Boiseans will get rare access to some of the city's most historic private homes this weekend when Preservation Idaho hosts its 14th annual Heritage Homes Tour. The self-guided walking tour is set for Sunday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check-in and registration will be at Elm Grove Park at 22nd and Irene streets, four blocks west of Harrison Boulevard. The cost is $30 for non-members and $25 for members of Preservation Idaho.

Six private homes will be featured in this year's tours and preservationists say the North End neighborhood is the true attraction, with some of the oldest trees in the valley surrounding homes built in multiple architectural styles dating back to the early 1900s. 

The tour also feature the historic Marian Pritchett School/Salvation Army Booth Home. While the tour won't include interior access to the buildings, which still serve as a school and day care for scores of young women and their infants, tour participants will be reminded that the Booth Home's days are numbered.

The Salvation Army is selling the property and moving the school and day care operations to another part of town; and even though the Booth Home sits inside the North End Historic District, it is not currently on the National Register of Historic Places. Officials with Preservation Idaho say the "future of this property may be in jeopardy" because future owners may wish to demolish the historic buildings in order to build newer homes on the land parcel.