Santa Fe is a town where homes and gardens are often hidden behind adobe walls and coyote fences hiding them from the eyes of the casual passersby. I discovered in my real estate days that people love to see how others live. A small industry of home and garden tours has arisen in Santa Fe; many are fund raisers for worthy causes. All are popular and attract locals and visitors to peek beyond those walls and fences. Most of the tours are self guided with docents, designers or realtors at each home. Almost all of the tours have admission charges. Check the tours’ websites for dates, tickets and other information.
Here’s a chronological list of home and garden tours offered annually in The City Different.
The Art of Home Tour, begun in 2008, is part of ARTsmart’s popular ARTFeast, an annual event always held the last weekend of February. ARTsmart’s mission is to raise funds to support art programs in Santa Fe schools. The free home tour, held on Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4pm, is underwritten and presented by Santa Fe Properties, a local real estate firm. The tour showcases an eclectic mix of homes on the market at the time. As the weekends theme is art, each Santa Fe Properties’ Realtor teams up with a local gallery who stages the home with their art. All the gallery art is for sale and a portion of any sales made during the home tour go to ARTsmart. Maps for the tour are available on ARTsmart’s website or at the Santa Fe Properties office at 1000 Paseo de Pera
Art of Home Tour: The Pottery House, based on a design by Frank Lloyd Wright photo/courtesy David Fries
The Art of Home Tour, begun in 2006, is part of ARTsmart’s popular ARTFeast, an annual event always held the last weekend of February. ARTsmart’s mission is to raise funds to support art programs in Santa Fe schools. The free home tour, held on Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4pm, is underwritten and presented by Santa Fe Properties, a local real estate firm. The tour showcases an eclectic mix of upscale homes that are on the market at that time. As the weekend’s theme is art, each Santa Fe Properties’ Realtor teams up with a local gallery who stages the home with their art. All the gallery art is for sale and a portion of any sales made during the home tour go to ARTsmart. Maps for the tour are available on ARTsmart’s website or at the Santa Fe Properties office at 1000 Paseo de Peralta.
One of the homes on the 2011 Mother's Day Historic House Tour, photo/Steve Collins
Historic Santa Fe Foundation offers a Mother’s Day Historic House Tour on the 2nd Sunday in May, each year. The tour, which began in the 1960s, usually includes four historic homes that are privately owned or owned and maintained by the Foundation. The group’s mission is to “own, preserve and protect historic properties and resources of Santa Fe and its environs and to provide historic preservation education.” They own eight properties including El Zaguán on Canyon Road. This historic house, dating to 1850 is the site of both the Foundation’s offices and an artist in residence program they run. Many of their other properties have tenants, often artists who agree to open their homes for the annual tour (if the house is on it), The tours are held from 1 to 4 pm. There’s a nominal admission charge.
Purple Clematis and day lilies on a Santa Fe Botanical Garden tour, photo/courtesy Santa Fe Botanical Garden
The Santa Fe Botanical Garden formed in 1987 didn’t have a garden; it had a dream to connect one. Now, twenty-five years later, that dream is about to come true on Museum Hill land they leased from the City of Santa Fe on. The Santa Fe Botanical Garden Tour began in 1996 as a fund raiser for the group. There are two different tours each year. The first one takes place the first Sunday afternoon in June and the other on the second Sunday. Both are from 1 to 4pm. A highlight of the tour is the gourmet catered picnic lunch on the first Sunday. The event added in 2009 is held in a beautiful Santa Fe garden on the first Sunday is from 11:30am to 1pm. There is an admission charge for the tours and an additional fee for lunch. Early bird discounts are offered on tickets purchased before May 1st. You can purchase tickets in advance at Tickets Santa Fe online or via phone (505) 988-1234. You can also buy them at the first garden you tour on the day of the event. If you want your garden to be included on a tour, contact Santa Fe Botanical Garden. They are always looking for gardens to put on future tours. The group is a non-profit; proceeds from the tours and other events go to support their mission.
The group maintains two other properties that are open to the public, the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve and the Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve.
From the 2009 Behind Adobe Walls Tour, photo/courtesy Santa Fe Garden Club
Behind Adobe Walls, the oldest home and garden tour in town, has been delighting garden lovers since the late 1930s. . This is an organized tour, presented by the Santa Fe Garden Club, is always on the last two Tuesdays in July. Each week there is a different tour, each featuring four homes and their gardens. Tour participants board a luxury bus for the over four hour tour (it runs from 12:30 to 4:45pm). A Garden Club member accompanies each group as the guide for the afternoon’s adventure. Proceeds from the tours go to local non-profit horticultural and conservation groups throughout New Mexico. Tour participants can add an optional prix-fixed lunch.
The Garden Club also offers Pequeno Tours by pre-arrangement to groups of up to 29 from mid-April to mid-October. Up to three homes are visited on the three to four hour tour. For information on either Behind Adobe Walls or the Pequeno Tours or for reservations contact Westwind Travel at 800-283-0122 or 505-984-0022 or e mail Terry@westwindtravel.net.
A stunning kitchen from the Hacienda tour, photo/ Katie Johnson, courtesy SF Home Builders Association
Hacienda Parade of Homes was started in 1992 by the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association. Always held the weekend preceding and the weekend of Indian Market, the tour showcases work of association members offering a combination of new homes, fairly new homes and total home renovations. The tour will offer around 20 homes, some furnished, some not, scattered all over the area. Homes tend to be higher end, but they almost always have an entry from Homewise, a non-profit builder specializing in affordable homes.
Ticket holders get a map of homes on the tour and tickets are good throughout the entire event. Participants can take their time and tour at their convenience. On the Thursday before Indian Market, there’s a free Twilight Tour of selected homes from 4 to 9pm.
The tour is open Friday through Sunday from 11am to 6pm on both weekends. If you want to see what homes are on the tour, Hacienda Magazine the tours publication is available around town in late July. A flip version can be found on their website. You can get a copy mailed by calling 505-982-1774. There is an admission charge. Tickets can be bought at any of the homes on the tour, or in advance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center or at Tickets Santa Fe online or at (505) 988-1234. Tickets are good for both weekends.
From the Design Santa Fe Home Tour, photo Steve Collins
The Design Santa Fe Home and Garden Tour began in 2006 as a part of the city-sponsored Santa Fe Design Week. After the city withdrew sponsorship, a group of local interior designers banded together to create Design Santa Fe. The home and garden tour is one of Design Santa Fe’s event’s most popular events. The homes chosen for the tour are selected from projects submitted for consideration by local interior designers. A committee visits each entry and evaluates the homes to make sure they meet the standards set for the tour. Although architects are encouraged to submit entries, the ultimate criteria for homes chosen are their interior décor and not the architecture. Tour attendees can meet the designers, get ideas and discuss prospective projects with them. Design Santa Fe is a non-profit group. Proceeds from ticket sales go to fund one local and one international charity each year.
What is your favorite Santa Fe homes or garden tour?
Behind adobe walls and coyote fences: touring Santa Fe homes and gardens is a post from: Santa Fe Travelers with Billie Frank & Steve Collins