BungalowFest
As the name suggest, this tour truly was a festival of bungalows! Most of the homes in this historic artists’ community were built between the 1920’s and 1950’s. Kenwood was St. Petersburg‘s first neighborhood for year-round residents, and homes were modest in size, but abundant in detail and charm. The neighborhood actually fell into serious decline starting in the 1950’s during urban sprawl, when people moved into the suburbs due to the prevalence of cars. In the 1990’s residents began buying and restoring bungalows in the neighborhood, which signaled the neighborhoods resurgence. Today Kenwood has earned a listing on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of St. Petersburg’s most desirable neighborhoods!
Home Town Tour
BungalowFest takes place in our very own home town, so we were excited to be able to bring along my mom and two friends, one friend even lives in Kenwood. The tour started on a crisp Saturday morning with ticket pickup at the neighborhood’s very own Seminole Park. This is the tour’s 20th year, and the one day event attracts more than 800 visitors. So, the lines were a bit long, but they moved quickly and the process was well-organized. We plotted our course and started with home number two.
Creative Uses of Space
The homes were all small, coming in around 1,00 to 1,100 square feet, so it was really fun to see how the owners creatively utilized and renovated the spaces in a way to give the homes a feeling of space. One homeowner took a small dining room off the kitchen, and reclaimed it for the bedroom and created a beautiful en suite bath and closet. Most of the homes on the tour had separate detached cottages, which created additional living space. These cottages were turned into everything from artist studios, to craft rooms to guest suites. Between the main home and the detached cottages, were beautiful outdoor living spaces. Some with pools, some with fire pits, all with personality. One home featured a fire pit made out of the tumbler from the inside of an old clothes dryer. Each home had it’s own unique personality. One home featured a pathway of granite stepping stones, that we learned were made from sink cutouts because the previous homeowner did work renovating kitchens and he utilized the granite sink cutouts when customers got new counter tops to create these stepping stones.
Bonus Bungalows
An added benefit of this tour, and we’ve experienced it in past years as well, realtors take advantage of the traffic in the neighborhood and host their own open houses. There were actually more open houses in the neighborhood than there were homes on the tour! So, tour-goers had the chance to stop into the open houses along the way and see bonus homes!
Overall Thoughts
BungalowFest remains one of my favorite home tours of all time. The quality of the homes is spectacular, each one has been restored and creatively designed. Homes are small, quaint and bursting with personality. Homeowners and staff are on hand to answer questions, the tour is well-organized and there is a good number of homes on the tour. I highly recommend it!
H4HT’s Disclaimer
Word’s and a few snapshots cannot properly convey the beauty of these properties. The main purpose of this blog is simply to share our overall opinion of the home tour in terms of planning, content and overall experience. We highly recommend you experience them for yourself! Visit our Home Tour database to find a home tour in your area, or in an area in which you will be traveling to! Happy touring!
Our Other St. Pete Activities
Just because we were visiting our hometown doesn’t mean we didn’t take advantage and visit some of our favorite, and some new spots! In addition to BunalowFest, we also visited the following establishments during our visit:
- Had a late dinner at Baytenders Oyster Bar & Steamer when we arrived in town Friday evening
- Caught the FSU game with friends after BungalowFest at Oak & Stone, enjoyed sampling craft beers from the 58 tap beer wall
- Counted our lucky stars to be in town the first weekend of the month, which means the infamous Brocante Vintage Market! This 15,000 sq ft monthly vintage market is a can’t miss!!!
- Celebrated a friend’s 40th bday on a Kraken Cycleboat and pedaled down the Hillsborough river. Enjoyed Tampa’s beautiful skyline and riverfront at night
- Had dinner at Steelbach inside Tampa’s Armature Works Food Hall
