Dave DuBuisson opened the door to find a natty-looking, slightly exasperated man standing on the porch.
“I hear you have a piano,” the stranger said to DuBuisson, the innkeeper. “I’ve just got to play every day. Would you mind if I came in and played for a while?”
DuBuisson, ever hospitable, invited the man in. It being the cocktail hour, a small party ensued among the inn’s guests as the visitor tickled the ivories on the old upright in the cozy parlor. The impromptu singalong was such a hit with the crowd that DuBuisson invited the brazen performer back the next evening for an encore.
It was a charming turn of events that served to explain the growing appeal of bed and breakfasts, where guests mingle with hosts and one another and life just seems to move at a more leisurely pace.
After all, impetuous pianists don’t ring the doorbell at the Holiday Inn.
The B&B experience, which is readily available in particular abundance in Beaufort, has undergone an evolution of sorts in recent years. Once solely a quaint, old-fashioned sojourn for the overtly sociable, a weekend at a B&B is now whatever a guest wants to make it.
The Pecan Tree Inn, which DuBuisson and his wife, Allison, have owned and operated for six years, is one of a dozen B&Bs in Beaufort, a town of about 4,000 people. Many of the town’s B&Bs, including the Pecan Tree Inn, have cable TV, wireless Internet access and other modern amenities that allow visitors to stay connected while getting away.
But the B&B experience, to the uninitiated, is decidedly different from a hotel visit. Guests who feel the urge gather for a group breakfast each morning and often interact in common areas throughout the day. Those who prefer a more private experience can have it, simply by keeping to themselves.
“It’s a totally different feel,” Molly Wood, who owns the Red Dog Inn with her husband, Elwyn, says while sitting on a comfortable sofa in the Red Dog’s living room. “They can come down here and sit down and visit with other guests—or not; if they don’t want to, they don’t.”
DuBuisson, a retired newspaperman with lively blue eyes and a law degree from UNC, agrees.
“I think it’s a more personal kind of atmosphere,” he says. “Some people are really drawn to the communal quality of it. They really enjoy sitting around the breakfast table, meeting new people and so forth. A lot of our folks don’t seem to enjoy that part at all, but they like the quality of the rooms and the antique furnishings and having a homelike atmosphere.”
That atmosphere is as varied as the homes into which innkeepers invite their guests.
NO TWO ALIKE
If variety is the spice of life, then life is good over on Turner Street. There, at Cousins Bed & Breakfast, owners Elmo and Martha Barnes offer their guests an assortment of exotic spices Elmo Barnes has been concocting since his days in the Navy in the 1950s. Racks upon racks of his Satan’s Breath brand spices greet visitors who enter through the 188-year-old home’s back door.
The couple began operating the Jarvis Brown House as a B&B in 1992, welcoming guests from both near—cities like Raleigh, New Bern, Charlotte and Greenville—and far: Australia, England, Germany and Austria, to name a few. “I can’t even name all the places,” Elmo Barnes says, reclining in a wicker chair and surrounded by a tiny jungle of greenery just off the back porch. A sign hangs above him reading, “Free weeds. Pick them all!”
The establishment was opened as a favor to a cousin—hence the name—who bought the house next door and asked the Barneses to operate the B&B until she retired. The cousin decided it wasn’t for her; the current innkeepers, though, took to it.
Elmo Barnes, who was already selling his spices out of the house before they opened, expanded his operation. He went from four spices in 1953 to 148 today, and he sells 18 varieties of homemade sausage in addition to doing all the cooking for the house. Both spouses, who live in the house full-time, tend to the ample garden and make guests feel comfortable in their two bedrooms.
“Bed and breakfast people tend to be much quieter,” Elmo Barnes says as wind chimes jingle softly and a blackbird sips from a nearby birdbath. “They’re really interested in seeing the sights and eating out. And they love to sit on that upstairs balcony and have a little glass of wine.”
Back at the Pecan Tree Inn, Stephanie and Chris Perdue are doing almost exactly that. The Canadian couple, making a trip south to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday, lounge on a balcony overlooking the courtyard behind the Victorian home. Birds chirp through an easy spring breeze as the frequent B&B visitors sip orange cocktails.
“I think it’s the homey feel,” says Stephanie, summing up the appeal of B&Bs. “I think it’s also that the character of the room is different. Every place we’ve been to is different. It gives you a definite feel for the place that you’re staying in.”
Recent research indicates that more and more people are liking that feel. The Professional Association of Innkeepers International reports that nationally, B&B occupancy rose about 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, to 43 percent.
There are about 20,000 licensed properties in the U.S., up from just 1,000 in 1980. Back then, B&Bs served about a million guests; today, they serve about 55 million people per year in what is now a $3.4 billion industry.
The Pecan Tree Inn, which with seven rooms is the largest operating B&B in downtown Beaufort, is a relatively small part of that growth. Its elegantly appointed rooms, with antique furnishings and colorful trimmings, start at $110 per night in the winter and $140 in the summer. And those prices include fresh breakfast, not to mention a taste of the home’s rich history.
The inn was built in 1866 as a Masonic Lodge. In 1895 the Masons sold it to a doctor, who rebuilt it in the Victorian style of the day. It was a family home for decades, with a doctor’s office downstairs and an apartment upstairs. It was then converted into four apartments, which were popular among students and faculty at the Duke Marine Lab. “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met in Beaufort who either lived here or have memories of going to parties here,” Dave DuBuisson says.
In the early 1990s, a couple bought the house and turned it into a B&B. After DuBuisson retired from a 36-year career in newspapers, most recently as an editorial page writer with the Greensboro News & Record, the couple decided to move to Beaufort and buy it.
The home includes two deluxe suites with four-poster, king-size beds and Jacuzzi tubs, and the DuBuissons provide what they describe as a “very ample” continental breakfast. All breads and muffins are made on site, where a master baker keeps heavenly aromas wafting through the air.
The inn, located on Queen Street just a stone’s throw from the waterfront and convenient to a wide array of quirky shops and fine restaurants, serves as an ideal home base for a weekend—or a week or more—of exploring the centuries-old town.
A little farther out, the County Home B&B sits on Highway 101. But as co-owner Nan O’Pray says, “Don’t let our street address fool you.” The inn is only a three-minute drive to Beaufort’s waterfront.
It’s also unlike any other B&B in the area. Before Social Security took the burden of caring for the poor away from counties, the County Home was operated from 1914 to 1943 to care for the indigent and to house the poor, aged and infirm, O’Pray says.
After the building, which is the only B&B (and private home) in Beaufort on the National Register of Historic Places, sat vacant for about 30 years, O’Pray and her husband, Terry O’Pray, bought it, renovated it and opened it as a B&B in 1998.
The inn, surrounded by gardens and shade trees and backed up to a serene cornfield, is laid out like an old motel. Ten private rooms open up to 300-foot front and back porches, and each offers a private entrance and bath, a kitchenette, a small refrigerator and a comfortable sitting area. Amenities like TVs, phones and wireless Internet access allow guests to stay connected to the outside world during a relaxing retreat.
Nan O’Pray predicts B&Bs will continue to hold their own as travelers’ vacation rental options increase. Beachfront condos, after all, seem to pop up like sandcastles these days.
“By offering many different types of rental opportunities, it may bring even more people to our area,” Nan O’Pray says. ”We all have our niche and we all offer something that will appeal to everyone who wants to come to Beaufort.”
And Beaufort, with its rich history and one-of-a-kind shopping and dining options, seems to be its own draw. DuBuisson says part of the appeal of operating a B&B in town is that guests generally entertain themselves. He recalls his own stays in B&Bs around the country and the forced interaction of the standard wine and cheese hour so prevalent at similar establishments.
“It’s terrible wine and not very good cheese, and not a great social occasion either,” DuBuisson says with a laugh. “We’ll supply the wine glasses and the corkscrew and tell our guests where the wine shop is two blocks away, and they’re very happy to take it from there. It may be a little bit self-serving to say that (entertainment) is not something people demand, but in our experience it’s not—at least not here.”
BARK AND BITE
At the Red Dog Inn, tucked away on Pollock Street, many of the guests don’t mind being kept on a tighter leash. The inn, named in honor of three red dogs the Woods owned when they opened three years ago, is described by its proprietors as “upscale dog-friendly.”
Molly Wood estimates that at least 70 percent of her human guests bring their canine companions along, and the inn’s booming business indicates there are more than a few people who like to travel without boarding their pets.
“We love dogs, and because there was no place in town that allowed dogs, that was a niche that needed to be filled,” Wood says. “It’s the best thing we ever did. It’s more work; you’ve got all the dog hair—lots of dog hair. But we’ve never had less than a 100 percent (health) rating. We work hard to keep it clean, and people appreciate that.”
The Red Dog Inn, which is easily identifiable by the bright red ceramic dog that keeps watch on the home’s front stoop, opened as a dog-friendly B&B from the beginning. The inn’s three aptly named rooms are the Salty Dog, the Lucky Dog and the Big Dog Suite, a spacious upstairs section of the house with a bedroom, a sitting room and a gigantic bathroom.
Molly Wood, a retired school teacher from the Piedmont town of Reidsville, says her guests—regardless of the number of legs—have been a pleasure. The inn’s dog-friendliness has generated helpful media attention over the years, and dog-owning guests who have grown tired
of substandard hotel rooms set aside for them keep coming back.
“I’ve never, ever had a problem with a dog—nothing, not one thing,” Wood says before excusing herself to take some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. “Most people that travel with their dogs have good dogs. They don’t want to travel with a pain either. It’s been good for us.”
Alas, the Red Dog’s days are numbered, despite its popularity. Since Elwyn Wood retired from his day job this spring, the Woods have decided to close the inn in the fall. “It may get in the way of life,” Molly Wood says.
And life, after all, can turn in any direction at any time. DuBuisson, who moved to North Carolina from Massachusetts 40 years ago to work at a Winston-Salem paper for what he thought would be three to five years, had every intention of returning north. Now a self-described “loyal Tar Heel,” he’s still here.
DuBuisson serves breakfast five or six days a week and handles some of the maintenance at the Pecan Tree Inn. An avid political observer, he’s getting the itch to write again as election season comes to a boil. He’s kicking around the idea of starting a book project.
For now, like the innkeepers at all of Beaufort’s unique B&Bs, DuBuisson is busy keeping his guests happy. And with so much to do close by, they’re fairly easy to please.
“People like to sit on the porch and rock and sip on a drink,” DuBuisson says. “And the location is a big plus for us because you really can come here and park your car and not get in it again all weekend. For the most part, you can do what you want to do on foot here.”
Or, if you simply must, on a piano bench.