Four historic homes associated with the city's artistic and creative past will highlight Sunday's annual Mother's Day Historic House Tour.

One was once occupied by a Santa Fe Trail merchant, another by an architect and preservation activist, another by one of the founding members of city's vibrant arts community, and the fourth was the home of a master wood-print artist and marionette maker.

All the homes have been through various incarnations depending upon the vocations and idiosyncrasies of the owners or renters at a particular time, said Elaine Bergman, director of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, which is conducting the tours.

Another reason the four particular homes were selected, Bergman said, is because, "the artists who lived there maybe 70 years ago could walk through the front door today and still recognize the building as their home" because of the special care given to their preservation.

The organization has been conducting the tours on a Sunday in May for more than 40 years. In 2003, the group initiated the event as a Mother's Day tradition. "There were generations of mothers, daughters and granddaughters who were coming through the homes, so we thought it would be a fitting Mother's Day event," Bergman said.

Sunday's tour homes include: the James L. Johnson house, also known as El Zaguan, a collection of artists' apartments and studios at 545 Canyon Road; the Gustave and Jane Baumann house and studio at 409 Camino de Las Animas; the Irene von Horvath house and studio at 728 Canyon Road; and the Sheldon Parsons House and studio at 3 and 5 Cerro Gordo Road.

Bergman said the Parsons home is of particular interest because the public has not been allowed inside for at least 20 years.

Sheldon Parsons was a successful New York portrait painter whose work included studies of President William McKinley and suffragette Susan B. Anthony.

According to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, he moved to Santa Fe seeking relief from tuberculosis in 1913 after the death of his wife, photographer Caroline Reed Harris. In New Mexico, his creative endeavors turned toward landscapes.

He was a founding participant in the creation of Santa Fe as an artist community, and his presence drew other artists to Northern New Mexico.

When Parsons and his daughter, Sara Parsons Higgins, bought the property in the mid-1920s, the site consisted of three adobe buildings on three parcels, Bergman said.

Parsons connected the buildings and built a second story where his studio was located. The property is in the Pueblo-Revival style, identified by its thick adobe walls, narrow, roughly hewed vigas, long portals and narrow interior doors.

The 3,000-square-foot home, which has an adjacent guest house, was most recently purchased in 2000 by John and Linda Dressman, owners of the Santa Fe Indian Trading Co. and Dressman's Gifts on the Santa Fe Plaza.

The James Johnson home is named after the Santa Fe Trail merchant who bought the Canyon Road property, which included a house and a corral, in the mid-1850s.

The house at 729 Canyon Road, built between 1839 and 1856, was home to Irene von Horvath, an architect and water colorist who purchased the property in 1954 and lived there for 30 years.

Von Horvath is credited with conceiving the idea of the "ring road" that became Paseo de Peralta.

As did the other artists, Von Horvath did much of the carpentry and brickwork for additions to the home.

Gustave Baumann designed his home in 1923 to serve as his studio, home and gallery, according to the foundation. He was known to entertain other artists and family friends at the house with plays he produced for his delicately crafted marionettes.

The foundation acquired the Baumann home in 2008 and has been restoring it for the past year.

Foundation docents will conduct tours of the four homes from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at any of the houses for $5.

ON THE WEB

Historic Santa Fe Foundation: www.historicsantafe.org