Sandy Cadwalader is one such homeowner.
"I've been a guide at other people's houses over the years, but this is the first time my house has been featured," said Cadwalader, who has lived in Center City most of her life.
"The city offers just about everything I need," Cadwalader said. "Living single in the suburbs is a lonely experience, but here you walk everywhere, and there is a sense of community."
She said neighborhoods were so tight that she often had debates with friends from Society Hill and other Center City enclaves about which was better.
The house on Lombard Street is new to her. She bought it in December after deciding against merging the owner's unit at a property she owns nearby on Delancey Street with a garden apartment in the building.
"After talking to a couple of architects, there just seemed to be too much work involved," she said. "In addition, I would have had to move anyway while the work was being done."
Delancey Street, fully rented and producing income, remains in her real estate portfolio. But it is the new place she is focusing on.
"I'm furnishing the house and pulling things together," Cadwalader said. "The house tour had provided me with a happy deadline."
Her new house is more "private and wonderful" than the old, she said. Entrance to the house is gained by walking down a pathway lined with brick walls and into a courtyard.
"The house doesn't face the street either back or front," she said. "And the courtyard is all mine."
The house is small, but architectural features such as long bay windows in the living room that overlook the courtyard make the three-story space seem much larger.
"When I bought it, it was being marketed as a 'country estate in the city,' " Cadwalader said with a laugh. "It is unusual space, and different from a lot of Center City houses, but I think 'country estate' is going a bit too far."
