Print edition: 
You've heard of houses being listed on state and national historic registers. But in Newton, there's a whole neighborhood that's been designated a historic district.
If you've taken the First Street exit into town, you've probably traveled through the district on your way to Main Street, past the Warkentin House and by Italianate and Victorian designs dating to the early 1870s.
The district was placed on the National and Kansas State Historic Registers in 2008, and its neighborhood association will have its first historic house tour Sunday. Four of the 173 houses that have been designated as "contributing" to the neighborhood's historicity will be on the tour, including the Warkentin House.
"What we're trying to create is 'I've walked into 1879 here,' " said Dana Ayala, whose house will be open to the public. "I think people will appreciate that when you're on the tour."
The tour will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased the day of the event at the Warkentin House, 211 E. First St. Vintage cars will be on display, and refreshments will be served at the Warkentin and Neal houses. An original oil painting by Newton artist Joseph Loganbill will be raffled.
The district is among the largest residential historic districts in Kansas, said Patrick Zollner of the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka. He said there were several such districts in Leavenworth, and old west Lawrence is a large one. But the trend in the past 10 years has been toward historic commercial districts, because the businesses can get close to 50 percent of rehabilitation work in tax credits, Zollner said.
The Newton district is spread over an irregularly shaped 17 blocks, said Barth Hague, director of marketing at Wichita State University, who lives in the district. He said it is roughly bounded by Southeast Second Street, Fifth Street, Walnut and Oak. It includes a church and a school that is now headquarters for the Newton school district.
The development of the historic district resulted from the interest of the residents themselves, starting in the early 1990s, according to the website of Newton's Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.
The Neal House
Merle and Karen Schlabaugh have one of the oldest houses in Newton — built in 1875 — and the only one, other than the Warkentin House, that is on the national historic register. Their house, the Neal House, at 301 E. Fourth St., will be on the tour.
According to a history of the Neal House, a story in The Wichita Beacon in September 1875 reported: "This dwelling they say is to eclipse anything here in Wichita, in size and magnificence."
The Italianate house was built for Jairus Neal, who established the first bank in this part of the state in 1873.
Features of the Italianate style are high ceilings inside and tall windows that go to the floor. Outside, the flat roof extends over the square house, and scrolled brackets are tucked under the eaves.
The Schlabaughs figure the house was updated in the 1920s — by then the house would have been 50 years old — with the addition of a parlor fireplace and built-in cabinets in the parlor and dining room.
The Schlabaughs moved into the house — and farther back in history — in 1999 when Karen got a grand piano that didn't fit in their 1910 house on Third Street. Now the piano reigns in the smaller of two back-to-back parlors, and Karen gives intimate parlor concerts there.
Dwight and Helen Beckham had lived in the house for years before the Schlabaughs and did a lot of renovation. The Schlabaughs have redone the parlors, an upstairs bedroom and the kitchen. The latter has a pantry where Merle's colorful canning jars are stored, and a pass-through window gives access to the butler's pantry in the dining room.
They've decorated with antiques — including a rare high-back dry sink that belonged to Merle's great-grandparents that can be found in the dining room.
"It's an eclectic collection of things, but we think they sort of fit together," he said.
The couple is in the midst of repainting the exterior.
"There's always something falling off somewhere," Karen Schlabaugh said.
She said the neighborhood association hopes that the tour will raise awareness about the district and encourage others who live in it to fix up their houses, too. Down the line, the district wants to install lights that will help set the neighborhood apart. Toppers on street signs already do some of that, and additional signs are planned, Hague said.
The Reese House
Carlos and Dana Ayala also live in an Italianate house that is on the tour — the Reese House at 305 E. First. The house was in pretty good shape when they moved in seven years ago, Dana Ayala said, but they've finished restoring one of the parlors and put antique lighting back in the house. They're in the process of taking out each original window, repairing it and reinstalling it with weather-stripping.
"We're a work-in-progress house," she said.
She said their two daughters couldn't wait to decorate their rooms, and that was done right away.
"For their rooms, we let them choose what they wanted to do with paint colors and decorating schemes. We didn't destroy any period woodwork, and none of the integrity was destroyed."
Ayala said that homeowners who join in the preservation effort get tax breaks as long as they do the work correctly.
"You can do pretty much what you want on the inside. The preservation commission will review what want to do on the outside."
The other houses on the tour are the Warkentin House, 211 E. First St., a Victorian house that has ball and spindle fretwork and 80 percent of its original furnishings and is open as a museum, and the Ely House, 119 S. Pine St., which was built around 1914 and once served as a parsonage for Meridian Baptist Church. It is owned by Chris and Rita Miller and features leaded glass windows, original oak woodwork and yellow pine flooring.
