EASTPORT – Six of the city’s historic homes will be open for holiday tours on Sunday, Dec. 15, as part of a Tides Institute fund-raiser to purchase a 19th century oil painting of Passamaquoddy Bay.

Hugh French, director of the institute, said “View of Passamaquoddy Bay” is one of four virtually identical scenes of the bay by French artist Victor DeGrailly.

One painting is the property of the White House, where it hung in the Oval Office during the terms of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Another rendition is at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland and a third is at the Portland Museum of Art.

The institute has entered into an agreement to purchase the fourth for $25,000 from a gallery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

“This is the single most important painting relating to the Passamaquoddy Bay area,” French said.

“View of Passamaquoddy Bay” will be on display on Dec. 15 during the Silver Tea that will follow the house tour at Tides Institute headquarters in the former Eastport Savings Bank.

Once renovations on the 1887 bank building are completed, the institute will be home to an art exhibition, a research library, a photo laboratory, printmaking studio, and an archive of historical and contemporary photographs of the region.

The building also will house a wide array of computer technology, digital imaging and audio editing equipment, graphic design and book production, and Web servers.

Tides Institute intends to use its new headquarters to launch educational programs to reach the Quoddy region and the rest of the world, according to its Web site.

French said the institute was created a little more than a year ago as an outgrowth of The Quoddy Tides Foundation. The foundation to encourage marine research was started in 1974 by French’s mother, Winifred French, the editor and publisher of the Quoddy Tides who died in 1995.

The purpose of Tides Foundation is to provide access to architecture, art and history resources to people throughout the Quoddy region, French said.

The Dec. 15 holiday tour takes place the weekend of Eastport’s Festival of Lights celebration. Pictures of the homes that are part of the tour can be viewed on the institute Web site at www.tidesinstitute.org.

The institute will sponsor a luncheon before the tour from noon to 2 p.m. at the Episcopal Church Institute on High Street. The tour will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. and maps will be provided. The Silver Tea will be held at Tides Institute headquarters from 3 to 5 p.m.

The luncheon costs $10 and the deadline for reservations is Dec. 9. Tickets for the tour and Silver Tea are $15 a person.

For more information or to purchase a ticket, contact Tides Institute at 853-4047.