08/22/2026
Trinity Tid Bit: Marshall is excited to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the Historical Home Tour this September! We need to remember that the Marshall Home Tour we know and love today wouldnât be possible without the Guild Council women of Trinity Episcopal Church having created what was known as the Kitchen Tour originally in 1957. This tid-bit delves into the formation and history of Trinityâs Kitchen Tour which lasted until 1963. The next tid-bit will cover Trinityâs Historic Home Tour 1964-1966 with the Marshall Historical Society taking over in 1967.
The Guild Council with Jan and Isabelle Brooks at the helm with other members came up with the idea of inviting the public to pay $1.00 a ticket to tour a handful of parishioner kitchens. The driving force behind this idea was Trinityâs kitchen was in need of updating equipment.
The Guild Councilâs decision of having kitchens toured was based upon the ideology of the time and published in the Marshall newspaper: âWhat American housewife is ever content with the room in which she spends the most time during her working day? That room, the kitchenâŚâ Chosen kitchens offered in-person, first hand kitchen remodeling ideas for visitors including the latest appliances. âThe kitchens were all modern and vary in decor from early American to contemporary. Some kitchens are large and some are small but all are compact and built for working ease.â Little did they know how brilliant this idea was and what it would evolve into within a single decade.
Of the five parishioner kitchens chosen for the first Kitchen Tour, two were of brand new homes and three had been remodeled. The dollar per ticket allowed visitors to tour five kitchens within three hours starting at the Parish House with provided transportation. The Guild Council also devised an additional way of raising funds during the kitchen tour.
The first year of the Kitchen, Tour Trinityâs parish women donated homemade treats such as candies, cookies, desserts, breads, salads and even main dishes that were placed in the kitchens to purchase. Each kitchen was designated with a single fare. One kitchen offered a variety of bread and cookies, another would offer salads and so on.
The inaugural Kitchen Tour of May 8, 1957 of 1:00 to 4:00 pm included the kitchens of Mrs. John Gray of Verona Road, Mrs. Winston Schuler 609 N Kalamazoo, Mrs. Holland Roberts 763 N Kalamazoo, Mrs. Carl Green 533 Alcott, and Mrs. R.D. Vogelreuter of 606 E Mansion. Expectations of attendance were in the area of 500!
And so it began! The first Trinity Kitchen Tour was deemed a huge success with net proceeds of $939, equivalent to $11,170 today! The Guild Council then decided it should become an annual event.
The Kitchen Tour added a further six years of success averaging $1,443 in net proceeds, annually all while keeping the ticket price of $1.00. The ensuing years included extensive advertising as well as additions to the venue. Advertising eventually led to Guild Council members of 1960 being featured on WKZO/Kalamazoo, on the popular program âFeminine Fanciesâ which had been airing daily at noon since 1950.
The 1960 tour included six kitchens with the addition of a family room and fashion show modeling around the pool of Mrs. Richard Green of 821 Wooded Lane. Parishioners and non-parishioner women and children modeled fashion show themes of holiday attire, sports clothes, afternoon dresses and childrenâs apparel all featured in Marshallâs clothing stores. The fashion show became a key component of the Kitchen Tour in ensuing years. Schuler's restaurant kitchen was included, 1961. Eventually tours include both the kitchen and dining rooms in various homes where visitors were able to see first hand tables set with heirloom china and silver, floral arrangements and various antiques both domestic and foreign.
We mustnât forget serving tea became part of the Kitchen Tour as of 1958. One year Harold Brooks offered tea in his dining room complete with a silver tea set. All this and more for the $1.00 Kitchen Tour ticket price.
Mary Lincoln Campbell whose mother Mary Lincoln was president of the Guild Council 1958-1960 then residing at 303 North Marshall shared, âFrom time to time I wonder what a trailblazer that kitchen tour was. Of course it wasnât an emphasis on the history of Marshall but rather on the emerging glory of kitchens that were filled with appliances that took some of the labor out of being there. Our own kitchen was remodeled when I was entering junior high. Remarkably, it included the addition of a washer and dryer to replace the wringer washer and close lines, inside in the basement in the winter and outside in the summer that had been my motherâs life for years prior.â âHow we loved it! Our renovated kitchen completed I believe in 1959 or so was included in one of the early kitchen tours (1960) which preceded what became the historic homes tour.â
To say the Kitchen Tour was a daunting task for six years is an understatement. It wasnât just the Guild Council officers involved. The food items prepared and donated for sale were homemade by the several women of Trinity. Each year saw the addition of more of Trinityâs women chairing various committees including cooking, baking, packaging, and ensuring the goods were delivered in a timely manner. Advertising, designing the tickets, distributing to members to sell and keeping track of the funds and transportation were a necessity in order to be successful. Numbers of volunteers steadily increased through necessity.
Eventually each kitchen on tour required upwards three to four women assisting the respective hosts with questions from the guests, sales and crowd control. At the end of the three hours came the counting of funds with no less than two women for accuracy, what to do with unsold baked goods and overall clean up. Each Kitchen Tour owner was provided $50 for having their kitchen on tour equivalent to $594 today! This was during a time when few women worked outside the home.
Originally, Kitchen Tours were held during a weekday in May 1957-1960. However, 1961 saw the first fall home tour and commencing 1962 tours accommodated women working outside the home with Saturday tours.
To wrap things up, the Kitchen Tour was a real success, thanks to the amazing dedication and hard work of the Guild Council women and parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church from 1957 to 1963. In 1964-1966, the Guild Council renamed it The Historic Home Tour, opening parishionersâ homes to the public. Next, weâll explore Trinityâs Historic Home Tour years which led to handing the torch to the Marshall Historical Society, grown into the nationally recognized annual tour we all love today.
Becky Wright, Historic Trinity Episcopal Church, Marshall MI Historian
