Wanna Be An Architectural Tour Guide?
By Marilyn Machlowitz
What a way to walk 10,000 steps!
Last year, my husband and I took a volunteer-led architectural tour of Boston’s North End. And you wonder how I get ideas for this series.
Boston By Foot, which offered that tour, also offers tours of Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Rowes Wharf and many other neighborhoods. Soon I discovered that similar tours I’d enjoyed—from Chicago Architecture Center and Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia—were also led by volunteers.
Retirees of both sexes are among those guiding the tours. Our guide was a retired immunologist but others have been teachers, doctors, social workers, lawyers and more. “The common factor,” according to Vinni Cheng, Manager, Tours and Events, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, “is that they all love Philadelphia, history, and architecture. They want to tell stories about the neighborhoods of the city they live in” and enjoy sharing their knowledge and chatting with the tour goers.
Many of the sponsoring groups have a purpose beyond giving tours—such as preservation, advocacy, and appreciation of ever-changing neighborhoods. Beyond architecture, social history and cultural history are shared. The tours, for tourists as well as local residents, build support for preservation and also raise revenue. Most group tours charge between $15 and $30 per person.
The tours take 90 minutes and cover modest mileage. Group size is controlled via online ticket sales. Tours are offered rain or shine but many colder locales stop offering tours by November 15th and resume in Spring. Most tours take place on weekends, but plenty are offered weekdays and evenings as well.
No specific background or prior experience is required. Affinity for history, architecture and the city helps. Extensive training—both in class (in person and online) and on the street—is offered. You can shadow (observe) a tour in action. The opportunity to design your own tour may be possible or you can follow and adapt one created by the organization. Volunteers may be asked to learn two different tours and to commit to offering a (limited) number of tours per year.
So—if you are in Boston, Chicago or Philadelphia, look into the organizations described above. Or, if you live in—or visit—the cities below, do look into their organizations:
Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara
Seattle Architectural Foundation
Marilyn Machlowitz lives, works, writes and volunteers in NYC.
We want to hear what you have to say.