The historic Gertrude Smith House in Mount Airy has long been a popular stop for visitors during the holiday season, and this year is offering an added attraction: candlelight tours.
Those tours are scheduled this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.
Admission is free for the tours as well as other times this month at the house located at 708 N. Main St. near First Baptist Church.
Visitors can experience Christmas at the Gertrude Smith House on select days through Dec. 31, and thereby enjoy a special holiday tradition at the site that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“I am so excited about how beautiful the decorations turned out this year at the Gertrude Smith House,” reported Cindy Puckett, supervisor of buildings and grounds for the Gilmer-Smith Foundation. The foundation manages the house with the support of a trust fund established in 1981 with Smith’s death at age 90.
She willed the home to be left as though it was still occupied, to serve as a “living museum.”
The Victorian-Colonial Revival home contains period antique furnishings and art reflecting the tastes of Gertrude Smith, an interior decorator who was educated in New York City in the 1920s and was a passionate preservationist.
Her father, Jefferson Smith Davis, built the house around 1900 and Gertrude Smith, who never married, moved back to the family homeplace after his death. She continued her work as a decorator, pouring her love and passion into the home.
Christmastime hours
Puckett added that the foundation is excited about its openings this month so “folks all over our area can enjoy this gorgeous historic home.”
A tour of it provides visitors with the feeling that the Smith family is still living there, with furnishings, accessories and artwork displayed just as they were years ago.
Apart from this weekend’s candlelight tours, the house will be open to visitors from Tuesday through Saturday each week this month, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on those days.
Additional hours of operation will include Monday, Dec. 21; Monday, Dec. 28; and Thursday, Dec. 31, when the house is scheduled to be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
It will be closed on Christmas Day.
