By Melissa Robinson
Contributing Editor 

  Just in time for the holidays, the Locust Grove Women’s Club is hosting a Christmas Tour of Homes, this Saturday, December 1, from 10 am until 4 p.m.

The Locust Grove home of Tom and Marianne Morfoot is included on the tour Saturday.                                                                     Special photo

  According to current president, Jane Lute, the Women’s Club hosted similar tours in the 1980s, but this is the first Christmas tour.

  “The last time the club hosted a tour it was in the 80s and then in the mid 1990s, the Methodist Church had a tour,” she said.

 The tour begins at the Women’s Club at 64 Club Drive. Hot cider and refreshments will be served and craftwork and art from club members will be on display. Tour goers will stop at the clubhouse first to register and pick up a map and guide to the homes on the tour. Nine homes will follow and most of them were built in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

“We have several older homes with a lot of history and beauty and thought that people would really like to see them, which hopefully will make this a great fundraiser,” she said.

   Lute credits the idea for the tour to former Locust Grove mayor, Lorene Lindsey, and said that originally, club members discussed a tour for the club’s centennial celebration, slated for spring of 2014.

  “This is kind of a trial run and we’ll probably do a tour of homes in the spring to celebrate the Women’s Club’s centennial anniversary,” said Lute.

  Lute said the money the tour raises will go to continue work of the club in the community, including a photography contest for high school students and donations to various community organizations, such as A Friend’s House, Samaritan’s Purse and Rivers of the World.

 Membership in the Locust Grove Women’s Club is open to any woman and is not limited to Locust Grove residents. Members meet at the clubhouse on the third Thursday of the month from September through June, with the exception of December.

 “I have lived in Locust Grove my whole life and the Women’s Club was a big part of my mother’s life,” said Lute. “I love this community and the sense of fellowship I get from being part of the Locust Grove Women’s Club.”

 The Christmas Tour of Homes coincides with Christmas in the Grove, a day-long celebration to usher in the holidays. Lute said that the tour will last until 4 p.m. and tickets will be sold until 3 p.m.

   “You can do the tour at your own pace and enjoy all of the activities downtown as well,” she said.

  Tickets are $10 and are available from Women’s Club members, and may be purchased from the Locust Grove Moye’s Pharmacy, the Zebra House, The French Market, Hair Smithsonian and J. Walden Contemporary Salon. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the tour at the Women’s Club, which is the first house on the tour.

   For more information on the tour or membership, call Lute at 770-957-2181 or Betty Shearhouse at 770-957-9009.