North Salem Houses Featured In 2010 Historic Homes Tour

Ten historic homes in North Salem's Dearborn Street neighborhood will be featured in this weekend's Christmas in Salem house tour.

The tours begin Friday evening for a candlelight showing of three homes scheduled to coincide with the Dearborn Street Illumination, when the entire length of the street will be lighted by curbside candles.

Historic Salem, Inc. is sponsoring the tours for the 31st year.

"Getting inside people's historic homes is very special," said Christmas in Salem Co-chair Darleen Melis. "You can see all the holiday decorations, which puts people in the mood."

Historic Salem isn't revealing which homes are on the tour, but Melis said one home is the Robert Manning House on Dearborn, built in 1824 for Manning, an uncle of literary giant Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Manning, whose business interests included a stage coach company in Salem, was the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, according to Melis.

He moved to the North Fields section of Salem across the North River to study fruit trees in his orchard, which ran from Dearborn Street all the way along what is now Orchard Street to the cemetery, Melis said.

"This year we chose the North Salem neighborhood because we hadn't done [Christmas in Salem] there since 1996," Melis said. "But a walking tour there in 2009 was very well received."

Friday's candlelight tour of three homes is from 6 to 8 p.m. Full tours are on Saturday, Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Complimentary trolley service is available.

Tickets for the house tours can be purchased at the , 50 Washington Street, on Dec. 4 and 5 for $35 each.