Revisit the ’40s and ’50s with Ogden home tour
Located at 1497 Oakridge, this home's post and beam construction allows an open floor plan and walls of glass to connect the interior with the exterior.
The dining room of the Blonquist home feels like your outdoors.
The Blonquist house will be featured in the 2016 Ogden Historic House Tour.
Original characteristics are seen throughout the Blonquist Home.
Blair and Tanner Blonquist painted the original kitchens cabinets while giving the home a more contemporary feel with the added tile.
The owners kept the original neoclassical revival fireplace surround.
The owners have exposed the tongue and groove wood floors and kept original details in the home.
Nicole Schweppe holds her daughter, Penny, in the kitchen of their 1950s home. Their home is part of the Ogden Historic Home Tour.
The pony wall with open shelving separates the wide foyer from a large living room in the Schweppe house.
Proceeds from the Historic Ogden Home Tour will help revitalize the World War II statue at the Ogden City cemetery.
Take a tour of Ogden’s mid-century and modern houses at the Weber County Heritage Foundation’s annual historic home tour. The tour will take place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.
The theme for this year’s tour is “California Dreaming.” It will feature three architectural styles — minimal traditional style, the subsequent ranch style and the forward-looking mid-century modern style. The six homes on the tour were built in the mid-1940s and into the 1950s. These three architectural styles helped define Ogden’s East Bench immediately after World War II.
“Every year, we try to pick a different time period for the houses,” said Carolyn Oborn, secretary of the Weber County Heritage Foundation. “We all just get together and brainstorm what we think will be interesting to the public. We chose the mid-century modern houses because we found quite a few in the neighborhoods.”
Visitors on the tour will see open floor plans, floor-to-ceiling windows, original and minimalist features, and posts and beams, just to name a few of the characteristics of the mid-century modern style.
Blair and Tanner Blonquist bought their home last September and have since renovated it, maintaining the mid-century modern feel.
“We kept the original theme, so every room of the house is outdoor-indoor. You feel like you’re living outside,” said Blair Blonquist.
The Blonquist home has walls of windows, with wood beams on the ceiling. The homeowners have made an effort to keep those character defining features.
“In the kitchen we’ve just painted and rearranged the cabinets and added a little contemporary twist with the tile,” said Blonquist. “We pretty much kept to newer styles, but kept the original kitchen with the big windows …”
As part of this year’s tour, Amy Weiland of Backdrop Interiors will be speaking about mid-century modern architecture at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30 Saturday morning.
The tour, which raises funds for the Weber County Heritage Foundation, will also include two iconic churches, Congregational United Church of Christ, 3350 Harrison Blvd., and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 3329 Harrison Blvd.
“One of things that I hope people realize is that this house tour is our big fundraiser and that all money goes back into projects like Ogden High School, the (Peery’s) Egyptian Theater and El Monte Golf Clubhouse,” said Richa Wilson, an architectural historian with the U.S. Forest Service who has served on the Weber County Heritage Foundation’s board for several years. “All that money goes into community projects for historic preservation, plus you just get to see really cool houses.”
Tickets can be purchased in advance for $15 at the Eccles Community Art Center, 2580 Jefferson Ave., or for $20 on the day of the event at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
The Weber County Heritage Foundation has provided a description of each house in the tour:
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard-Examiner
The Schweppe House located at 1563 26th Street is featured in the 2016 Ogden Historic House Tour.
1563 26th St., Schweppe house
This modest brick home is typical of the early ranch style. It is a one-story, horizontal form with a cross-gabled roof and wide chimney. The picture window, wrought-iron handrails and entry door sidelights are characteristic elements, as is the front yard’s pole light with the house number bracket. The back patio is indicative of the ranch style’s emphasis on indoor-outdoor living.
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard_Examiner
Inside this home, located at 2835 Fillmore Avenue, visitors will see wood floors, one-panel doors, a paneled wainscot and crown molding.
2835 Fillmore Ave., Richardson/Peterson house
This brick house illustrates the transition from post-war minimal traditionalism to the ranch style that became popular in subsequent years. Like other minimal traditional houses, it has shallow eaves, a large chimney, a moderately pitched roof and few decorative details. However, it incorporates some features found on later ranch-style homes: asymmetrical massing, a bay window with stone accents, and colonial revival elements such as the gable-roofed entry porch, boxed eaves, and shutters.
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard-Examiner
Shelly and Kent Ripplinger purchased the home, located at 2856 Fillmore Avenue, and have taken great care to preserve its original features.
2856 Fillmore Ave., Shelly and Kent Ripplinger house
The current owners purchased the home in 2012 and have taken great care to preserve its original features. It epitomizes the ranch style with its open floor plan, deep eaves, hip roof, and one-story, horizontal massing. Stone planters and board-and-batten cladding break up the exterior walls of brick with weeping mortar. Banks of stacked windows, some glazed with ribbed glass, provide natural light throughout the house
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard-Examiner
This ranch style house located at 2859 Fillmore Avenue is part of the Annual Historic House Tour.
2859 Fillmore Ave., Whelan house
The living room has a rounded southeast corner with large windows to capitalize on the corner lot and provide mountain views. Although the interior has been extensively remodeled, it includes original features such as built-in storage and an Italian marble fireplace with integral firebox and planter. The cherry floor and kitchen are recent upgrades, as is the bathroom and its soaking tub. The den, with its wood wainscot and built-in shelves, provides a cozy area to relax and gaze upon the owner’s collection of Native American pottery.
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard-Examiner
Blair Blonquist and her golden doodle, Dash, relax in the family room of their mid-century modern home.
1497 Oakridge, Blonquist house
The entry door, flanked by a large sidelight, opens to a substantial foyer with open riser stairs. The ground level has been remodeled to provide a mother-in-law suite that includes a spacious living room and kitchen area (formerly the master bedroom), complete with a wide fireplace of Roman brick and floor-to-ceiling windows enhanced by plantation shutters. The second level incorporates the mid-century principle of structural transparency. The roof beams and cedar roof decking are exposed, and three walls of glass enclose the living/dining area, which has original wood doors and screens to a wrap-around deck.
ANGIE ERICKSON/Standard-Examiner
After purchasing this home, located at 3494 Polk Avenue, the owners honored its history through restoration and by rehabilitating the kitchen and bathrooms as clean, minimalist spaces with a grey and white palette.
3494 Polk Ave., Hajdas-Patria house
The brick house incorporates picture windows, outdoor living space, stone accents and other ranch-style characteristics while expressing the influence of modernist architecture through its flat roof, cantilevered balconies and eaves, and efficient floor plan. Upon approaching the house, note the stepped edges of the balcony and roof slabs, as well as how the metal railing echoes the garage door panels. A cheery orange door with waffle-glass sidelights and transom opens to a living room with maple plywood cabinets and wall paneling. An asymmetrical fireplace of ashlar stone includes a wood storage box with rear access from a staircase. The adjacent dining room includes a stone planter beneath sloped glass. Other details that express the dwelling’s mid-century origins include flush wood doors, doorknobs with starburst escutcheons, and large windows and glass doors that provide a visual connection to a large, high-ceiling patio.
For more information, visit webercountyheritagefoundation.com.