ANNUAL TOURS:

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This Craftsman-style house was built circa 1879-1880 and returns to Tour after more than two decades. The mostly family-engineered renovation of the home is stunning and visitors shouldn't miss the section of set from a recent Hollywood movie whose outside scenes were shot here in West Michigan.

This Craftsman-style house was built in 1882 and was home to the same family that built it for nearly 60 years. Careful attention to clues and details discovered by the current owner has returned the home's facade to its original grandeur. The house was converted to four apartments, which the owner has maintained, and three of those apartments are on this years' Tour.

This shingle-style home was built approximately 1885. The shingle-style of architecture was used in the late 1880s to draw together many details such as the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Romanesque styles borrowed for this home. Besides busily raising three young children, the owner, Paula, is an antique dealer who has filled her home with many beautiful pieces.

By the late 1970s, this 1890 Queen Anne-style house had fallen into hard times, was covered with pink asphalt shingles and suffered from serious neglect. It was considered to be "the one house on the block you didn't want to live near.  It's since been returned to a spacious single family home and was last on the annual Tour in 1996. Many wonderful changes have been made to the house since then, Tour goers will get a special treat this year with the opportunity to see the unique living space on the third floor.

This 1905 Gothic cement block home was purchased, most notably, in 1936 by Dr. Cortez English and his wife, Amelia. Dr. English was the first African American dentist in Grand Rapids. In addition to dentistry, Dr. English had a passion for music, particularly jazz. It's rumored that many jazz musicians roomed at this home on their way to performances in Idlewyld, a noted African American resort in northern Michigan.

Built in 1910 by John Seven of Sevens Wallpaper and Paint, this home is more famously known as President Gerald R. Ford's boyhood home. President Ford's family lived in the house for seven years from 1923 to 1930. President Ford was 10 years old when they moved into the house. This is the the third time the house has been on the Annual Heritage Hill Tour and the current homeowners have made many changes and renovations since the 1994 showing.

This circa-1880 home has had only seven owners since being built, including the current owners. Interestingly, this house was more than a home for two different periods in its lifetime: For nearly four years in the mid-fifties it was the office of the Rebekah Assembly of Michigan, and for over a decade stretching from 1961 into the early 70s it housed the Holy Rosary Convalescent Home.

This 1923 Colonial Revival was first owned by Clara Herpolsheimer. Her family owned one of the premier department stores in downtown Grand Rapids. The flagship store, located at Monroe Center and Division, closed in the late 1980s. Though the Herpolsheimer shopping experience is gone forever, this lovely home remains for our viewing pleasure.

This home, a classic Romanesque Revival, has experienced short-tenure occupants from the very beginning of its existence in 1893. It was converted to two apartments in 1928, paving the way for future cobbling in subsequent years, until it finally ended up on the city rolls as a HUD house in the mid- to late-1980s. Currently under restoration by the current owners, Tour goers this year have the special privilege of viewing this "work in progress" as this gem on the south end finally regains its full luster.

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church - Built in 1925, the church was designed in the Byzantine style with 3 domes. The Byzantine style of church architecture is characterized by smaller domes. The Antiochian Orthodox church traces its roots back to the first century Antioch where the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians. The Orthodox Church's apostolic doctrine, worship and structure have remained intact for over 20 centuries.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed prairie style house built in 1908 for founder of May’s of Michigan clothing store -- restored to its original splendor by the Steelcase Corporation.

The building that has been home to the Grand Rapids Women’s City Club since 1924, was originally built for the Martin Sweet family in 1856. Sweet had a highly successful career in the grain business, banking, sawmills, and lumber. Mr. Sweet is best remembered for building Sweet's Hotel, which became the Pantlind Hotel and now the Amway Grand Plaza.

Also on Tour, for an additional fee, will be the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Voigt House at 115 College SE. This 1895 built retirement home for Carl and Elizabeth Voigt is a near-perfect preservation of a little more affluent life around the turn of the 1900s in Grand Rapids.