Covington's Licking Riverside neighborhood home & garden tour celebrates bicentennial, All Star Game

The Historic Licking Riverside Civic Association last hosted a home tour five years ago, in September 2010. The association will revive the tradition — and add gardens — on July 11 in conjunction with the MLB All Star Game weekend and in celebration of Covington’s bicentennial.
 
American Legacy Tours will lead 90-minute guided tours of the homes every half hour. Tour guides will be provided with homeowner-vetted scripts to highlight each house’s historical significance, original builder and items of interest. One of the homes has the original bar from the Latonia Horse Race Track.

The event follows last weekend’s revival of a garden tour in Covington's Old Seminary Square and Westside neighborhoods, their first in 14 years.
 
The homes included on the Historic Licking Riverside tour have a direct connection to Covington history, such as those owned by Amos Shinkle, who financed the Roebling Bridge, and by Daniel Carter Beard, who founded the Boy Scouts of America. All of the houses also have private gardens with highlights like water features and patio gardens.
 
“We often talk about progress with preservation, and we hope that the tour gives people an appreciation of beauty and value that a historical neighborhood can bring to an urban environment,” says Steven White, a resident of Historic Licking Riverside.
 
The six featured houses are the Amos Shinkle House, circa 1854 (215 Garrard St.); the Shinkle Row House, circa 1880 (125 Garrard St.); the Kennedy House, circa 1847 (124 Garrard St.); the Daniel Carter Beard House, circa 1821 (322 E. Third St.); the Merchant House, circa 1860 (412 Riverside Drive); and the Porter-Fallis House, circa 1852 (412 E. Second St.).
 
The home and garden tour is 10 a.m.-6 p.m. July 11. Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased on American Legacy Tour’s website; proceeds benefit public space beautification programs in Historic Licking Riverside. On the day of the tour, check-in will be at the Church of Christ, 218 Garrard St.