Displaying Their Best Party Manors

Big Night Out party-goers will get a chance to dine in architecturally interesting Pasadena-area homes on April 29 as part of the third annual event benefiting the AIDS Service Center.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a kickoff party at Liongate Manor, designed and built in 1948 by renowned architect Paul Williams. Under the ownership of Graham and Gretchen Lewis, Liongate Manor has been expanded from a 5,000-square-foot California ranch house to a 12,500-square-foot English manor house.

The kickoff party will feature live and silent auctions of vacation packages and trips and recognize several individuals for their contributions to the 12-year-old agency. Among the honorees will be the Rev. George Regas of All Saints Church of Pasadena, board member Jim White and Michael-Jon Smith of Pacific Bell.

After the kickoff, guests will go to one of 20 elegant dinner parties in some of the area’s most impressive homes. Among the sites are Homewood, owned by Carol Liu and Michael Peevey, a two-story farmhouse constructed from local river stone and redwood. Built in 1876 by famed architects Jacob and Ammoretta Lanterman, Homewood is one of the oldest homes in La Canada Flintridge and a regional landmark.

Other guests will go to the Zane Grey House designed by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey (no relation to the writer). The two-story house is outfitted with a solarium, glass elevator and a library, where the author’s extensive Native American and Southwestern art collections are still housed.

Another dinner location will be the Gilmore House, an 1892 Colonial Revival Victorian masterpiece designed by Nicholas Roehrig in the Garfield Heights neighborhood in northwest Pasadena.

Admission of $175 guarantees each guest a space at the dinner party of his or her choice. Regular admission of $125 provides each guests with spot at a dinner to be chosen by the event sponsors. For tickets and details, call the AIDS Service Center at (626) 441-8495, Ext. 244.