Balboa Island Historic Home Tour showcases 8 houses Saturday

Owners of eight homes on Balboa Island in Newport Beach will offer visitors a glimpse of the past during the Balboa Island Historic Home Tour on Saturday.

The walking tour, sponsored by the Balboa Island Museum & Historical Society and Abrams Coastal Properties, will feature a history of each home and a lunch at the museum. Among the eight is a 100-year-old home owned by Balboa Island Museum curator Shirley Pepys.

Each home will showcase a plaque indicating the year of its construction, all before 1953. Of the 1,444 homes on Balboa Island, more than 130 bear an engraved plaque. About 300 more qualify to be recognized as a historic home by the historical society.

After the tour, guests may shop for Balboa merchandise at the new store in the Balboa Island Museum, built in 1926.

New exhibits at the museum include Balboa Island Yacht Club trophies, maritime relics provided by Balboa Island resident and collector Bill Stewart and photographs and stories capturing island history.

The tour will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets cost $25 to $30 and are on sale at the museum store, 327 Marine Ave., Newport Beach, and at balboaislandmuseum.org.

For more information, call (949) 922-3594.

—Kathleen Luppi