Ocean City to Showcase Historic Homes With Holiday Tour

By MADDY VITALE For anyone who loves old Ocean City homes, there’s a special surprise coming – a Holiday Historic Home Tour, which will feature some of the extraordinary residences and businesses in town. On Saturday, Dec. 9, anyone interested in the decorated house tour may head to the Scarborough Inn, which is located at 720 Ocean Avenue, to pick up a free wristband. The wristbands are required to enter private homes on the tour, which runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. In addition to picking up wristbands, guests will be offered a tour of the Scarborough Inn, which dates to the late 1880s. Everyone will also receive a printed map showing which homes and businesses in the Historic District will be on the tour. “There are three levels of participation. The owners can showcase the exterior, the porch or the main floor of their homes,” Sne Avichal, innkeeper at the Scarborough Inn, explained in an interview Tuesday of some of the different home tours. “Everyone has become somewhat of an expert on their own homes. I’ve asked the homeowners to share with their guests a few facts about their home.” So far, there has been a lot of interest in the holiday tour. Avichal said there are already 100 people signed up and plenty of other people have shown interest, not only to attend the tour, but to be a part of it in the future. Ocean City's Historic District has homeowners who look to preserve and document the uniqueness of their homes. The Historic District stretches between Third and Eighth streets and Central and Ocean avenues. Homes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries line the streets. The district is governed by ordinances designed to preserve the character of the neighborhoods near the Ocean City Tabernacle, where Ocean City was founded and first settled. “What we are doing here is a grassroots thing. Generating interest in the historic district is important. You can’t force developers not to knock down homes," Avichal emphasized. "But if you could show them off as economic assets, you can protect them. One way to do that is with a historic walking tour like Cape May does.” Avichal is optimistic that the tour will be the start of something very successful to highlight the beauty of the old homes, not just in the Historic District, but throughout town. And the idea to do the tours only began a few months ago, he said. The Genevieve, a historic home at 615 Wesley Avenue, will be one of the places on the tour. Genevieve owners Brian and Christine Lihou restored the home over the last two years. The home, which the Lihous call The Genevieve for its name when it was an inn, sat in disrepair and was close to demolition before they purchased it. After about 18 months of renovations, the family has all but fully restored the home, which dates to the late 1880s, according to the Lihous. “I met the Lihous in August and we started talking about ideas to help generate interest in old homes,” Avichal said. “You can’t save old homes until people are interested in them.” Walking tour guests will get to tour the Scarborough Inn. The Lihous and their 16-year-old daughter, Nikki, who goes to Ocean City High School, are eager for the tour to spur some new enthusiasm for historic homes. “We are so excited to get this off the ground this year and hope to see it grow in the future,” Christine Lihou said Tuesday. Brian Lihou said it is about putting a spotlight on the unique, old homes. “The whole idea for the home tour is for people to enjoy and share their love of old homes on the holidays,” he noted. Like Avichal, the Lihous hope by drawing more attention to the homes, it will create more interest in them. “There aren’t many historic walking tours, besides the one in Cape May," Brian Lihou said. "We really want to bring awareness and an appreciation of the Historic District. It is a neat opportunity to look inside these homes." The tour is not just limited to the Historic District. There will be two homes featured on Wovern Place, nicknamed Dollhouse Row for diminutive homes that date to the 1920s. Old homes aren’t the only showpieces on the tour. The historic former Crown Bank Building at 801 Asbury Avenue, which is now called The Shoppes at The Asbury, will also be part of the tour. Tour guests will get to see inside the former bank vault, Avichal said. Avichal said he hopes that the Holiday Historic Home Tour becomes a tradition and creates a new attraction for the resort. “As more towns take care of their historic districts, it shows that old homes are worth investing in," he said. "I think by making the Historic District an attraction, it will also help the economy and draw more people to town.” For a complete listing of the historic homes and businesses on the tour, visit https://www.scarboroughinn.com/post/holiday-historic-home-tour The bank vault will be part of the tour of the former Crown Bank building, which is now The Shoppes at The Asbury. Pictured is manager Bridget Jacobson.