Amid ideal summer weather on Sunday, June 26, Newtown Historical Society held its 20th Annual House & Garden Tour, showcasing five properties with distinctive homes and elaborate gardens.

The popular six-hour event, which serves as a fundraiser for the society, drew many to a range of homes spread across town - on Poorhouse Road, Poverty Hollow Road, Obtuse Road, and Button Shop Road. The dooryard garden at the society's Matthew Curtiss House Museum on Main Street also was open.

The five residential properties were displayed by homeowners Didier and Mona Maine de Biran of Poorhouse Road; Doug and Maria McLennan of Poorhouse Road; Nora and Rick Murphy of Poverty Hollow Road; Gail Friedman of Button Shop Road; and Collin Robison and Trent DeBerry of Obtuse Road.

Among those featured sites, the McLennan property holds a 1930s house on a three-acre property. It is called Bardwyn Brae by the McLennans. The property has extensive gardens and frontage on a pond, among other scenic features.

The site holds a wide variety of plantings and landscaping elements. Plantings include oakleaf hydrangea, sweet woodruff, clematis, yarrow, hyssop, Russian sage, and coneflower.

East of the McLennan property and also on Poorhouse Road is the five-acre property of Didier and Mona Maine de Biran which holds one of the oldest houses in town - a 1691 structure with clapboard siding and a cedar-shingled roof which was built by the Crofut family. The home was owned by the Crofut family until the 1930s, according to the historical society.

The Maine de Biran family purchased the property in 2010 and made repairs and renovations to improve the house's functionality.

The site has many gardens. Among the numerous plantings on display are mountain laurel, pachysandra, burning bush, boxwood, cherry laurel, and lilac.

Also on the self-guided tour was the Murphy residence on two acres at Poverty Hollow Road. The Murphys have owned the 1767 saltbox since 2002.

The house has had many additions built across time, creating "unique nooks and crannies" there, according to the historical society.

The home's master suite, which is known as "the coop," was added to the building in 2006. The Murphys found an 1857 chicken coop in Massachusetts, which they then modified and added to the house.

Like the other sites, the Murphy property has attractive gardens including a range of plantings including rhododendron, andromeda, day lilies, spirea, hosta, peonies, roses, ferns, lungwort, and deutzia.