When it comes to public art contests, Fort Wayne has had giant decorated sneakers and smaller-than-life-size decorated mastodons.“Now it’s time for wheelbarrows,” says Hollie Chaille.When Scott Miller lived in an apartment in Fairfield Manor, he always enjoyed the neighborhood’s Williams Woodland Park Holiday Home Tour at Christmastime.
“A lot of people in the neighborhood would kind of dress in character for the tour, and it’s kind of bustling and old-timey and very holidayish,” he says.
Last year, Miller bought a house in the neighborhood, and his restored home at 341 W. Taber St., built in 1914, is part of this year’s tour.
Seven homes and two Fairfield Manor apartments – all seasonally decorated – will be featured, as well as free horse-and-carriage rides that will take tour-goers between stops – and back in time.
Williams Woodland Park, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1991, was built at the turn of the 20th century on a tract of land at what was then the southernmost end of the city’s streetcar line.
As Fort Wayne’s first planned residential neighborhood, it bespoke genteel living, with its unified setbacks, H-shaped alleys and commodious residences with carriage houses.
Miller’s house was one that had fallen into neglect.
“It had been vacant for three years, so it required a pretty good extent of renovation,” says Miller, 48, a former building contractor who in recent years went back to college for a master’s degree in mental health counseling.
Steam heating lines and a boiler had to be replaced, Miller says, and a new basement floor and new wiring were installed.
He and his wife, Wendy, also decided to demolish the rear of the home and extend its second floor to add a master bath.
They also modernized the kitchen by borrowing space from the dining room to add a breakfast nook.
While the kitchen now has Euro-style cabinets and the dining room is now a TV room with an updated cork floor, the Millers say they’ve tried to keep the house’s historical features intact.
The property this month won the 2011 ARCHIE award for best restoration of a single-family home. The award is given by ARCH, Fort Wayne’s non-profit historic architecture preservation group.
Miller says the home’s size has been perfect for his and his wife’s blended family – the two have seven children, including two grown sons.
But he plans to keep the home’s Christmas decoration small scale. There will be a traditional tree in the living room by the fireplace, garlands and some outdoor lighting.
“I’m probably not going to go too over the top,” he says.
