The Candlelight Tour Is Really About the Trees Over the Old Northeast's Brick Streets

Carol and Burt Kline started by knocking on doors. They carried printed invitations offering neighbors a free tree or two for the strip of city land between the sidewalk and the street. Plenty of neighbors turned them down. "You'd be surprised, people didn't often want trees on their right-of-way because of the responsibilities that come with them," Carol Kline told the Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association earlier this year.

The tree program they started is now one of the causes the 27th Annual Candlelight Tour of Homes supports. The tour runs Sunday, December 6, from 3 to 8 p.m. It draws ticket holders onto the brick streets for six decorated houses, live music and trolley rides. When they look up, they see a canopy that neighbors planted, and the tour's ticket sales are one of the ways it gets replanted. HONNA's announcement says proceeds go toward replenishing the Old Northeast's tree canopy and toward the St. Pete Free Clinic.

The program the tickets feed

For about ten years, HONNA and neighbors have planted more than 200 trees on the neighborhood's rights-of-way. Three residents started the program: Carol and Burt Kline and former HONNA board member Robin Reed. The trio planted more than 130 of those trees while they led it.

The program now has a name, Branching Out, and a broader goal. Under chairperson Monique Kramer, it is taking inventory of the trees along the rights-of-way. It is also adding more species to a canopy built largely around live oaks, so the neighborhood isn't relying so heavily on one kind of tree.

Here's what a single planting includes. HONNA members can choose from seven native species picked to fit wide or narrow rights-of-way. A household that signs up as a "Canopy Champion" gets the tree planted, mulched and staked, plus a watering bag and care instructions. HONNA puts the value of that package at $375 per tree. A general admission tour ticket costs $40, and HONNA members pay $35. Only part of each ticket goes to the trees, so one planted tree is worth about nine full tickets. That's why the tour has to draw a crowd every year to keep the planting going.

Why replanting matters more after 2024

The 2024 hurricanes hit the neighborhood's trees directly. The Northeast Journal's November/December 2024 issue reported that Milton destroyed or badly damaged many large live oaks and smaller street trees in the area. It also reported that some young trees planted through HONNA's replenishment program were pushed over with their roots exposed.

The best available measure of the loss covers the whole city. The Tampa Bay Times reported in April 2026 that by January 2025 about 6% of St. Petersburg's trees had been felled. Average canopy coverage dropped from nearly 29% around April 2024 to about 27%, against a citywide goal of 30% set in 2022. Since the storms, the city's sustainability office has given away about 3,200 trees and planted another 1,049. The Times reported that the city wants to direct those programs toward the districts with the least canopy.

So the city's replanting goes first to the parts of town that need it most, and the Old Northeast does much of its own. That is the work the Candlelight Tour pays for, and the reason HONNA is choosing species that can handle storms.

The first tour without Robin Reed

This is the first Candlelight Tour since Robin Reed died on March 24, 2026. She had lived in the Old Northeast for 25 years, according to her Tampa Bay Times obituary.

Her neighborhood work went well beyond trees. The Northeast Journal's May/June 2026 issue lists her roles:

• She sat on HONNA's board and chaired its Preservation Committee.
• She served two terms on the city's Community Preservation Commission.
• She led the Old Northeast's National Register effort.
• She was president of Preserve the 'Burg.

The St. Pete Catalyst reported that she helped revive Sunken Gardens and its flamingo flock. It also reported that she and her husband, Joe, were key funders of the Centennial Sundial in Flora Wylie Park, which was dedicated in November 2010. In a HONNA remembrance, neighbor Rick Carson said her building-code expertise and leadership "spared our neighborhood from countless 'could-have-been' that we'd be living with and regretting to this day."

City Council honored her with a resolution. Council Chair Lisset Hanewicz read the official tribute at the May memorial. The Northeast Journal's July/August 2026 issue reported that HONNA set aside $5,000 for an interactive display in her honor at the Sunken Gardens flamingo habitat.

Reed has several memorials around the city, but the street trees are the one that keeps growing, and the money raised on December 6 goes toward the next round of planting.

How the evening works

Check-in is at Westminster Palms, 939 Beach Drive NE, on the bayfront end of the neighborhood. The Hospitality Station, with food and drinks for purchase, is at Granada Terrace. Perry Snell platted Granada Terrace in 1924 as a Spanish-themed subdivision with curving streets and round or oval green spaces, according to the neighborhood's National Register nomination. Preserve the 'Burg describes its park as a Mediterranean-style plaza and fountain that was designed as the subdivision's showpiece.

HONNA says the tour regularly sells out. HONNA Board President Nick Bell called this year's six homes "easily the most impressive lineup I've had the pleasure of working with in my six years on the board."

Getting a tree for your own right-of-way

If you have an empty stretch of right-of-way in front of your house, you can get a tree from the same program the tour supports:

1. Join HONNA. Free trees go to association members.
2. Email Monique Kramer at [email protected] to apply.
3. Pick one of the seven native species that fits your space.
4. If you sign up as a Canopy Champion, HONNA plants, mulches and stakes the tree and leaves you a watering bag and care instructions.

Carol Kline has said the tree needs regular care for about the first year. Trees on city land fall under the city's urban forestry program, which takes neighborhood planting questions at [email protected].

The rest of December on the neighborhood's edge

The Candlelight Tour is the one holiday event held on the neighborhood's interior streets. The city's events are on the waterfront at the neighborhood's edge. The 98th Annual Santa Parade on Saturday, November 28, at 6:30 p.m. ends with the tree lighting at North Straub Park. Waterfront holiday light displays stay up through January 1. On Saturday, December 12, the Downtown St. Pete Lighted Christmas Boat Parade leaves the St. Pete Municipal Marina at 6:30 p.m. The listed viewing spots include the Vinoy yacht basin, North Shore Park and Flora Wylie Park. If you watch from Flora Wylie Park, you'll be next to the Centennial Sundial that Robin Reed helped fund.

If you're touring the Old Northeast on December 6, or thinking about planting a tree of your own, I'd be glad to talk about the streets behind the homes on the tour and how the neighborhood's work shapes them. Homes by Nanette has been part of these neighborhoods for 24 years. Let's Connect.