The city’s Historic Preservation Commission started its Historic Home Tour Series in 2019, but discontinued the event in 2020 to respect COVID-19 limitations. “We offered a virtual tour of a home in 2022, but 2023 marks our first return to an in-person Historic Home Tour Series,” said Laurel Cunningham, commission chairperson.

Pleasant Grove has many historic homes, as many communities in Utah County do. According to Cunningham, the Historic Preservation Commission worked with homeowners to place 145 buildings and houses on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. However several of those structures have been demolished in the following decades.

Cunningham said that homeowners of historic homes can do what they want with them. “The myth is that being on the National Register protects homes, but it doesn’t. It’s just an honorific inventory of homes,” she said. Because of this — and that many historic homes and buildings are being demolished — activities such as the Historic Home Tour Series are so important and interesting.

Each month will feature a different neighborhood in Pleasant Grove. The tours are walking tours of the exteriors of homes on a block, with histories included. The tour concludes with an interior tour of one of the historic homes.

Courtesy photo

The first tour will be a walking tour to learn about the historic homes on 100 West in Pleasant Grove. Participants should meet at BJ’s Short Stop, 130 W. Center, at 7 p.m. The group will walk north on 100 West, learning about homes on this historic street. The tour will end with an interior tour of the home at 301 W. 400 North. As a bonus, attendees will learn why one of the trees outside the home is named “Reid.”

The next tour will be in July and will feature Pleasant Grove’s Monkey Town neighborhood. There will not be a tour in June because of the city’s Strawberry Days celebration. The last tour of this season will be in August. For more information, check the Pleasant Grove Historic Preservation Commission Facebook page.