Homeowner offers insight into benefits of home tour

by Robert Wedding
My name is Robert Wedding and I have lived in Fairmount for eight years. This year will be my second occasion to have my house be a part of the Fairmount Tour of Historic Homes and I just wanted to write a few lines and share the experience with those who might be interested.

I think that the biggest myth surrounding Home Tour is the feeling that putting your house on tour is a daunting effort. I have always felt that residing in Fairmount is a privilege, and that although I own my house, I am just a steward, and that with that ownership comes a responsibility to the historic integrity of the house. As such, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to show others the unique characteristics that my home possesses, just as other historic homes in Fairmount also share their own unique treasures. I feel that keeping the beauty that I find intrinsic in an old house all to myself would be selfish. One of the greatest feelings I have experienced is to have others walk through my house and learn about all of the great features these houses boast.

As a life-long educator, I also realize that Fairmount’s Home Tour allows our neighborhood to educate our guests and gives us a slight opportunity to instill in them an appreciation of bygone ways that were used to design, construct and finish these houses, some of which are nearly impossible to reproduce today.

Having attended every Fairmount Home tour since I moved here, I can attest that there are features in some of our houses that one would never see in modern construction, and learning to appreciate the craftsmanship that went in to these old houses can only further efforts here, and elsewhere, to help preserve older domestic architecture for future generations. The Fairmount Home Tour does that, and also allows our residents to come together, work together and party together like no other event does. We get to know our neighbors, kindle friendships and cement relationships with each other that often prove to be life-long.

Home Tour is truly a testament that Fairmount, the largest historic district in the southwest, is here because of its historic houses and is the best neighborhood in Fort Worth because of its residents.