Curious visitors can get an exclusive glimpse into the past during this annual tour that will feature nine homes, as well as Miner’s Hospital and the Park City Library. All the properties are located in the 1100-1300 blocks of Park Avenue.
Park City Museum’s Executive Director Morgan Pierce said many volunteers will play a key role in making history come to life.
“We have over 70 volunteers helping us on the 17th to open up these homes, to be stationed to help show people the homes, to help talk about the histories, the people that lived there, the architecture of the homes," Pierce said. "Everything is within such close walking distance. So we're just thrilled that everything is so close.”
The majority of the homes have been renovated within the last 30 years and some are in the process of being refurbished. The event organizers tried to select an area of town that had not been featured for a while. And then they started some old-fashioned door-knocking to contact the homeowners.
Pierce said this tour is important because it showcases they are more than just a museum, they are the Park City Historical Society.
"It's a great day to learn about the early period of Park City's history and about the miners that lived such hard lives in the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s," Pierce said. "The tragic ways in which they died, the teeny tiny houses that they would have lived in with their wives or their eight children and their extended families. And these are all examples of stories that will tell in on the home tour.”
The museum has hosted the home tours since the late 1990s and organizers said they're glad to be back after a four-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at parkcityhistory.org or in person at the Museum Store at 528 Main Street. Members are $25 per person and non-members are $35. Children under 12 are free.
Pierce said the event isn’t particularly kid-friendly but if you have a “nerdy 10-year-old who loves historic homes” like he was, this tour may set them on their future career path.
Visitors will be asked to wear the provided booties to preserve the flooring.