As a child growing up in Oil City, Karen Steffanina always wondered what treasures lay inside the grand Victorians she walked by every day on her way to school.

		Upcoming House, Garden Tours Next Saturday: Allegheny West Civic Council's Kitchen & Bath Tour, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. 10 renovated houses on the North Side, visiting chefs, food samples. Tickets $15 on tour day at gazebo, Beech and Galveston avenues. Information: 412-323-8884 or www.alleghenywest.info. May 22: Observatory Hill House Tour, 1-5 p.m. 14 old and new houses on the North Side. Tickets $12 in advance, $15 on tour day. Tour starts at Riverview Presbyterian Church, 3505 Perrysville Ave. Shuttle service available. Information: 412-231-2887 or www.observatoryhill.org. June 4: Historic South Side Home Tour, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Eight new and restored older houses, scavenger hunt, door decorating. Tickets $12 in advance, $15 on tour day. Information: 412-481-0651 or www.southsidepgh.com. June 12: "The Well-Furnished Garden," Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania's Open Gardens Day Tour, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 18 gardens in Moon, Pittsburgh and Fox Chapel. Self-guided tour tickets $30 for Horticultural Society members, $40 for nonmembers. Bus tour tickets $75, includes luncheon. Also, garden party at 6:30 p.m. June 2. Tickets $150, reserve by May 23 by calling 412-444-4464. Information: www.botanicgardenwpa.org/. June 26: Mount Washington House Tour, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 11 houses, one garden and a historic church. Tickets $12 in advance, $15 on tour day. Also preview party at 7 p.m. June 25, tickets $75, include tour admission. Information: 412-481-3220 or www.mwcdc.org. June 26: Mt. Lebanon Public Library Garden Tour, noon-5p.m. Seven gardens on self-guided tour, master gardeners and rosarians on hand. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 on tour day. Information: 412-531-1912. June 26: Sewickley Garden Tour to benefit the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Six gardens in Sewickley Valley. Tickets $10. Also, a garden party with live music and auction at 6:30 p.m. June 25. Tickets $75. Information: 412-242-2500, ext. 123 or www.patf.org. June 27: Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania's Secret Garden Tour, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Six Fox Chapel area gardens, lunch included. Tickets $50. Also, garden party with Latin music, auction at 5 p.m. June 26. Tickets $100, or $125 for both events. Pre-registration required: 412-963-6100 or www.aswp.org. July 9: Ellwood City Garden Tour, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Five gardens, refreshments at Ellwood City History Center. Tickets $10. Information: 724-752-2021. July 17: Mercer Area Historic House Tour, 1-5 p.m. Five restored houses, part of Mercer's Victorian Weekend. Tickets $7. Information: 724-662-4185. -- Post-Gazette homes editor Kevin Kirkland

Built by the oil-boom magnates who gave the town its name, these elegant houses stood proudly as a reminder of wealthy times in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

"I had such a curiosity about what it was like to live in those homes and what life used to be like back then," recalls Steffanina, who now lives in Seven Fields.

In 1990, her childhood dream came true in a way when a friend gave her tickets to the Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour, one of Pittsburgh's best-known and largest tours. Steffanina enjoyed the event so much that she took her mother along the next year, and -- officially bitten by the house tour bug -- started "branching out" into other areas of town.

These days, she goes on as many as four house tours each year in communities as diverse as Ben Avon and Mount Pleasant.

"It's just very inspirational," says Steffanina, a learning support teacher at North Allegheny's Hosack Elementary. "I really appreciate people who put time in older houses and keep them alive, especially since I live in a new home."

Margie Killgallon of Brighton Heights knows that feeling. Ever since attending her first house tour a decade ago in the Mexican War Streets, the North Side resident has made it a habit of going on several a year, usually with a group of friends but occasionally on her own.

Sometimes it's an article in the paper that piques her interest, pointing her to places like Mount Washington or Manchester. Killgallon has trekked through enough tours to know that regardless of location, the houses will all be in some way special. And even if they aren't, she loves looking at the architecture, and "how they're furnished," she says.

Many cities sponsor home and garden tours, of course. Cleveland, which has a similar-sized metro area, also has about 10 scheduled from early May through mid-June.

But in Pittsburgh, ponying up $20 or more for the opportunity to scrutinize the wallpaper in someone's living room or traipse past their perennials seems a particularly popular way to spend an afternoon. Last year, there were more than 25 house and/or garden tours in the area, with some drawing thousands of people.

One of the area's longest-running is the bi-annual Sewickley House Tour, which kicked off this year's home tour season with its 32nd tour May 5 and 6. Sponsored by the Child Health Association of Sewickley, it's been around nearly 50 years. Equally popular is Allegheny West on the North Side, which will hold a Kitchen and Bath Walking Tour May 21, a "Spirits" tour in October and its 23rd annual Christmas house tour in December.

It's easy to discern why community groups love to organize these events. Not only do tours raise a neighborhood's visibility, but they can be great fund-raisers, too. For instance, some 700 people attended the Ben Avon Christmas House Tour last December, according to chair Carol Craige, raising close to $11,000 for the Avon Club Foundation. The 2003 Sewickley House Tour, which drew 3,000-plus visitors from as far away as West Virginia and Sharon, generated more than $50,000. Allegheny West typically makes between $40,000 and $50,000 each year on tours.

That's not to say it's easy money. Dozens of volunteers log hundreds of hours doing everything from sweet-talking their friends into opening their homes to designing programs, finding sponsors and planning publicity.

But why do people line up to buy tickets time and time again? That's a little more complicated. Undoubtedly, many Pittsburghers go on tours to get decorating ideas for their own homes or find inspiration to finish projects. Others view them as entertainment, especially when done with a group of friends.

"It's a day out from the mundane office life or living in suburbia," says Christopher Bladen, chairman of the ways and means committee for the Allegheny West Civic Council.

Others, like architectural historian Jesse Belfast, use tours as a way to learn about local history and acquaint themselves with the many different architectural styles our region has to offer.

"You learn so much about how people lived in the past by looking at how houses were designed and adapted over the years, as functions and neighborhoods changed," says Belfast, who lives in Wilkinsburg and goes on at least three tours a year.

"Pittsburgh is such a city of neighborhoods," agrees Craige, "and each has its own history and personality, with different kinds of homes and different price levels."

House tours certainly helped Jeff Worsinger get to know the city better when he moved from Gettysburg to Pittsburgh in 1996. Seeing the insides of homes in neighborhoods like Friendship, Manchester and Highland Park made him realize an urban setting would be the best fit; he ultimately ended up in Brighton Heights.

Or maybe, just maybe, Pittsburghers love tours because they're nebbier than people in other cities.

"People are nosy," Craige concedes with a laugh. "Especially if there's a house they haven't been in and they're dying to see it."

Carol Weir, who got involved with the Sewickley House Tour in 1991, agrees people are sometimes nosy. But house tours, she says, are really more about getting ideas and having fun.

"I honestly think just people love to see the variety."