People toured The Castle Museum in Marietta on Sunday in the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

MARIETTA– Visitors to Marietta over the weekend saw a variety of homes during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

People walked around parts of Marietta looking at homes that highlight historic Marietta and the first established settlement of the Northwest Territory.

“It is a great way to show off the homes, the architecture, the landscaping and the different collects people around Marietta have in their own private homes that they open up once a year on Memorial Day weekend to show off what Marietta is all about and the people who live here,” said Castle Museum Executive Director Scott Britton.

The home tour has been an annual event since 2018 with a couple of years where the tours were not conducted due to COVID.

The tour was divided into two parts with a series of five homes featured on Saturday and another group of five homes featured on Sunday.

The Mounier-Vehier Home at 509 Fourth St. in Marietta was one of the stops Sunday during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

The homes featured Saturday were The Sanders Home at 422 Fifth St.; the Matthew Scott Law Office at 328 Fourth St.; Parkview Airbnb at 400 Front St.; Fields, Dehmlow, & Vessels Law Office at 309 Second St.; and The Myers Home at 411 Fifth St.

The homes featured Sunday were the Buckley House Airbnb at 332 Front St.; The Buckner-Mullins Home at 531 Second St.; the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority House at 322 Fifth St.; The Jacobs Home at 321 Fourth St.; and The Mounier-Vehier Home at 509 Fourth St.

The Castle Museum at 418 Fourth St. was the sixth home featured on both days of the tour.

About 250 people did the tour on Saturday and about 200 or so on Sunday, Britton said.

“We have a lot of people here from out of town,” Britten said.

Joe and Mae Bergin ofMarietta tour a room at the Mounier-Vehier Home in Marietta on Sunday and discuss aspects of it with Matcha Lawi during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

Castle Museum Education Director Kyle Yoho said they had a lot of people from Columbus, the Akron-Canton. Charleston and many from around the Mid-Ohio Valley.

“We are highlighting The Castle Museum and some really great homes and business offices in the area that have really interesting features, historical and otherwise,” he said. “People get to see a nice variety on the tour.”

The tour helps The Castle to continue its operations and educational programming, Yoho said.

Quite a few local people who have never been to The Castle decided to see it during the tour.

“It is great for them to see what one of their neighborhood museums is doing,” Yoho said.

Marc Mounier-Vehier talks about his home, the Mounier-Vehier Home in Marietta, on Sunday during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

A woman who only wished to be identified as “Faith” of Jackson County, W.Va. said she and a friend came to see the historic houses as that is something they both have an interest in.

“We love architecture and history and Marietta is the place to go for history,” she said.

A representative of the tour she met a few months ago encouraged her.

“It has been on my schedule and my friend came to visit and we wanted to do it together,” Faith said.

Josh Jacobs, owner of the Jacobs Home, said they opened their home for the tour because they support The Castle Museum. This is the first time they have participated in the tour.

The Jabobs Home at 321 Fourth St. in Marietta was one of the stops Sunday during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes.

“We believe this is a great opportunity to invest in our community and show pride in our community,” he said. “It has been great. Everybody has been wonderful, so complementary and happy”There is a lot of pride in Marietta.”

Britton said in addition to the history of each home, there are a lot of collections with art, paintings, photography and more. Others are traditional homes that have been restored to their original state and others that have been renovated to fit the needs of the owners.

“It shows that you can preserve these old houses and make them your own,” he said. “As long as we preserve the houses we can always restore them and redo them as long as people have the need for them.”

Mae and Joe Bergin of Marietta were part of the home tour last year and wanted to see what was on the tour this year.

“We did it because we wanted to learn the history of our home,” Mae said, adding local historic officials were able to help them find that information.

Josh Jacobs welcomes visitors to his home Sunday during the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes. His home is the Jabobs Home at 321 Fourth St. in Marietta

“We are coming back because it is nice to be on the other side,” she said.

Mae feels there is still an appreciation of old homes.

“There is an appreciation of older homes that are not being torn down,” she said. “There are too many because no one is saving them.”

Joe said many people drive by these houses all the time and many are curious what the houses look like on the inside.

“We do this because we love old houses and want to see old houses,” Joe said. “We drive by these houses all the time and we wonder what the house looks like on the inside.

“Here you get a chance to do that.”

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

The homes featured on the annual Historic Marietta Tour of Homes over the weekend featured unique items that each homeowner has gathered and were on display during the tour.