Recession. What recession?

A love of historic homes triggered locals to open up their wallets for one of Orange County’s most popular home tours.  Attendance at the Orange home tour, sponsored by the Old Towne Preservation Association, soared beyond expectations with more than 1,300 visitors over the two-day event.

OTPA board member Annalisa Goode dresses in period clothing as a docent at the 2009 home tour.

Ticket sales beat the 800 tickets sold in 2007, the last year OTPA sponsored the tour.

Patricia Ricci, chair of the home tour committee, said OTPA wasn’t sure how attendance would be given that the economy has forced many consumers to hold back spending on non-essentials.

For that reason, “we didn’t raise prices this year,” she said. Tickets cost $16 pre-sale and $20 at the door.

“We were caught off guard at the large number of people who showed up on Saturday,” she said. “We had to run out Saturday night to Kinkos to print more home tour booklets to make sure we had enough for Sunday.”

Ricci said visitors are drawn to the event because it is a unique opportunity to peek into some of Orange County’s oldest homes.  This year, five residential homes and one commercial building owned by Chapman University was on the tour.

Long lines form outside this 1908 Hip Roof Cottage

“Everyone seemed to appreciate our little oasis in the hubbub of the O.C.,” said Ricci.

The home tour raises money to support OTPA’s preservation efforts. The next one will be held in 2011.

OTPA is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to preserve, protect and enhance Old Towne Orange — a one-square mile area that contains more than 1,400 structures built before 1940. In 1997, Old Towne Orange became a national historic district and was placed in the National Registry of Historic Places making it the largest residential historic district in the state of California.

Are you interested in having your home on the next OTPA tour? For more information, email OTPA. (Property owners do not get paid for offering their homes.)

Photos courtesy of OTPA and Jeff Frankel. Top photo: Home tour visitors line up to enter a 1913 Craftsman bungalow.

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