Wreaths, bows, stars, snowflakes, glowing lights, sparkly ornaments, nutcrackers, angels, snowmen and, of course, Christmas trees were all on display as Crescent Hills residents decked their halls for the Crescent Hills Civic Association’s 2025 Holiday House Tour on Dec. 13.
Guests basked in the warm holiday spirit reflected in six beautifully decorated homes while homeowners enjoyed explaining their homes’ histories and renovations.
Grace Edwardo, event chair for the 2025 tour, said the civic association was “thrilled” to bring the house tour back this year to raise money to resurface the sports court at Crescent Hills Park.
“Not only does this event bring neighbors together in the spirit of the season, but it directly supports the maintenance and improvement of Crescent Hills Park — a space enjoyed by families all year long,” she said.
According to Edwardo, the tour was a “very successful fundraiser” that drew about 130 attendees and raised “a little over $4,500 between sponsors, ticket sales and the raffle and bake sale.”
Crescent Hills got its start in 1927 when developer Porter Beck bought 30 acres, divided them into 435 lots and named the area “Crescent Hills” after the crescent-shaped curve along Frankstown Road, according to the civic association’s website. It was one of the first housing developments of its size in Penn Hills.
Women’s and men’s Crescent Hills civic clubs were formed in 1935 and 1938, respectively. Soon they were collaborating to get roads paved, extend school bus service for the children, add telephone service and more.
In 1947, the two clubs consolidated into the Crescent Hills Civic Club — renamed in 2023 to the Civic Association — and established Crescent Hills Park, which the association still manages today.
Edwardo said the association doesn’t do the tour every year. It can be “hard to get people to participate,” she said, as it “takes a lot of work” for the homeowners to go all out with their decorations.
The last tour, held in 2023, drew nearly 150 attendees and raised almost $4,000, allowing the civic association to “complete much-needed drainage repairs to the sports court” in Crescent Hills Park, according to the civic association’s news release.
On this year’s tour, Edwardo included the house she shares with her husband, Brian, inviting guests in to admire the holiday decor set up around her crafts and his “Star Wars” Lego sets.
The house was built in 1968 and fully renovated in 2020. The Edwardos made it their own by expanding the outdoor deck, closing in the roofed porch and furnishing their shared craft room and office on a budget using pieces from IKEA and Facebook Marketplace.
Here’s a look at a few other homes on the tour:
Panousis home
At the first stop on the tour, visitors were impressed by the 1942-built stone home of Constantinos and Stacey Panousis. The couple said they bought the home in 2011, knowing it was a “mess” that needed fixing up.
“Ceilings were falling down, water issues, we had a leaky roof,” Stacey said. “It was a fixer upper.”
Constantinos, who moved to the U.S. in 1990, said he was drawn to the home by its resemblance to the stone houses of his homeland, Greece.
He said he learned more about the history of the house after a neighbor found information about it in a cookbook from the Penn Hills Library. The neighbor made a photocopy of the excerpt which the Panousis couple then framed and hung on the wall.
The excerpt said the house was built with stone salvaged from the “Exhibition Building,” also known as the Pittsburgh Exposition Supplement or Exposition Hall which was located at Point State Park.
In decorating for the holidays, Stacey followed the same philosophy as they did with the remodeling — updating while preserving the house’s original character.
“You have a stone home so you try to stick to the colors that go with the wood, right? So I try to do red and gold with the garlands,” she said. “We were trying to save the personality of this home. We didn’t want to make it so modern that it loses its integrity.”
Lantz home
Mark Lantz, a retired home builder, grew up in Crescent Hills, and after many years he returned with his wife, Karen. They first bought the 1950s home on Springdale Drive when they got married in the late 1960s, but at first they just used it as a rental property.
Once their children went off to college in 1995, they decided to make the house their own and move in. With Mark’s home builder know-how and Karen’s knowledge as an interior designer, they went all out with their renovation.
“We took the house down to the studs,” Karen said. “It was so old. … There was nothing attractive about it, other than the floors. The floors are original. They’ve been sanded and finished.”
In 2001, they revived the home with a new breakfast space, a koi pond, a revamped kitchen, a family room with a fireplace and more.
Kornick home
In 1977, Nick and Linda Kornick moved into their Colonial-style house, which was built in 1945. In 2005, they renovated it, adding 750 square feet.
They turned what was once a small back porch into a cozy sunroom connected to the living room by two French doors. The thick wall separating the two rooms provides soundproofing.
“Because this is the brick of the house, when Nick’s watching football, I close these doors and I don’t hear anything in here,” Linda said.
They also renovated the modest galley kitchen into a larger, eat-in kitchen with big windows overlooking the porch — perfect for Linda’s birdwatching hobby.
Linda said their first time participating in the holiday house tour was about 10 to 12 years ago and they wanted to do it again this year to help keep Crescent Hills Park under the care of the civic association.
“The money we gather here goes to help maintain the park, and if we don’t maintain it, the borough takes it over. We want it,” she said.