The owners of Coral Cottage at 305 Coral Avenue found a few things inside the walls while they restored it: a wooden toy from the 1940s, an old hand mirror, and the frame of a window that once faced the alley. The house was built in 1938. It still has its narrow wood floors, crystal doorknobs, hand-applied plaster walls, original shutters and a half-circle fireplace. Last December it was one of eight homes on the Balboa Island Improvement Association's Holiday Home Walking Tour.
The BIIA tour page bills the event as a look at decorated homes, and there were trees and wreaths. But most of the houses that opened their doors in 2025 had something else in common. They were old houses that had been kept and updated rather than torn down. The lineup chosen for the tour leaned heavily toward preserved cottages, which makes the tour the one day a year the public can walk through the island's preserved houses.
What last year's eight houses had in common
The BIIA's Featured Homes 2025 page gives a history for each house on the 27th tour. Six of the eight kept their original structure in some form.
| Address | Origin | What stayed |
|---|---|---|
| 133 Opal | Held by one family for 55 years | Remodeled within its original footprint after the buyers chose not to tear it down |
| 305 Coral | Built 1938 | Original floors, doorknobs, plaster, shutters, fireplace |
| 205 Garnet | Built 1921 as a three-room home, expanded 1979 | Shiplap siding, Dutch doors, lead glass windows |
| 225 Apolena | Built 1931 | Original footprint, egg-and-dart molding, exposed beams |
| 1209 N. Bay Front | Built mid-1950s | Former duplex converted back to a single-family home in 1996 |
| 1611 Balboa Ave | Little Balboa Island corner home | Original stairwell with stained-glass window, original beams |
| 207 Crystal | New build | Original house torn down |
| 518 S. Bay Front | 1940s duplex | Taken down to the studs and rebuilt in 2008 |
The write-ups also show how much of each house's story is about the island itself. At 133 Opal, the BIIA says the buyers promised not to tear the house down, and after the remodel a member of the original family told them her grandparents would be proud. At 225 Apolena, two former residents stopped by after the new owners moved in to say they had once lived there. Coral Cottage hangs photographs from the Newport Beach City Archives taken in 1938, the year it was built.
1209 North Bay Front has the longest history. Architect R. R. Casey Jones bought the lot in 1946 and built a small retreat on the back third of it. In the mid-1950s, 20th Century Fox director Bob Webb and his wife Barbara, who headed the studio's film editing department, built the house that stands today. According to the BIIA, Elvis Presley visited in disguise and ducked back into the house when people on the boardwalk recognized him.
133 Opal was also on the 2024 tour. The Daily Pilot described it as a pastel, coastal-style Cape Cod with restrained holiday décor, and it was that year's promotional image.
The two houses that started over still told the old story
Even the two rebuilds were written up around what came before them. At 207 Crystal Avenue, the Daily Pilot reported that Martha and Doug Kerstner held a "demo day" for their grandchildren before the old cottage came down. The new three-story house had a gold-and-silver tree. The BIIA adds that the grandkids were invited to spray-paint the interior walls and pull out anything they wanted. Brandon Architects designed the new house and Gregory Homes Inc built it. Doug did the interior finish work himself, including cabinetry, tongue and groove, and plumbing. Martha uses the roof deck as her painting studio.
518 South Bay Front began in the 1940s as a duplex. In the 1960s, the BIIA notes, birds were kept in the rooms over the garage. Patterson Construction rebuilt it in 2008 as a single residence with sliding doors that open fully across the front living area and the upstairs primary suite. The owners call the Balboa Pavilion across the water their own Eiffel Tower.
The same house hosts an annual White Christmas Boat Parade Party.
On an island where even a commercial rebuild like the two-story building at 224 Marine Avenue took years to get from filing to fence, a tour that keeps featuring 1920s and 1930s houses works as a yearly public record of what the island has kept.
The 2026 tour, Sunday, December 13
The 28th annual tour runs Sunday, December 13, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Six homes are on this year's tour, down from eight last year. Tickets cost $50. They are sold online at biia.org, and in-person sales at the shops listed below opened November 2.
Where to buy, according to Visit Newport Beach:
- On the island: Crush Clothing and Sunny Days, both on Marine Avenue
- In Corona del Mar: Bliss Home Design on Pacific Coast Highway
- In Newport Beach: Seaside Gallery & Goods on Tustin Avenue
- In Costa Mesa: Where's the Party on 17th Street
- Online: at biia.org, with day-of pickup at the Balboa Island Fire Station, 124 Marine Avenue, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The pickup window closes three hours before the tour ends. If you buy online and plan an afternoon start, pick up your tickets before 1 p.m.
The Holiday Market returns to The Royal Hen on Marine Avenue during the same hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the listing encourages guests to visit the shops along Marine and Agate Avenues between houses. Judging by the 2025 lineup, the walk can cover a lot of ground. Last year's homes ran from Opal and Coral on the main island to Balboa Avenue on Little Balboa Island.
Where the $50 goes, and who stands in the doorways
The tour is a BIIA fundraiser. The association says proceeds help pay for island beautification and its programs, and the Newport Beach Independent described the 2025 tour as funding beautification projects and year-round events.
Volunteers help run it. The BIIA recruits docents to welcome guests into each home, and anyone interested can call 949-246-7110. In 2016, the Newport Beach Independent reported that each year's lineup starts with the tour chair finding homeowners willing to open their doors. In other words, every house on the tour is there because an owner said yes.
That makes the tour a small cycle. Residents open restored cottages to visitors, and the ticket money goes back into the island's public spaces.
Three nights later, the harbor takes over
Several of last year's homes were described around their view of the bay. The owner of 1611 Balboa Avenue on Little Balboa Island calls its upper deck an especially good spot during the holidays, with lights across the water and the boat parade going by.
The 118th Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade runs December 16 through 20, 2026, starting at about 6:30 p.m. each night. The official 2026 route map gives these estimated times for the December 16 loop around the island:
- 7:45 p.m., Balboa Island Bridge
- 7:48 p.m., Little Island Beach
- 7:51 p.m., Little Island Point
- 7:54 p.m., South Bayfront and Grand Canal
- 8:01 p.m., Balboa Island Ferry Landing
- 8:07 p.m., North Bayfront
- 8:11 p.m., back at the Balboa Island Bridge
That puts the whole loop at about 26 minutes. A viewer at Little Island Point sees the boats about six minutes after they pass the bridge and nearly 20 minutes before they come back to it. Each boat passes the island's bridge twice. The Balboa Island Ferry keeps running during the parade, with breaks called by parade control. It operates daily from 6:30 a.m. to midnight. For how the same parade looks from the other side of the harbor, our post on the parade's last half hour past Newport Heights follows the route as it ends along Mariners' Mile.
The parade starts on December 16, three days after the home tour. Both events center on the same houses, first from the inside and then from the water.
If you own one of the island's older cottages and are weighing how much of it to keep, Mason | Taylor Associates can walk you through how preserved and rebuilt Balboa Island homes compare in the market. Schedule a confidential buying or selling consultation, and we'll go over the specifics of your house and street.
