While neighborhood children rode bicycles along the closedstreet, visitors viewed homes and gardens and enjoyed some StormAvenue hospitality during Saturday’s 14th Annual Tour of Homes.

As he greeted visitors to his and his wife Shirley’s home, YogiBruce said the street was packed for much of the morning and intothe afternoon.

“It’s been great. We’ve had a tremendous turnout,” Brucesaid.

Tour organizers had an idea this year’s tour would be a bigsuccess given the number of pre-event ticket sales. Heavy ticketsales continued Saturday as pre-printed tickets sold out beforenoon and makeshift tickets were prepared for visitors.

“It was a steady stream of people until after 1 p.m.,” saidChandler Russ, executive vice-president of the Brookhaven-LincolnCounty Chamber of Commerce.

Russ estimated over 1,200 people participated in this year’stour. At least 40 percent, he said, were from out of town.

Rita Rich, tour chairwoman, said the event was an overwhelmingsuccess.

“It was absolutely outstanding,” Rich said.

Rich said she heard there were visitors from several surroundingstates and from as far away as Illinois. Also, thanks to some goodregional advertisement and publicity, there were many visitors fromall over Mississippi.

“That’s makes you feel good, too,” Rich said.

Among visitors from out of town were Chris Calhoun and hiseight-month-old son Christopher. The youngster got a ride on dad’sshoulders while going from home to home.

“It’s wonderful. It’s very nice for everyone to open up and showus their homes,” said Calhoun, of Nashville, Tenn.

Calhoun was in Brookhaven visiting his mother, Judy Smith,Saturday. He said he attended another tour several years ago andtries to catch the event when he’s in town.

“You don’t see this in many places,” Calhoun said.

Further evidence of the strong tour turnout was seen at John andKay Burton’s home and in their guest sign-in book. Kay Burton saidthe book was filled with signatures before 3 p.m., which was anhour before the tour’s scheduled conclusion.

“That’s incredible,” Burton said.

Danita Hobbs, chamber of commerce president, said the tour was awonderful showing of community pride.

“It’s a great way to show off our town and let people see whatour community is all about,” Hobbs said.

The theme of this year’s tour was “Taking the Town by Storm,”which celebrated the fact that all homes and gardens on displaywere on the same street. That prompted a number of positivecomments from tour participants.

The walking tour aspect meant visitors didn’t have to drive andhunt for homes, Bruce said. He added that he thinks this year’ssuccess will have an impact on future tours.

“We’ve got several streets that could do the same thing,” Brucesaid, mentioning Church, Jackson and others as possible streetsthat could host tours.

Rich agreed that one of the tour’s biggest selling points wasthat it was on one street. She said organizers have tried theone-street approach in the past, but homeowners on a particularstreet have to be willing to open and have their homes on thetour.

“We would love that,” Rich said.

Russ said there are beautiful homes all over Brookhaven.

“The central location helped make it the big hit that it is,”Russ said about this year’s tour. “We’ll try to follow this trendin the future.”

Rich said she was thankful and grateful to homeowners,volunteers and everyone who helped with the tour.

“Every homeowner deserves credit for their hard work andpreparation,” Rich said. “It showed and it helped make anoutstanding tour.”

Hobbs expressed similar sentiments.

“If it weren’t for their dedication and willingness to be a partof this, we couldn’t have it,” Hobbs said.

Bruce said getting ready for the tour was a lot of hard work,but it was also a lot of fun.

“It’s all worth it,” Bruce said.