One of the best ways to increase the visibility of your historic preservation group within the community, build your membership base, and enhance relationships with existing members, is to host educational tours.

Reasons to Host a Tour

Tours are highly appealing to individuals and families looking for new things to experience in their hometown. They can also draw visitors to your community who will, in turn, support the local economy with their tourist dollars.

A tour is an entertaining way for your organization to achieve the following:

• Promote your organization's historic preservation principles
• Educate the public about historic preservation
• Offer membership to your organization without making a hard sell
• Create opportunities for partnerships in your community
• Provide a dependable way to raise funds for your organization. They can even become a source of annual income.

Tours can have a historic preservation theme without being advertised that way. For example, you can promote your tours under the banner of "local history" or "architecture." Some people have inaccurate assumptions about historic preservation. You can use tours to educate participants and clear up misconceptions.

Tours are not costly to produce. You can offer tours at discounted rates, or even free, for existing members, since it is always wise to provide member benefits. Members and board members can play a significant role by being docents (unpaid guides), offering their professional skills in organizing, promoting or managing the tours, or by simply participating in them.

Types of Tours

When planning a tour, first decide whether to stay local or to take it on the road. Preservation tours generally focus on properties in the local area, such as Main Street or a particular neighborhood. But tours can also involve traveling to another place. By expanding tours to other places, you can help members connect to a broader network of preservation advocates. Traveling tours may provide your members with information they can apply to preservation issues in your own community.

You must also decide on the mode of transportation for your tour. The most common types of tours are described below.

• Walking tours. Walking tours are the least complicated tours to execute. Walking tours are low-budget and highly visible. They also appeal to some communities' "green" incentives. Since sidewalks are public spaces, participants can take pictures of each building's exterior without the need to request permission from each homeowner.
• Bus tours. Bus tours can take place on a single day or over several overnight stays. A bus tour is more convenient for people unfamiliar with an area or not as comfortable walking. Bus tours also allow you to cover a lot more ground. You will have to factor in the cost of the bus when you are working out the finances.
• Bike and boat tours. Bike and boat tours are highly appealing to certain participants. Tour-takers get an entirely different perspective by visiting an area on bike or by viewing buildings from a river or lake. You should consider having participants sign waivers for bike tours or other self-propelled vehicles, like kayaks. You might be able to rent a multi-passenger boat for your tour, but this might be a pricey option.
• House tours. House tours provide visitors with a unique look at private properties that are generally not available to the general public. House tours may be self-guided or guided by a volunteer or staff person. A multi-house tour, such as a whole neighborhood, will require a big investment of time and resources. You will need many volunteers and spend a lot of time coordinating with the homeowners. However, these one-time tours are more likely to draw the interest of the local press and the community. They are also likely to offer more revenue for your organization.
• Virtual tours. Virtual tours take place in a self-directed, web-based environment. These tours can appeal to a younger audience, yet they do require a certain skillset to create. You can offer online interactive digital maps or downloadable maps to support these historic tours.

Elements of Successful Tours

The most successful preservation tours do these five things:

• Provide a behind-the-scenes look at interesting places. This element is the common thread with most local tours. Community members will be interested in your tour if they can discover something new or see familiar places in a new light. When planning your tour, think about the places and stories that would make you want to go on a tour of your own community. Include tidbits of local history and information about architectural styles. Your tour guides will often learn from the tour-takers too.
• Offer social opportunities. All types of preservation tours cultivate a sense of community pride among participants. Bus and boat tours provide a contained environment in which members can get to know one another. Walking and bike tours offer a way for members to socialize about their shared interest.
• Demonstrate successful conclusions to similar problems. If your organization is starting a new preservation project or considering an advocacy action, tours of places that illustrate successful conclusions to similar projects or activities can be valuable for comparison.
• Serve as a board development tool. Tours can demonstrate your organization's successes to new board members from an insider's perspective. After seeing these places first hand, your board will be inspired to do more. They will also be better prepared to sell your organization to donors and potential members.
• Serve as a vehicle for government outreach. Tours make good proactive government relations tools. They are generally a welcome departure from conventional outreach tools like briefs or PowerPoint presentations. You can help your elected officials better understand the impact of potentially harmful or helpful policy actions by offering tours of local hot topic properties. If you feel really good about one of your standard tours, consider tailoring it for public officials and some of your most engaged members. Your invitees might include your mayor or members of the city council, state government, or even Congress. Timing can be critical. If you are building a tour idea around a specific elected official, do your homework to pick the best time. Tours are great summer activities for members of state and federal government, because the summer recess is the longest.

Wisconsin Tour Examples

Many Wisconsin groups offer both classic and unique approaches to preservation tours. Here are a few examples:

Preservation Racine's Annual Tour of Historic Places

Preservation Racine hosts an annual tour on the last Sunday of September. Many community businesses serve as ticket outlets for the event, generating community interest and anticipation.

Historic Milwaukee Inc. (HMI) Narrated Boat Tours

HMI partners with Milwaukee Boat Lines to offer boat tours of the city's waterways. HMI guides provide narration about the city's history while tour participants get a unique visual perspective of the city's historic buildings.

Madison Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Building Bike Tours

Bike tours of the city's historic East Isthmus neighborhood are guided by a docent on bike.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Seth Peterson Cottage

This historic cottage is open to the public once a month. The rental and tour fees help maintain this exceptional property.

Sheboygan Fall's Main Street Virtual Tour Maps

The Main Street and Chamber of Commerce website offers an interactive online map of the city's historic walking tour. Visitors can use these maps to take a virtual tour or to preview the sites they will see on their walking tour.

Marshfield Walking Tour Enhanced with Mobile Phone App

Approximately 60 buildings in downtown Marshfield display a QR code, or barcode, that people can scan with a mobile phone app to discover historical information and stories about each building.

Self-Directed Tours of the Apostle Islands

The National Park Service website provides virtual tours for many national parks, including Wisconsin's Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Learn More

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