If you love touring homes and supporting the local community, add the 2025 Reston Home Tour to your calendar. This year’s event, set for Saturday, October 25, marks the 23rd for the tour. Proceeds will benefit the nonprofit Reston Museum.
Funding Local Programs
Lisa Watts, executive director of the Reston Historic Trust and Museum, says funds raised have been crucial in supporting the museum and beloved community events like the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta at Lake Anne.
“We rely heavily on it,” Watts says. “We are a grassroots organization, and our monthly expenses are pretty heavy. And then on top of that, it goes to help support our archives. It goes to helping fund our programs, our events.”
Watts says that last year’s home tour helped raise more than $30,000 for the museum and its programs. “Last year was our largest year. We had over 750 people in attendance. And so it just seems to keep growing every year,” she says.
Diverse Dwellings
Reston’s tour is unique in that it features a wide range of homes — including condos and apartments.
Area real estate agent Bonnie Haukness has been a longtime home tour volunteer and past event chair. “When [Reston founder] Bob Simon planned this community, he wanted it to be home for everyone, so he included apartments, condos, townhouses, and single-family houses,” Haukness says. “Vibrant communities like Reston were — and still are — difficult to find, so every year we tried to highlight the diversity of properties, owners, and areas in Reston, both new and old.”
Although some homes are larger or newer, Watts says that her favorite home last year’s tour was a condo belonging to Jonna Mendez, the CIA’s first female chief of disguise. Mendez was married to the late CIA officer Tony Mendez, who was played by Ben Affleck in the 2012 movie Argo. “She has a phenomenal story,” Watts says. “Her entire home was just filled with her travels, her experiences working as an author and in film, and she made herself available to talk to people and share her life and share her history.”
Watts says that it’s a combination of the people of Reston and the properties that makes this home tour so special.
“That’s one of the things that I think is phenomenal about doing something like the home tour. Yes, there’s a lot of wonderful architecture, but it really is the stories and the people that live here that bring it to life. … It’s all about community.”
This Year’s Featured Homes
The 2025 Reston Home Tour will feature six stops, including these properties:
Modern Townhome: The owner, an interior decorator, transformed this once-neglected 1993 duplex into a calming retreat filled with natural light, soft neutral tones, and travel-inspired décor.
Contemporary Home: This renovated home features an eating area with floor-to-ceiling windows, a large screened-in porch that spans the back of the house, and a backyard oasis with a fire pit and rock-lined pond.
JW Marriott Reston Station Condominiums: The 93 newly opened units — on the 14th through 25th floors of the new JW Marriott — offer luxury living and hotel-style amenities.
Know Before You Go
The Reston Home Tour is Saturday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for ages 10 and up.
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased the day of the event at the Reston Museum at 1639 Washington Plaza, or at The Wine Cabinet at 1416 Northpoint Village Ctr. You can also purchase tickets through the Reston Museum’s website for an additional $2.10 online booking fee.
This is a self-guided tour, so you can go at your own pace. The event takes place rain or shine, and parking can be limited, so organizers suggest carpooling if possible.
The newly opened JW Marriott Reston Station will provide complimentary light refreshments for tour participants.
Feature image of JW Marriott Reston Station Condominiums courtesy Bonnie and Bob Haukness
This story originally ran in our October issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
