Holiday Home Tour

Friday, December 6, 2019, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Saturday, December 7, 2019, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Sunday, December 8, 2019, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Join us this year for the 2019 Holiday Home Tour! Tickets are available online now!

$15 in advance, $20 at the door. Ticket price includes entry to all homes.

Tickets will also be available at these locations beginning November 1, 2019:

• Broadway D&H Drugstore
• All Columbia Hy-Vee locations
• McAdams LTD

Tickets for groups of 10 or more may be purchased for $10 each by contacting the Missouri Symphony office at 573-875-0600.

Tickets for pre-registrants will be provided at the door on the day of the event.

We are pleased to announce the following homes for our 2019 Holiday Home Tour!

Home of Steve Fleischer-Marci Donoho

Known in Columbia as “The McAlester House”

2007 South Country Club Drive, Columbia, MO 65201

After years of accompanying their daughters to the golf course of Columbia Country Club, Marci and Steve would look up from the fairways and tee boxes to see and dream about someday living in the French Tudor-style home overlooking the front nine.

When the 1927 house designed and built by Berry McAlester became available, the couple jumped at the opportunity to stake their claim on this wonderful piece of architectural history. Having lived in a contemporary, open-concept home, this move was one that created challenges on several levels, not the least of which was to learn about its history, and what would be necessary to preserve many of the original features of the structure.

Original features that remain untouched today are the servant’s quarters, the massive hand-carved wooden staircase from Europe, the plaster mold casting on the large gathering room ceiling, and countless other details in woodwork and stained-glass windows. With Marci’s love of gardening and healthy living, the former in-ground heated swimming pool is filled in with the finest soils for vegetables, herbs and flowers.  The pool, believed to have been the first residential pool in Columbia, was closed during the polio virus epidemic. It is now the perfect place for Marci’s traditional French garden.

Berry McAlester and Virginia, sited the house and began its construction across the field from the original family home of Dr. Andrew Walker McAlester, considered the “Father of the School of Medicine” at the University of Missouri, and later the State Medical Board President. Berry was an architect and builder of many sorority and fraternity houses in Columbia and around the United States. The house is believed to be modeled on those plans.

Steve and Marci are delighted to share the history of their home at the holidays. They especially appreciate their friend and neighbor, Gary D. Smith of A Room at A Time Design, for decorating their historic home in the Country Club Estates Neighborhood. Gary’s holiday decor is guided by the home’s Tudor influence with lavish, natural elements. Five trees anchor the main rooms on the ground floor of the four-level home. The main hall hosts the nine-foot family tree with Marci’s Hallmark ornament collection of 25 years. The dining room features a nine-foot Victorian tree in the bay window. The two miniature bird pine trees in the adjoining breakfast room reflects Marci’s love of the outdoors. Holiday touches enhance the garden room, kitchen, butler’s pantry and library. The large foyer greets each guest with a tree of white, gold and silver ornaments, along with ample garlands of greenery and bows to add warmth and say: “Welcome Home!”

Home of Maha Libdeh & Chris Pieper

2307 Shepard Boulevard, Columbia, MO 65201

In 2017, Maha Libdeh and Chris Pieper took a huge leap when they decided to sell both of their respective homes and combine their families into one. Together, they sought to find the perfect home to make their own. Maha & Chris both love mid-century architecture while also having a strong appreciation for modern amenities. As the first potential buyers to see the home at 2307 Shepard Blvd, they knew immediately that this was their forever home. Built in 1964, the home is 3800 square feet of mid-century modern charm, beautiful updates, and a serene and peaceful yard. Maha, her son (Emmett-9), Chris, and his 3 boys, (Max-9, Luke-8, and Jacob-6) have made a home here together.

Located in the Shepard neighborhood, the home is nestled among more than 30 oak trees in a parklike setting that is just minutes from the University Hospital (where Maha is a nurse) and downtown Columbia (where Chris has his law office).  Access to Columbia’s outstanding trails are just down the hill. At the corner of Shepard and Danforth, this home’s exterior boasts a beautiful design, with generous patios and a distinctive red door.  There is rhubarb in the garden and cherry trees in the front yard, from which prior owners made sour cherry wine.  Flowers bloom through the spring and summer, and the family marvels each spring at the dazzling array of irises that erupt.  Hammocks, a swing, a ninja course, and a basketball court make the home a paradise for young boys. The family enjoys every square inch of their beautiful yard.

Prior owners updated the home with Baxter Custom Homes, RSI Kitchens and Baths, and Erdel and Wood, including the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and new carpet throughout. A new master bath replaced a master closet and the 5^th bedroom was converted to a spacious master closet in its place. The kitchen was updated to include a convection stovetop, hood, and a double oven as the main attractions. A few large projects remained when Maha and Chris moved in, including new heating and air conditioning, a replaced and expanded deck, and all new windows.

The home is decorated in a mid-century modern style that feels natural for the home. With 4 elementary-school boys, the family stays active. The boys can be found playing basketball, baseball, soccer, piano, or any other array of activities. When there is free time to be had, the family can often be found walking around their neighborhood, biking on the trails, or playing out in the yard. In 2018, Chris and Maha were married in the backyard with 30 close family members. It was a special way to commemorate their family and the life that they have built together in their home on Shepard Blvd.

Artist Adam Vehige of Washington, Missouri painted the centerpiece artwork in the main living room. Recreational woodworker Russell custom built their kitchen table and the boys’ reclaimed wood bunkbeds, which can be found in the 24 foot “boy palace” that occupies the lower level, along with a spacious family room. Large windows upstairs blur the lines between indoors and outdoors and create an ever-changing and gorgeous aesthetic as the seasons pass by. Throughout the house, artwork from distant travels as well as local events (like Art in the Park) can be found alongside the boys’ original creations. Unique and authentic mid-century modern pieces are central throughout the home, many sourced through David Szcuzinski in Kansas City and Etsy seller ‘modernmidcenturyfurn’ in St. Louis.

Home of Nick & Diane Peckham

2009 North Country Club Drive, Columbia, MO 65201

Nick and Diane Peckham purchased their 2-acre lot in the Columbia Country Club neighborhood in 2015. They were leaving a 50-acre farm south of Columbia where Diane had raised alpacas and angora goats and Nick mowed a lot! They found this site with wooded spaces and wildlife and it is now a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Nick, a Columbia architect for the past forty years designed this home to be “The Greenest Building on Earth.” The Peckham home incorporates cutting edge energy efficient technology and healthy building practices to create a comfortable home design, which also includes an office, the headquarters for Peckham Architecture.  While the ten-kilowatt solar array that provides energy for the home is easily seen, many of the features that make this home unique are hidden, like the thermally

isolated concrete slab or the rainwater collection system that provides water for flushing the home’s toilets. Nick designed two other homes in the Columbia area for his family that also included many energy efficient features.

Nick and Diane enjoy art; one long hallway acts as a gallery displaying artwork created by the couple, their children and other local artists. Nick’s interest in music finds him playing guitar Sunday at the Newman Center services. Diane continues to work with alpaca fiber, sorting wool and felting projects with Heartfelt Alpaca Creations, a company she started with three friends ten years ago. They both enjoy watching birds and growing organic produce in their back yard.

Home of Peggy and Richard Poe

Once upon a time, a young family moved into their forever home, sited on three acres and overlooking a beautiful lake with a secret name that hardly anyone still alive knows. It’s Lake Cyrene—right in the middle of town. A few years later, after completing a couple of early projects that have withstood the test of time, the house was put on the Holiday Home Tour. That was a quarter of a century ago. A lifetime really.

As the years passed, the owners watched and listened and the house gave up its secrets one by one: how the rooms could be used, the way to curate the ambiance they wanted, where to best grow orchids, what would delight their guests. So for nearly thirty years, the Poes have enjoyed a journey to keep the character of the

house inspired by plans from an old French home magazine that the original owners had found, while making it their own. Emboldened by lifelong travels, the Poes might find a color palate here, a roof treatment there, an art installation in a hotel in NYC, a door lever style they admired in Budapest. And so on.

This comfortable home reflects a shared life of family, friends, food, books, travel and a love of theatre and music.

Bienvenue! Welcome to our home.

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