An Impressive Bed and Breakfast Guest Register
June 6, 2008 – 4:16 pmWith its private, mountain location and gracious hospitality its no wonder that the Gold Mountain Manor in Big Bear, Calif., has been the choice of many a celebrity. In fact, Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard, chose the romantic bed and breakfast for their honeymoon spot.
History and hospitality are what sets bed and breakfast inns apart from the average cookie-cutter hotel or motel. That history often includes the many influential and important guests that have stayed at the inn. After all, many of us would be understandably in awe to have an innkeeper explain that presidents and award-winning writers stayed in the same rooms as we do today.
At the John Rutledge House Inn in Charleston, S.C., you could hardly find a more impressive guest list. The inn’s namesake not only signed the Declaration of Independence and helped write the Constitution, but served as South Carolina’s first governor and later a Supreme Court Justice. Even more impressive, first drafts of the Constitution were written in the gracious home. And, of course, George Washington was once guest. Add to that stunning, period dcor and a restaurant with a four-diamond rating, and it all adds up to an incredible historic getaway.
Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt both enjoyed a stayed at the Vichy Hot Springs Resort & Inn in Ukiah, Calif. The guest list also boasts famed writers such a Robert Lewis Stevenson, Mark Twain and Jack London. Today’s guests stay in newer lodging, but can still soak in the same soothing mineral waters as presidents, writers and other famous folk have enjoy for more than 150 years.
Hacienda del Sol, an 1810 adobe home outside of Taos, N.M. has a rich and varied history. It once catered to young girls as a college preparatory school, with such notable surnames as Vanderbilt and Pillsbury. In the 1920s, owner Mable Dodge Luhan, a famous patron of the arts, hosted such notable guests as D.H. Lawrence and Georgia O’Keefe. In the late 1940s, Hacienda del Sol opened as a guest ranch and catered to such celebrities as Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and John Wayne.
Several presidents have stayed at The Colonel Taylor Inn B&B and Gift Shop in Cambridge, Ohio. Among them was one of Colonel Joseph Taylor’s personal friends, William McKinley. James Garfield and Rutherford Hayes also are said to have visited the home. Colonel Taylor is an interesting historic figure. During the Civil War, he served in the Battle of Fredericksburg and is said to have advised General Burnside against the attack on General Lee. As it turned out , the battle was one of the Union’s most tragic defeats. After serving his country as a soldier and officer, Colonel Taylor also served four terms as a congressman.
Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were among the guests at The General Lewis, an early 19th-century bed and breakfast in Lewisburg, W.V. An actual 19th-century stagecoach rests on the property, once used to transport guests along the Kanawha Turnpike and to the local hot springs.
Many of these historic hotels, bed & breakfasts and country inns would be worthy of interest and historic recognition even without the famous guests. But it’s always nice for travelers to reminisce their journeys with the knowledge that George Washington did indeed once sleep here.
Tags: Travel and Leisure
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