Four Shadyside mansions ranging in style from country French to medieval-inspired will be open to the public in all of their holiday glory on Nov. 22 as a fundraiser for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The docent-led Shadyside Splendor tour will offer a rare look inside homes from the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, each decorated in a different seasonal theme and featuring live performances by members of the Pittsburgh Symphony and other musicians.

“People love house tours, and this one will be festive — a wonderful way to start the holiday season,” says Shadyside Splendor co-chair Diane Unkovic of McCandless. “The decorations in each home are as unique as the homes themselves.”

Lisa Earle chose a woodlands motif with fresh rosemary, boxwood and lemon cypress for the Federal-style residence she and her husband, Dr. Martin Earle, have restored on Devonshire Place. This is their first time on a house tour.

“We're classical music buffs, and we've done some other things over the years to raise money for the symphony,” Lisa Earle says. “When we were asked to be on the tour, we wanted to show our support. Symphonies all over the country are hitting hard times, and ours is so highly acclaimed.”

The home was built in 1898 by James B. Laughlin of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company and remained in his family for decades. By the time the Earles purchased it as newlyweds in 1989, it had become student housing and presented a personal challenge to Lisa, who is an interior designer.

“I'd felt an immediate emotional attachment to the house,” she recalls. “But so much needed to be done; my husband at one point said, ‘What did you get me into?'”

The couple spent the first year clearing the landscape around the house and assessing how to restore the home's badly neglected interior.

The library's mahogany pocket doors were so covered in soot, it took a specialist a week to clean them, says Earle, who also had the library's mahogany wainscoting restored with a technique using French shellac. “It gave them the patina of an old violin.”

The walls were sponge-painted in rich earthen tones, and the ceiling was decorated in gold leaf.

In keeping with the home's grandeur, the Earles covered worn checkerboard linoleum in the foyer and first-floor hallway with marble, an undertaking that required them to walk on planks for weeks, Lisa says.

Light pours into the foyer from a Palladian window above the second-floor landing, and a skylight, original to the house, illuminates a back staircase that leads to what had been servants' quarters on the third floor. The six rooms there, including a bathroom with an over-sized claw-foot tub, is now a guest suite.

The first-floor parlor was transformed into a dining room, with faux-painted forest-green walls, red and green silk drapes, and, for the purposes of the tour, a table set for Christmas dinner. The centerpiece features fresh greenery, bears holding platters of pine cones, and rustic candles that glow in the coziness of the room. Slices of wood serve as plate chargers. The settings are eclectic, mixing vintage china from Japan that Lisa's father purchased during his service in the U.S. Navy, with whimsical holiday plates from Target. An inveterate collector, Lisa says interesting “finds” can be spotted anywhere.

She turned a pantry into her home office and a closet into a powder room. They knocked out a wall to enlarge the kitchen, which is outfitted with stainless steel appliances, including a six-burner Wolf stove, granite countertops, and maple cabinetry. The walls in high-use areas are covered with metal-infused ceramic tile in lustrous gunmetal grey. “We're serious foodies and wanted a sturdy kitchen,” Lisa says.

To create a breakfast nook, the couple had an outside stoop off the kitchen enclosed. The Roman brick exterior became the room's interior walls, and large windows afford a view of the garden's weeping cherry and magnolia trees and a koi pond with a waterfall. A humidor passed down from an aunt now functions as a sideboard where Lisa keeps a stash of her favorite chocolates.

Martin Earle enjoys playing the piano, which is in the living room. It will be used by musicians during the house tour.

The Nov. 22 event is the second annual Shadyside Splendor, and organizers are hoping to repeat the success of last year, when 2,000 tickets were sold, Unkovic says. The idea for the tour originated with Millie Ryan, an active member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Association, and a small group of friends eager to support the orchestra.

To prevent crowding at any one home, the tour is organized into morning and afternoon sessions, and dozens of volunteers have been recruited to direct traffic and keep things moving smoothly, Unkovic says.

Folks will enjoy the diversity in this year's selection of homes, she says. “Our French country home is a little jewel. It's unlike any home I've been in in the city and has this trompe de l'oil wall that is absolutely charming.”

At the other end of the spectrum is a home with elements of a medieval castle, Unkovic says. “The owners are going with a period theme — medieval magic — for their holiday decorations.”

Tour houses are within walking distance of each other, but Molly's Trolleys will provide courtesy shuttles from five locations. For folks who want to make a day of the tour, Mansions on Fifth and the Twentieth Century Club are offering brunch at a discounted price to tourgoers.

Deborah Weisberg is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.

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