On Saturday, April 8, the Music Hall will hold it’s 15th annual Kitchen Tour featuring nine homes in New Castle, and on Saturday, May 13, the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its seventh annual tour featuring 10 homes in Stratham and Exeter. Music Hall organizers predict that about 1,500 participants will stroll through this year’s well-appointed kitchens, and Exeter organizers expect about 350.

While partaking in a kitchen tour isn’t necessarily voyeuristic (I mean, the owners know you’re there and they generally have their clothes on), it’s still a bit of a thrill to walk into the home of a perfect stranger for the sole purpose of just watching, er, I mean, looking. The concept is certainly not a new one, and in the past these kinds of tourist invasions often took place without prior notice to the occupant. In the fictional novels “Pride and Prejudice” and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” scenes in which unannounced visitors are guided through private residences by obliging housekeepers reflect what was once a real-life common practice.

Peter Michaud, Portsmouth and Exeter Site Manager for Historic New England, says that in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such visits occurred often in Portsmouth and surrounding towns. Around this time, says Michaud, a Colonial Revival movement took place in America,  generating an enormous fascination with homes and artifacts built or produced between the late 1600s and the early 1800s. The movement flourished here on the Seacoast, where an abundance of Colonial architecture and the allure of a rich natural coastline combined to make this region an extremely popular summertime destination for wealthy inland tourists, including many from Boston and New York City. 

In “A Noble and Dignified Stream: The Piscataqua Region in the Colonial Revival, 1860-1930,” editors Sarah L. Giffen and Kevin D. Murphy describe a scenario in which these so-called “summer people” became more and more attached to the history of the region and eventually began seeking out and purchasing old Colonial homes. These homes, says Michaud, as well as those that were inherited by the descendants of original owners, were commonly open for viewing, with the homeowners themselves sometimes serving as tour guides.

From 1890 through at least 1920, several local historic landmarks boasted private owners who welcomed drop-in visitors, some even advertising in local papers. These include the Jackson House in Portsmouth, c. 1664 (the oldest surviving wood frame house in New Hampshire and Maine); the Gilman Garrison House in Exeter, c. 1709; the Sayward-Wheeler Mansion in York, c.1718; and the Hamilton House in South Berwick, c. 1785. While all of these sites are still open to the public, none remain in the hands of private residents, and visits are now prearranged and closely monitored.

That today’s kitchen tours are also prearranged and closely monitored isn’t the only thing that differentiates them from tours of the past. According to Michaud, visitors to private homes during the Colonial Revival were usually directed to the parlor or another common room where family heirlooms, ancestral portraits, period antiques and pre-industrial era artifacts would be proudly displayed and discussed by the homeowner. Kitchens were not necessarily the focal point, he says, and any interest in them would have been purely historical. People of that era, says Michaud, thought the old kitchens—with their stone hearths and wrought-iron implements—were a charming curiosity.

Modern day kitchen tours, on the other hand, are intended to showcase contemporary design work, to give participants ideas and information about kitchen renovation and remodeling, and to promote the local businesses that provide these kinds of services. The homes that are featured are not necessarily all that old, and the kitchens are not necessarily reminiscent of anything from a bygone era. Also, the homeowners may not even be around to do the bragging. There are, however, design experts on hand, as well as volunteers who have been briefed on the particulars of each kitchen.

Mary Horigan, The Music Hall’s corporate partnership and special events manager, says that many people do come looking for ideas. She recounts the tale of a young couple a few years ago who were enamored with one kitchen in particular and spent several hours asking detailed questions about every aspect of the design, even going so far as to take measurements. Horigan says she wouldn’t be surprised if they had replicated the kitchen to the last detail.

On this year’s tour, visitors will receive a guidebook with descriptive copy highlighting each kitchen’s unique features. The Music Hall tour includes the kitchen in Brook Gassner’s 1903 white clapboard house, with its large mahogany work table, Madura granite counter tops, and elevated, pullout pantry that is reminiscent of a type of large cupboard often found in early 20th century dwellings. The tour also features one home that would likely have interested those Colonial Revivalists: Annie Manion’s 1740 home, with its original Rumford fireplace and beehive stove, wide-plank beamed ceiling, and handmade pine cabinets and butcher blocks. 

The Exeter tour includes a home from that era as well. Gussie Wilson’s antique colonial has been updated with a 30-inch Viking dual fuel range and a full-depth professional ventilation hood.
Whether you’re going because you’re contemplating a new kitchen of your own, or you just like to look at other people’s stuff, planners for both tours promise a wide range of design styles on this year’s tours, the proceeds of which benefit the sponsoring organizations. And who knows? Maybe there will even be a Colonial relic or two on display.

Kitchen Tours
The Music Hall and Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce kitchen tours are self-guided. Easy-to-follow maps and guidebooks are provided, and visitors can start and finish the tours anywhere they like.
Tickets for the Music Hall Kitchen Tour, which takes place on Saturday, April 8 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., are $15 for Music Hall members, $18 for nonmembers, and $20 for everyone the day of the event. Tickets can be purchased in advance at The Music Hall at 28 Chestnut St. or by calling the box office at  603-436-2400. Tickets can be purchased the day of the event at the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Spa, in New Castle and at The Music Hall. The Wentworth will be offering a special Kitchen Tour luncheon menu on the day of the event. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit The Music Hall.
Tickets for the Exeter tour, which takes place on Saturday, May 13 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., are $15 in advance and $20 the day of the event. Tickets can be purchased by calling 603-772-2411, by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , or by going to www.exeterarea.org. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce.