GLENDALE : Candlelight to Enhance House Tour

This Christmas season, volunteer docents at Glendale’s historic Victorian-style Doctors’ House have done more than just deck the home’s halls with boughs of holly.

They’ve also added flickering candles to each room to highlight this month’s free, Yuletide tours of the building, set for a special debut tonight from 7 to 9.

“This is the first time we’ve ever shown the house by candlelight,” said Isabelle Meyer, one of three docents who decorated the house. “It adds a special charm to the house.”

“The flickering of the candles softens the lines of the furnishings and creates a romantic mood,” said the Glendale Historical Society member.

Built sometime between 1888 and 1889, the two-story, gray and white house features nine rooms containing items no older than the turn of the century. It earned its name from the succession of four doctors who had owned the property beginning in 1906.

In 1980, historical society members saved the building from demolition by moving it from its Wilson Avenue site to Brand Park, 1601 Mountain St. They have decorated the house each Christmas since it opened for Sunday public tours in 1984, members said.

Visitors tonight will be treated to a tour of how a traditional Christmas was celebrated in the 19th Century. Twenty-seven green and white candles of all sizes will be placed downstairs, while 10 others will flicker upstairs.

Christmas decorations ranging from evergreens to chinaware will also be on display, Meyer said.

The tour begins in the downstairs parlor, where visitors will hear Christmas music played on the piano and view a tree adorned with handmade, Victorian-style ornaments.

Although the tree is fireproof, Meyer said the white candles on it will not be lit.

“Christmas is really a special time for us when we make special effort to show off the house,” Meyer said. “We feel we’re having this in the safest possible way.”

Regular tours will resume Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, call the Doctors’ House at (818) 242-7447.