Houses open for Route 66 festivities

This weekend officially opens the summer festival season.

The Pontiac Swinging Bridge Festival and The Red Carpet Corridor Celebration get the season started in a big way. As part of the festivities all three House Museums in Pontiac will reopen for the year after a winter shutdown. Tour hours are 1-3pm at each location. They will then be open on the third Saturday of each month through October. Additional hours will be scheduled during the holiday season.

The Jason Strevell House at 401 W. Livingston St. is known as the last surviving private home in Pontiac visited by Abraham Lincoln. Restored to mid-19th Century appearance it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Jones House at 314 E. Madison St is the oldest surviving brick home in Pontiac, built in 1837. It also is listed on The National Register of Historic Places. It was occupied by some of Pontiac's more prominent citizens through the latter half of the 19th Century. It currently is furnished with many donated antiques. It also features an exhibit on Pontiac native and nationally renowned artist and metalworker Thomas Googerty. He was noted for being among the first in the country to develop artistic uses for wrought iron metalwork.

The Catherine V. Yost House and Museum at 298 W. Water St. features a number of paintings by the Pontiac artist who lived in the house her entire life along with her parents and 2 siblings. Willed to the City of Pontiac it is unusual in that everything in the house was owned by a member of the Yost family. Built in 1898 as a Queen Ann Victorian style home it is an opportunity to see how a Pontiac family lived through the early 20th Century.

All three properties are managed by the Livingston County Historical Society. Tours are always free and ample free on street parking is available.