNELL
Director of Marketing, Martinez Historical Society

The Martinez Historic Society presents the 13th Annual Home Tour on October 12, 2019, from 10am to 4pm. This year’s tour features 50 Years of Homes in the area where the former Christian Brothers De La Salle Institute and vineyard was located.

The Tour begins at the Shell Clubhouse where your tickets will be exchanged for wristbands that designate you as a tour attendee and where you’ll receive the tour booklet with additional gifts provided by tour sponsors. The Diablo Regional Concert Band will welcome you with their talented musicians providing excellent music for your enjoyment while browsing the raffle prizes and displays of Historic Martinez.

There are a couple of ways to see the Tour:

• Shuttle buses: tours are narrated by experienced tour guides during transportation to the home locations. You’re welcome to jump off the buses at the homes, then board the next arriving bus heading to the next location. Buses will ultimately return you to the Shell Clubhouse and your vehicle.

• Self-guided: You’re welcome to drive or walk the route using the map included in the tour booklet.

This year’s tour features 50 Years of Homes that were built from 1931 – 1981 in the area that was once the Christian Brothers De La Salle Institute and vineyard and included the area from Bush Street to Pacheco Boulevard to Brown Street and Alhambra Creek. The Christian Brothers were on this triangular parcel of land from 1879 – 1932 when they moved their Institute and wine operation to Napa Valley.

The feature home for this year’s tour is located at 905 Andrews Drive. This beautiful Neo-Victorian home was built in 1981 and was recently purchased and updated by the current homeowner. This unique home features beautiful mouldings and woodwork, a gorgeous fireplace and high ceilings in the upstairs rooms.

We are deeply grateful to our sponsors who make the Home Tour possible. Please help us thank them by patronizing these businesses: Schroder Insurance Services, Hagen’s Automotive, Les Schwab Tire Center of Martinez, Ecomulch, Edward Jones, Shell Western States Federal Credit Union, Amber Cole Real Estate, Shell Martinez Refinery, City of Martinez, Community Focus, Republic Services, Shell Chemical Company, Bisio & Dunivan, Kevin Murray Realtor, IBEW #302.

Tickets are available at the downtown Martinez Farmers Markets on Sundays through September at the best discount price of $20.00 each. Tickets are also available at the following merchants at the discount price of $25.00: I’ve Been Framed, 411 Ferry Street; Retro Now, 531 Main Street; Peirano Jewelers, 510 Center Ave.; UPS Store, 1155-C Arnold Drive, cash or check only, please. Tickets are available at http://martinezhometour.com/index-2C.html. Ticket purchases made on the day of the Home Tour are priced at $30.00 and will be available at the Shell Clubhouse. Please note that tour participants must be at least 10 years old, however babies can be accommodated if carried by parents. Thank you for leaving strollers, carriages and wagons at home. We regret we cannot accommodate these items.

Please call Kathy Braun, Home Tour Coordinator, at 925.787.3676 with any questions.

My husband Jeff and I enjoy home tours. We’ve been to luxury estates in the Caribbean, stately mansions in New York, royal castles in Europe, and beach cottages in Florida. We’ve been to the Gamble House in Pasadena, the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. When Jeff and I drive by signs for new model homes, we often stop and check them out too. We are always on the lookout for interesting ideas and new perspectives, which is why we rarely miss the Martinez Home Tour.

The Home Tour began in 2007 as a fundraising event for the Martinez Historical Society. More features have been added over the years to include music and entertainment, local museums, restored classic cars, and a public building. As a special treat this year, the 35 piece Diablo Regional Concert Band, formed in Martinez over a hundred years ago, will be on the lawn performing (not with the original musicians) as guests arrive at the Shell Club House on 1635 Pacheco Blvd. Strike up the Band!!

The Tour will showcase six vintage homes this year and the public building is St. Catherine of Siena Church and School. Did I mention that Jeff and I also enjoy visiting churches?

My childhood Lutheran church, St. John’s in Antioch, was a simple affair – small, warm, and cozy with very little decoration inside. When I visited Holy Rosary Church in Antioch or St. Peter’s in Pittsburg with friends, I was amazed with the grand and ornate buildings. Then I married a military man and moved to Germany. Oh my. My eyes were opened to an architectural beauty I did not know existed. It was like walking through living museums of art and history combined with an uplifting reverence for life.

Jeff and I love to travel. Since our time in Germany we’ve made it a point to include many historical houses of worship along the way. We’ve been to Catholic and protestant churches in Latin America, Scandinavia, Europe, the Mediterranean, and on islands in the Caribbean. Some began as Grecian temples, became Roman and then Christian. We’ve taken historic tours through Hindu, Buddhist, and Shinto shrines in Asia as well as the Masjid Sultan Mosque in Singapore. We’ve also visited Curacao where the oldest synagogue in the Americas is still in open. It’s difficult to describe the mixed feelings you have when you stand in a house of worship. There’s a spiritual fullness that’s otherworldly, and yet, there’s a very human response to the bricks and mortar of the building itself and to the art works that surround you.

The art in cathedrals is actually very practical. Early in church history most members could not read or write. So stories were told through art works such as stained glass, sculptures, paintings, and mosaics made in the image of bible stories. The art pieces were teaching tools. When congregants viewed the art works they remembered the stories and were inspired by them. Around the world, time, skill and money have created artwork so beautiful that it can bring tears of joy even today.

St Catherine of Siena has been an integral part of the history of Martinez and California since the 19th Century. The parish and parishioners have played a strong role in the tradition and growth of our community.

Dominican fathers established a church in Benicia before the Gold Rush. In 1853 they began taking the ferry to their “mission territory” in Martinez. Mass was celebrated in Brown’s Store, one of the earliest structures in Martinez. The Martinez congregation soon built an adobe church of their own, and then in 1866, a small wooden building that blew over. In 1868 a beautiful steepled wood frame church was constructed on the corner of Estudillo and Mellus streets.

The St. Catherine of Siena Church we see today is actually the 4th church building. The current church was constructed in 1940. The 1890 brass bell was moved into the new bell tower where it remains. St. Catherine’s bell rope, near the narthex stairs, is pulled by hand at Christmas and Easter, but a computer sounds electronic the bells on the hour during the rest of the year.

The parish parochial school was built in 1949, on the same block as the church. Sisters and lay teachers at St. Catherine of Siena School educated thousands of Martinez students and developed the leaders that helped make Martinez great.

Elsewhere around Martinez, Catholics planted roots and made great contributions to our history. In 1879 property near Vine Hill was purchased as the site of a Roman Catholic college, which was later erected by the Christian Brothers Society of St. Mary’s College and given the name of the De La Salle Institute. This became the birthplace of the world-famous Christian Brothers Winery. The winery shipped wine from Martinez from the mid 1880’s until 1932. It all began with 12 acres of grapes that the brothers did not want to go to waste when the land was purchased to build the school –which was instead built in nearby Moraga.

After the Christian Brothers moved to Napa, homes were built where grapes once grew. Several of the homes this year are located in the area including the home of Tim and Patty McLoughlin on La Salle Street. Walking through their beautiful home will make you feel as close to the grape vines of Tuscany as you can get without leaving Martinez. Their home will also be the site of a decorative painting exhibit and demonstration by the Toll Bridge Tolers of Contra Costa County.

 Any traveler will tell you that it feels good to get home to familiar surroundings, where you feel safe, secure and loved. That’s how we feel about returning to our City of Martinez. St. Catherine of Siena may not be as old or large as other cathedrals or have paintings by Michelangelo inside, do, but it’s cozy, warm and feels like coming home.

To find out more about the 2018 Martinez Home Tour, check out their amazing website at www.martinezhometour.com/. Just keep clicking on the bold lettered words and you’ll find all sorts of cool information about historic homes in Martinez.

The Martinez Home Tour hours are from 10am to 4pm. Ticket purchases end at 2pm. The tour begins at the Shell Clubhouse, Every 10 to 15 minutes a shuttle bus will take visitors to the Home Tour area, but you may drive your own vehicle as well. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the tour. They may be purchased online at www.MartinezHomeTour.com or at these locations:

Char’s Flowers, 635 Main Street

I’ve Been Framed, 411 Ferry Street

Peirano Jewelers, 510 Center Avenue

The UPS Store, 1155-C Arnold Drive

The houses on this year’s tour are in two clusters. The first is near Martinez Junior High School, a Spanish Revival structure built in 1931. The second grouping of homes is to the Southeast, near the 80 acres that formerly was the site of the Christian Brothers’ Novitiate and Winery prior to 1932, when the Order moved to Napa.

Docents will be available to greet tour-goers at each home, and at many of the homes, musicians will provide entertainment.

One home represents the first time a French Norman or French Normandy home has been included in the Home Tour.

French Norman was one of the revival home styles popular between World War I and World War II. But it was built in fewer numbers than the more widespread Tudor Revival style.

A Typical French Norman features a tower with conical roof through which one enters the home. The home on the tour was build in 1929, and its current owners, Karen and Nick Burcher, have worked hard to restore it.

Another rarity is a home built during World War II. Few homes were built in those years, but one Martinez home built in 1943 is an exception. While it has a simple look to its exterior, inside it has been updated by its current owner, Kathleen Grimoldi, who downsized from an Alhambra Valley estate home and has attractively appointed the interior of her house.

Also on the tour is a 1924 bungalow that has some Spanish Revival elements, such as an arched entrance to the porch and medallions on either side of the entrance. Another arch with a swag is above the front window. Fernando and Lisa Villalba have landscaped the area with cactus and succulents and have used terra cotta planters to continue the Spanish theme. They’ve added the modern touch of a productive solar power system, but incorporated it so it isn’t visible from the street.

Another house is a California Ranch Style house painted in Tuscan colors with a mural on its side yard. Owned by Patty McLoughlin, an interior decorator, and Tim McLoughlin, a contractor, the house represents an appealing retro-style that hasn’t been on the Home Tour before.

A 1929 Storybook Style home will give participants a chance to see a house that resembles cottages described in childhood stories. This home, designed by Bay Area architect Walter W. Dixon, was on the Home Tour eight years ago, and has returned under new ownership, Zoe Ann Carpenter, who has added to its Storybook character and decorated the house with antique furniture. Repeat visitors will notice the change in the front cottage garden that has given the home a changed look.

This year’s public building is St. Catherine of Siena Church and School, where docents stationed at both building will share the history of the structures. The church is a stucco building built in 1940 to replace the previous wood-frame structure that was built in 1868. Its Gothic-ceiling sanctuary has an array of stained glass windows, many of which were donated by Martinez families and organizations. The church also has a collection of statuary in its building.

St. Catherine of Siena Parochial School will welcome visitors to classrooms, where they can speak with parents and teachers. The school has been in operation since 1949, and is considered highly regarded and well-certified, with small class sizes that allow for plenty of teacher-pupil interaction.

Besides homes, tour participants will get to see antique and classic automobiles parked in front of several of the homes. These vintage vehicles have been donated for the occasion by their owners, some of whom are members of area car clubs. Paul Kraintz, who owns an antique car himself, organizes the cars for the Home Tour.

The tour starts at the Shell Clubhouse, 1635 Pacheco Blvd., where there is plenty of parking and restrooms inside. Water and coffee will be served. The clubhouse itself is a 1937 building with an Arts and Crafts interior or natural wood.

Historic displays will be set up in the Shell Clubhouse for the trip. This year, the theme is Jack London, the California author. London, a San Francisco native, was a noted figure in the Bay Area, and used his experience with oyster pirates as the basis of his book, “Tales of the Fish Patrol,” which describes adventures in the Bay Area and along the Carquinez Strait.

London gained national and international fame as the author of such novels as “The Call of the Wild,” published in 1903, and “White Fang,” published in 1906.

Also present in the Clubhouse that day will be the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society, which will have members available to advise those interested in finding their ancestors. Visitors also may tour the nearby Shell Oil Museum that has displays depicting the history of oil refining in Martinez, dating from when the local refinery was built in 1915.

The Diablo Regional Concert Band, originally formed in 1910 as Martinez Liberty Band, will be performing at the Clubhouse, selecting numbers in the theme “Strike Up The Band.”

Also open for the tour will be the Martinez Museum, 1005 Escobar St., home of the Martinez Historical Society, which will have an exhibit, “Politics and Patriots,” in anticipation of the November general election.

Included in the exhibit will be a photograph of the presidential candidate and future president John F. Kennedy making a whistle-stop during his train tour of the United States in 1960.

Those interested in seeing more of Martinez’s history on their own after taking the home tour also may visit the John Muir National Historic Site, 4202 Alhambra Ave., to see the John Muir Home, an 1883 Italianate Victorian mansion where the environmentalist lived with his family when he wasn’t wandering in wilderness areas. Muir died in 1914.

Also open to visitors of the historic site will be the 1849 Vicente Martinez adobe, a Monterey style adobe that predates California’s statehood. It is home to the largest existing display on the 1775-1776 De Anza Expedition that founded the presidio and mission of San Francisco.

Advance tickets are available at the Martinez Historical Society Booth at the Sunday Farmers Market on Main Street are $20. Advance tickets also are available for $25 through Eventbrite, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/12th-annual-martinez-home-tour-tickets-49856761917?aff=erelexpmlt, and the Martinez Home Tour site, http://www.martinezhometour.com/index-35.html. Tickets will be available the day of the tour for $30.

Those taking the tour may park at the Shell Clubhouse and take shuttle vans to the homes. The shuttles will be traveling along the tour route throughout the day, so participant may departing the van to see individual homes, then pick up the next van to travel to the next stop.

Participants also may take their own vehicles to the tour areas and use the vans to visit individual homes.

Those with questions may call or text Carolyn Duncan, 925-864-8457.

The Martinez Historical Society 2018 Home Tour takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, starting at the Shell Clubhouse.