The Rider House - 109 Court Street The 2006 Spring Tour of Homes of Washington-Wilkes will be held on March 31, and April 1 and 2. The Candlelight Tour will get underway on Friday, March 31, at 6 p.m., and continue until 9 p.m. The Candlelight Tour will also be held on Saturday evening, April 1, during the same hours.

A Dessert Soiree will be available to those on the tour and others at Holly Court Inn, home of Phillip and Margaret Rothman, 301 South Alexander Avenue, on Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.

The Day Tour will begin Saturday, April 1, at 10 a.m. and will conclude at 5 p.m. The day tour will also be available on Sunday, April 2, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Tour headquarters will be at the Washington-Wilkes Elementary School on East Street, just off East Robert Toombs Avenue.

DAY TOUR

There will be six homes on the Day Tour. These five homes are:

The home of Jerry and Kay Robinson, 104 Pembroke Drive;

Southern Elegance, Jean Davis Blair, 115 West Robert Toombs Avenue.

Washington Plantation, Tom and Barbara Chase, Lexington Avenue;

Lafayette Manor Inn, (former Maynard's Manor), East Robert Toombs Avenue, home of Guillaume Slama and Sokunvathany Nuon-Slama.

Deborah Rainey's Downtown Loft; and

Wisteria Hall, home of Jim and Jane Bundy, 225 East Robert Toombs Avenue.

CANDLELIGHT TOUR

The Candlelight Tour will feature four homes and Holly Court Inn where the Dessert Soiree will be held. These are:

The home of John and Kathleen Overstreet, 401 East Robert Toombs Avenue;

The Rider House, Smythe and Jane Newsome, 109 Court Street;

Holly Court Inn, Dessert Soiree, South Alexander Avenue; and

The Home of Ricky and Kathy Lindsey, South Alexander Avenue.

OTHER

ATTRACTIONS

The Washington Little Theater Co.'s presentation will be "1940s Radio Hour," and will be presented Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Cost is $10.

The Washington Woman's Club Luncheon will be available by reservation only at noon on Saturday, at a cost of $10 each. This is a seated luncheon with a home-cooked meal served in the exquisitely decorated historic Woman's Club.

The First United Methodist Church will also provide lunch for $10.

Admission to the Robert Toombs House, Washington Historical Museum and Callaway Plantation will be free with the purchase of any ticket package. Cost to non-ticket holders is the regular price at the door.

Other attractions on the tour which are free include the Episcopal Church of the Mediator, Washington Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, First United Methodist Church, the Mary Willis Library, and an Arts and Crafts Show at the Livery Stable coordinated by Debbie Wells.

Tourists and local people are invited to visit the many shops and attractions in Downtown Washington.

COSTS

Ticket prices are $25.00 for the day or candlelight tour; $45.00 for both Day and Candlelight tours; $5.00 at the door of any single home; and $10.00 for the Dessert Soiree.

TICKETS

Ticket and reservation information are available by calling 706678-2013. More information and a form to order tickets are available at www.wwtourofhomes.com.

HOMES FEATURED

Each week until the tour days, The News-Reporter will feature one of the homes on the tour.

The Rider House

Jane and Smythe Newsome

No special historical significance attaches to the Rider House itself, but its unique Downtown Washington location is hallowed ground.

The house is situated on original Washington town lot No. 6, which Revolutionary War hero Micajah Williamson bought in the initial sale of town lots in 1780. Ownership changed several times in the next decades.

William L. Edmundson acquired the property from Gabriel Toombs in January 1870 in trust for his wife, Sarah J. Edmundson. The deed record states that Edmundson "now resides" at the location, indicating that a habitable residence had existed there some years prior to 1869, possibly continuously since the 1818 Wingfield date.

An 1885 insurance map shows a dwelling believed to have been incorporated as the front half of the present house. Hand-hewn timbers in that part of the house might have antedated the Edmundson residence.

Benjamin W. Heard bought the property from Mrs. Edmundson in October 1889. The present house, extended to the rear with the addition of Victorian features included two bay windows in the sides, was built by General Heard for his daughter, Ann Elizabeth (Annie) Heard Mulligan. The enlarged and remodeled house was celebrated at the turn of the century for its decorative interior painting done by Rev. G.F. Tuttle.

In 1933, J.R. "Rufus" Rider and his wife, the former Lola Mae Taylor, moved into the house. Rider quickly established himself as a topflight automobile mechanic and on October 9, 1939, he bought the house from Oliver C. Callaway for $2,000. In June 1941 he bought an adjoining lot to the rear (north) of the house from Mabel Green for $200. He built an automobile repair shop on that site and went into business for himself.

After the death of both Mr. and Mrs. Rider in the 1980s, he willed the home and shop to his sons-inlaw and in January 1993, his daughter, Jane Rider Newsome acquired the property outright when she purchased her sister's share. The house remained unoccupied until the Newsomes undertook its renovation in the summer of 1996.

The house has been retained basically in its original form with the biggest change at the rear where the kitchen and adjoining den are all new and enlarged. A stained-glass interior window and Victorian woodwork accents are added features.