Swiss Avenue Home Tour Continues Tradition of Giving Mothers the Royal Treatment

The Swiss Avenue Mother’s Day Home Tour is as traditional as giving Mom a corsage on her special day.

Now celebrating its 51^st year, the tour aims to make sure mothers and others will have a special weekend. Event planners will mix their long tradition of highlighting interesting homes with new activities for families to celebrate historic preservation, spring weather and, of course, mothers who will be treated as queens.

The annual event will return May 9 and 10, showcasing landmark homes in the Swiss Avenue Historic District. The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 9, and from noon to 6 p.m. May 10 — Mother’s Day. Organizers promise the 2026 tour will be special.

Royal Treatment

“We wanted a different vision,” said Elizabeth Mast, who is co-chairing the tour with Bill Heathcott. Both are residents of the district. “Bill and I wanted to have something more special where you can bring your mom and to make it a more memorable event.”

The co-chairs are updating the event with more children’s activities, a curated marketplace and local food vendors. Musical entertainment is scheduled continuously for both days, with a lineup that stretches from school groups to regionally known performers across multiple genres. Mast hopes attendees will sit down for lunch, enjoy the entertainment, then continue the home tour at their own pace.

To ensure mothers are treated as queens, a decidedly royal addition is planned. This year’s celebration will add a new feature, the Mother’s Day Royal Tea at The Aldredge House. Chef Darren McGrady, former personal chef to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana, will present a tea service during two seatings on May 10. At both the 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. teas, McGrady will share stories from his years inside the royal kitchens while his company, Eating Royalty, will serve a menu featuring favorites of both Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth, along with the cake recipe used for Prince William’s chocolate biscuit groom’s cake.

The Big Draw

Of course, the event’s major draw is always the public tour of homes of Swiss Avenue Historic District. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the area is recognized as Dallas’ first locally designated historic district for its architectural and cultural significance.

This year’s lineup of homes to be toured will feature standout examples of early 20th‑century architecture. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour an English Country manor, a Spanish Mission Revival–style hacienda, a Hal Thompson–designed Georgian Revival, a Prairie School classic with Mission Revival influences, a pre–World War II Colonial Revival, a post‑Edwardian red‑brick English Tudor, a Tudor Revival bungalow, and the English Gothic sanctuary at Munger Place Church.

Tickets are on sale now online or at Mast’s retail establishment Talulah & HESS, 5810 Live Oak St., for $35 through 6 p.m. May 8. After that, general admission tickets cost $40 at tour headquarters, 5500 Swiss Ave., and the tickets may be used for both tour dates. The $125 price for the Mother’s Day Royal Tea includes both the tea and admission to the tour homes, valid for either day of the tour.

Mast recommends the Swiss Avenue tour as a great way to treat any mother as a queen.

“It’s a special atmosphere where your mother will feel loved and honored,” she said. “There’s so much to do that you can spend a whole day with your mom.”