By KIP BURKE news editor
Although the numbers are still being crunched, all indications are that the 2006 Spring Tour of Homes was a success in bringing visitors to Washington-Wilkes for the perfect spring weekend.
Tour organizer Mark Waters said that judging from cash receipts, the turnout was "significantly higher" than in previous years.
The attendance numbers at Washington museums reflected a high number of history-minded visitors. "We had 462 at the Robert Toombs House - that's the highest ever - and 380 at the Washington Historical Museum," Robert Toombs curator Marcia Campbell.
Tour committee volunteers and Chamber of Commerce volunteers staffing the visitors center on The Square talked to hundreds of people throughout the weekend.
"I would say hundreds and hundreds of people have come through the welcome center," said Donna Hardy, Chamber executive director, as she greeted visitors downtown. "There was a writer from Southern Living in town, and I talked to a group of 8 or 10 tour guides who were checking out Washington to bring tour groups here. We never know who's here scoping out Washington."
The good weather - warm and sunny for a week prior - was one factor that everyone agreed helped bring out more visitors.
"The weather was perfect," said Waters, a retired Navy meteorologist who jokingly took credit for the rain early Saturday morning "to wash the pollen out of the air."
Another major factor in the good turnout, Waters and Hardy agreed, was the WWTourofHomes.com website that thousands of visitors saw. More than half the advance ticket sales came from website designed by Sparky Newsome and linked from, among other places, The News-Reporter's web site. Rev. Gail Seibert surveyed visitors as they bought their Tour tickets and after their Tour to see how visitors are finding out the Tour, and what they enjoyed. The data will be used to fine-tune Tour publicity and advertising efforts in the future.
One very popular aspect of the weekend among Tour visitors was the whole idea of being chauffeured around. The Washington Tour of Homes is one of the few tours in which community volunteers use their own cars to drive visitors from Tour headquarters to Tour sites, other attractions, and shopping on The Square.
"Other tours should do it this way," said Naomi Carter of Savannah. "We got a ride with a nice fella in a red Mini convertible, and he was a hoot! He was the perfect host and added so much to the afternoon."
Hotels and bed & breakfast inns were busy through the weekend, as were stores around The Square. The annual luncheon at The Woman's Club was a sell-out, and the Tour Buffet Luncheon at the First United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Tea Room were busy, too, as were the restaurants around town.
Visitors also found four performances of the Washington Little Theater Co.'s musical The 1940s Radio Hour at The Playhouse on North Alexander Street, and enjoyed the Spring Artist's Market at Court Street Livery Gallery, just off The Square on West Court Street.
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