Last evening we met friends in Madison Indiana for a grand evening attending the Night Before Christmas Candlelight Tour of Homes 2004. This annual event is in it's 23rd year of featuring restored 19th century buildings dressed in their Christmas finest.

We started out the evening with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Broadway Tavern & Restaurant. This historic tavern was built in 1834 and has been in operation ever since. Last night the food was excellent as usual. The Broadway is perpetually under some remodeling and since we were there last they have modernized the tables and chairs. Somehow the look doesn't do it for me but this changes doesn't kill the ambiance of dining in a 170 year old tavern...which is pretty old by American building standards.

Then we headed out to join the tour. It was raining last evening a slow steady cold November kinda rain. Which of course meant that the luminaries, which give the "candlelight tour" it's name, were totally washed out at most locations. So it made finding the houses on the tour a case of looking for a house with a line of umbrellas out front. Because of the rain we decided to drive between locations. Of course as we left the tavern and headed from the car I misjudged the width of the water flowing at the edge of the street and jumped into it rather then over it. *sigh* Not a good thing to do when you are wearing clogs. So a cold night became somewhat colder after I gained one wet foot.

We had hoped to begin the tour at the Lanier Mansion but the state of Indiana, in it's august wisdom, had decided that the historic landmark would not be open THIS weekend of the tour. *sigh* I was looking forward to seeing the home since the restoration of the ceilings has been completed. The frescos were lovely before and I can only imagine what they look like now. Guess we'll have to plan a trip to Madison during the day when we know the home is open.

As usual the homes were sprinkled around the historic district. We toured five of the nine or so buildings that were opened to the public last evening. Of course some caught our interest more then others. One of the homes had the owners/restorers as docents. They gave a detailed talk on the work they had done to restore the house including pictures of the restoration in progress. Every room we were shown included some type of faux painting from marbling to woodgraining to faux book bindings. It was lovely work.

Christ Episcopal Church was open to entertain those touring the buildings with Christmas Caroles. Hubby and I took special interest in their stained glass restoration project. Apparently they have some of the oldest examples of American Stained Glass still found in their original setting. We will have to go back during daylight to see how lovely these old beauties can be.

After the tour we stopped by the Ovo Café for coffee. That was the plan...just coffee. Of course the best laid plans of mice and people who have been out in a cold rain...so it became coffee, desert, and wine - they serve Cockburns Tawny Port. Lovely way to end an evening.

Posted by prolurkr at November 28, 2004 12:45 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.professional-lurker.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/307