Bridge Brigido and Mary Carroll attended the Bellevue “Live Worship Shop House Tour” two years ago. It was an inspiration to start sprucing up their own Sumner Avenue home.

“We thought it was such a cool idea,” Brigido said. “It was also real motivation for us to get things done at the house.”

The couple will open their home for the fifth annual event Saturday.

The tour’s name refers to the “Live Worship Shop” sign on Route 65 that serves as an entrance to Bellevue. The event includes houses , churches and businesses . The tour’s committee operates under the umbrella of Bona Fide Bellevue, the borough’s official community development corporation.

Kathy Coder, of Bona Fida Bellevue, said interest in the history and house in the borough is at an all-time high. There has been a 39% increase in Bellevue home values over the last five years.

Brigido and Carroll found stained glass windows behind three inches of plaster. They replaced the kitchen cabinets, floor, countertops and appliances. Guests will also notice the front yard vegetable garden, perfect for the fresh foods they eat – it’s also the best sun exposure — as well as taking away the need to mow any grass, Carroll said. There are fig trees, kale, peppers, brussel sprouts and amaranta.

“We eat from our front yard,” Carroll said.

The stained glass window panes of blues and greens and oranges are visible from the living room and above the landing before you go upstairs. These details are part of the history of the brick and frame home built sometime in the late 1920s, according to local historian Scott Heberling. He will provide detailed information on each house during the tour, including who previously lived there.

“This house is an excellent example of a Craftsman bungalow, one of the most popular American house forms of the early 20th century,” Heberling said of the Sumner Avenue home. “Vast numbers of these single-family homes were built across the United States between 1905 and 1930, largely due to intensive mass marketing by architects, builders, and mail order companies. The form was especially well-suited for suburban settings and middle-class owners, and many examples can be found throughout Pittsburgh’s streetcar suburbs like Bellevue and the other North Boroughs.”

Bellevue developed as a “streetcar suburb” around the turn of the 20th century, Heberling said. Until the Civil War almost everyone in Pittsburgh and other cities lived within walking distance of their workplace, he said. Then railroads enabled wealthier families to escape the crowded and polluted Downtown for country estates in the surrounding area, but this was out of reach for most people.

Late in the 19th century, electrified streetcar lines enabled the middle class — for the first time — to move to the suburbs and commute to work Downtown. Enormous numbers of them did so, creating a housing boom in new suburbs like Bellevue and West View. City neighborhoods like Brighton Heights in the upper North Side and Squirrel Hill in the East End began to grow.

“The tour showcases old houses, and I love old houses,” he said.”These homes have period craftsmanship, fine materials, and attention to detail, yet have been adapted for modern living. Every house is different.”

The self-guided tour begins at the 114-year-old Bellevue United Presbyterian Church at 457 Lincoln Ave.

Hours Saturday are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $25, $20 in advance

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