2020 House Tour

The Victorian Alliance of San Francisco announces its first ever virtual historic house tour, Open Victorians, a free online experience that launches October 5. The tour showcases six of San Francisco’s classic Victorian homes, private residences that can be visited only via this virtual event. This series of originally-produced videos will introduce viewers to the homes’ interiors, exteriors, furnishings and décor with new videos launching each week until October 23.

The Alliance has produced this six-video series to showcase San Francisco’s historic Victorian homes to a much larger audience than a traditional, in-person house tour. Participants will meet the artisans and homeowners that have restored and cared for these homes, experiencing them through six different themes, including “Decorative Finishes”, “Who Lived Here Before Me?”, and “Future, Legacy”. After the initial launch, each video will be kept active and can be seen again, so that the end of the virtual house tour, all of the video tours can be visited together.

The Tour will culminate in a Front Parlor Salon webinar, scheduled for October 25, featuring leaders of preservation organizations from throughout the nation, sharing their ideas to inspire the next generation of passionate preservationists.

“With Open Victorians, the Alliance will demonstrate how historic interiors can be adapted and preserved for both contemporary and traditional lifestyles. We offer these examples as alternatives to the current “gut and entirely remodel” trend, which diminishes our city’s great architectural legacy,” said president Rob Thomson.