In its 11th year, this traditional event allows the public to view the interiors of five historic homes within the Los Gatos community. Over the two-day period, homeowners will open their doors to visitors, to allow them to tour their homes and view the homes' unique characteristics, while classic, vintage cars and local musicians add additional special touches to the ambience.

The tour will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. During the tour, visitors can partake in refreshments at the Art Museum of Los Gatos at the corner of Tait Avenue and W. Main Street. Tickets and maps will be available at the Art Museum and at each house on the tour days. The History Museum of Los Gatos at Forbes Mill, located on Church Street off of Main Street, will also be available for touring on those days. The Historic Homes Tour benefits the Museums of Los Gatos.

Tickets are $20 for Museums of Los Gatos members and seniors over 62, if purchased in advance. Nonmembers can purchase tickets for $22 in advance. Tickets purchased at the door are $25 for everyone. Tickets can be purchased at the History and Art Museums of Los Gatos and at the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce. For more information, call 408.395.7375.

The C.M. Meriam House
54 Chestnut Ave.

This two-story, stately Queen Anne home was built in 1894 by C.M. Meriam. Meriam and his wife, Emma, moved to Oakland in 1883, and then to Los Gatos four years later when he retired from the redwood lumber business due to poor health. He personally chose the redwood for this home, which features elaborate interior moldings, fretwork friezes, an asymmetrical façade, cut-away bay window, patterned shingles, and pocket doors in the Eastlake style. Current owners Pat O'Laughlin and Margaret Kilkenny purchased the home in 1985 and performed some repairs and restoration after the earthquake of 1989. All restoration has been crafted to match the original details of the home. The house earned a Bellringer award, given to local Victorian homes a century old or older, in the early 1990s.

The Thomas E. Johns House
207 Glen Ridge Ave.

This 1 ¹/2-story Craftsman home was built for Thomas and Jennie Johns in 1911. Thomas E. Johns, originally from Canada, was a drug clerk in Los Gatos by the age of 16 and a partner in a drugstore by 1902. He and his wife, a California native, lived here until 1920, when the home was purchased by William and Mary Hamsher, Clarence F. Hamsher's parents. Clarence moved to Los Gatos around 1913 and was a member of the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club, serving as its president. He was an unofficial historian of Los Gatos, collecting clippings of town events, which are available in the local library. He lived in this home until 1966. It is now owned by Dan Klausmeier and Pilar Pablo. The home features a moderate-pitch, side-gabled roof with exposed roof rafters, an originally full-width porch under the main roof supported by tapered square columns and a centered shed dormer, all typical Craftsman features.

The George A. Green House
211 Glen Ridge Ave.

Also a 1 ¹/2-story Craftsman, this home was built in 1909 by George A. Green, a native of San Francisco. The house is placed sideways on the lot. Its decorative beams under the gables and its front dormer, partial-façade front porch and stone chimney are all typical Craftsman features. The home remains virtually as it was built. George Green was an 1896 graduate of the pharmaceutical school of UC-Berkeley, and worked as a druggist in San Jose before moving to Los Gatos with his wife in 1904. He purchased Thomas E. Johns' interest in the drugstore they ran together in 1905 and renamed it Green's Drugstore, later Green's Pharmacy, where he worked until retirement in 1948. He was a town councilman and the first mayor of Los Gatos in 1927. The current owners, the Foxes, purchased the home in 1991.

The Alfred Malpas House
55 Hernandez Ave.

This 2 ¹/2-story Queen Anne home was built for Alfred Malpas and his family in 1892 and is the oldest home on the Historic Homes Tour. Designed by Reid and Meeker, San Jose architects, it was built by C.F. Scammon for $6,000. It features multitextured wall surfaces, a front-gabled, steeply pitched roof, and a polygonal turret at the corner of the front façade. Of interest are three chimneys denoting several interior fireplaces and the original stained-glass windows that survived both the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes. Malpas retired to Saratoga from the Central Pacific Railroad in San Francisco in 1884, where he then owned a fruit ranch, and in 1889 became the business manager of the Los Gatos and Saratoga Wine Co. It is estimated that when he took that position, he moved to Los Gatos and built this home. It is currently owned by Wilfredo and Helen Cadiente.

The McCullagh House, called La Estancia
18000 Overlook Road

This 1 ¹/2-story Mission Revival-style home was designed by renowned San Francisco architect Willis Polk for Mary and Francis McCullagh in 1901. The home is clad in stucco, painted peach, with brown trimmings and awnings and red tile roofs. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The McCullaghs, natives of the Philadelphia suburbs, married in 1880 and moved to Los Gatos for Francis' health. They traveled widely, bringing back cuttings and seedlings to enhance their property—therefore, many of the trees are more than 100 years old, including a cedar of Lebanon they brought back as a seedling and a cypress and some redwoods. The gate is the original gate to the McCullagh home. Larry Arzie and David Stonesifer, then owners of The Porch, purchased the home in 1981 and have restored it. The library includes a painting commissioned by the McCullaghs in the 1890s, and most doors, floors and hardware are original.