TAMPA — Mark Mathiason will live in his newly finished home only a few weeks before having about 1,000 visitors. That’s because he volunteered his Craftsman-style home to be among the eight Hyde Park residences open Feb. 28 for the annual Historic Hyde Park Home Tour.
“Brave is one word, stupid is another,” he quips about if the craftsmen will complete their sawing and drilling in time. He bought the place last year but wasn’t able “to get cranking until September.”
Sponsored by the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit neighborhood association since 1996, the tour features various private homes in the neighborhood. Proceeds for the tour are used to fund the HHPNA’s operations and projects, including area restoration and historic signage.
Projects like those, however, aren’t what drew the Mathiasons to the neighborhood.