The Oley Valley Holiday House Tour is slated to be held Saturday, Dec. 2, from 10-5 p.m. This year’s tour features a half-dozen historic homes in the Oley Valley, plus a historic church.
All proceeds will benefit the Oley Valley Community Library.
The tour is self-guided and can be followed in any order according to House Tour committee member Becky Mader.
“In the past, the tour has been quite popular, as it has featured some of the area’s most prominent homes,” said Mader.
One of the featured homes, located at 179 Old Boyer Road in Fleetwood and owned by Deb and Jeff Rhoads, was built in the 1760s.
“This is a really nice way to help the library,” said Deb, explaining how this was the couple’s first opportunity to include their house in the tour. She’s never opened up her house like this since moving to the area in 2004.
“I had been at this house previously and knew it would make a really wonderful tour spot,” said Mader. “I admire the landscaping, and the house itself is gorgeous.”
The house sits on a 4-acre property alongside a barn and siding with a stone fence.
“My favorite inside the house would be the stairway. We just had that restored back, as close as we could determine, to what it was originally,” said Deb.
This house tour serves as a fundraising event for the Oley Valley Community Library. Mader said it’s one of the best and most important fundraisers of the year for the library – and with every task, comes some challenges.
“One of the biggest challenges in putting this together is finding homeowners who are willing to do it. We have to find that special person who’s got a great deal of pride and wants to share it, and also maybe want to do something special to give back to their community.”
Mader thinks there are people out there that are willing, but it’s not always easy to connect with the right people.
If there is someone who thinks their home would make an ideal addition to the tour, they are encouraged to contact the Oley Valley Community Library.
