I love Findlay for a lot of reasons. The parks, the food… Let’s be honest: I need to run around the parks more because of the food. But the reason why Findlay will always have my heart is the absolute care and love put into the historic homes. 

Just a quick walk down South Main Street provides so many lovely houses to drool over. 

I’ve spent many a day imagining myself sitting on one of the porches with a glass of lemonade. Maybe I’d have a book. Maybe I’d just gaze at all of the beauty that surrounded me. Either way, it would be a wonderful afternoon. 

But alas, I’ve always been stuck on the sidewalk just admiring. 

And just as I thought I was about to burst with yearning, I heard about the Hancock Historical Museum’s Historic Homes tour. Without hesitation, I signed up. I don’t think I even looked to see what houses were on the tour that year. I was just so desperate to get looks inside the homes that were dotting my dreams so joyously. 

Luckily, I was not disappointed. 

Each home had its own personality, reflecting the time in which it was built and what the owner loved about it. These homes were more than the architecture and materials used to create them. They were about families. The families that had come before and the families that lived there now. Each one lovingly maintaining a piece of our community’s history and passing it on to the next family to carry the torch. 

Some of the homes had not changed much since the day the first family moved in. Some had been updated to provide a bit of convenience that our modern lives desire. Most had achieved a mixture of both. A nod to the past with a modern edge. 

As I entered one home, the owner sat proudly in her living room as she welcomed the crowd of guests that were lost in all of the details she had fiercely protected over the years. It started with the compulsory, “You have a beautiful home,” and then someone got brave, asking more. She patiently told us more about the history of the house than what was on our sheets. She told us all about why she loved living there and the quirks of living in one of those historic homes. She became an unexpected gift of treasures about her home. I fell more and more for each and every paint stroke on her walls and the bits and pieces that were showing that bit of wear that happens when a family truly lives there. 

My day with the Historic Home Tour was a day of discovery and a day to appreciate these homes in a way that I could never do from standing on the sidewalk. 

I went home that day happy but sad. Happy that I was given this opportunity, but sad because I didn’t know when I’d be given it again. 

The good news for you? That opportunity is coming around again on May 13, with a champagne and candlelight preview on May 12. While it’s not once-in-a-lifetime, it is rare to get this chance to see inside of our homes, find out more about their histories and meet some of the families that truly love them. Don’t let it pass you by.