These radically renovated inns offer
modern creature comforts without
sacrificing character, history or style.
By Sarah Firshein

The back roads and byways of Bucks County are home to the darndest design — hiding out in antiques troves, woven into the décor of mom-and-pop shops, tucked into the trimmings in restaurants that have been serving locals for ages. Its rolling hillside and picture-pretty towns are quite the sight for visitors whose eyes may be sore from more sleekly adorned destinations dotting the East Coast.
The region’s boutique inns are no exception. Many of them, hailing from the 18th and 19th centuries, sport original railings, balusters, interior paneling and floor plans. And, most have been recently renovated or restored, offering modern comforts and aesthetic updates while still maintaining their characteristic period details. Here, we profile a few of the more extraordinary makeovers.

A tear-jerking revival
The story of Pineapple Hill B&B Inn, in New Hope, a colonial manor built in 1790, proves that the old adage still holds true: Mother knows best. When owner Kathryn Triolo’s mom came to check out the place after Triolo and her husband, Charles, purchased it, she burst into tears. The property, left in disrepair by the previous owners, had been abandoned for some time before Triolo came along 15 years ago. The roof was caving in, a section of the back exterior wall was entirely gone — and, Triolo says, the inside was worse, with electrical outlets that had been stripped of their faceplates and doors without hardware. “We had our work cut out for us,” Triolo says. “But we didn’t want to be locked into restoring a completely colonial structure that it once was. Instead, we played with Victorian and Greek Revival additions and went from there.” The Triolos doubled the size of the once-shoddy, four-room, shared-bath bed and breakfast, turning it into a nine-room, private-bath structure. Updates included a new gas-burning fireplace, cable TV, private phone lines and wireless Internet. The Triolos also took great pains to preserve the place’s original woodwork.“The style is ours, comfortable and casual,” Triolo says. “There’s not too much of any one thing, and it’s certainly not a place where guests are afraid to touch anything.”
•Pineapple Hill B&B Inn, 1324 River Road, New Hope; 215-862-1790;
www.pineapplehill.com

Flourishing under a visionary
When Charles Briggs, the co-owner of Bridgeton House, came across three boarded-up apartments 28 years ago, he had the vision and foresight to imagine the site’s true potential. And his wife, Bea, knew to trust him. “He can see things in their final state,” she says. “I am not that good, but I knew he was right.”
The property’s location, right on the river in Upper Black Eddy, was a major selling point. But it had lived its first life as a private residence, and then as a general store, a real estate office, a pool hall and an apartment complex. The renovations along the way produced a homely mess of linoleum and plywood. The Briggs, preservationists who love interior and architectural design, took to renovating as one might peel an onion, carefully pulling back layer after layer until 19th-century details revealed themselves — vintage fireplaces, elegant floorboards, original trim and period-style doors. The couple added to the old bones with a full-scale overhaul, replacing all the plumbing, installing French doors, balconies and porches, dividing the space into guest rooms with en suite bathrooms and rewiring the electricity. In 1991, the Briggses purchased the adjacent property and expanded their river frontage. And because the property needed a new roof, Charles — ever the visionary — “said in good conscious he couldn’t replace the roof without adding a third floor,” Bea says. “So, that was in 1998, and the penthouse was born.” “We are not frilly Victorian, or Colonial or ‘hotel slick,’ ” Bea says. “Each room is done in an artistic style, with comfort as a guide.”
•Bridgeton House, 1525 River Road, Upper Black Eddy; 610-982-5856;
www.bridgetonhouse.com

Crisis averted
Folklore and legend are steeped into the history of the Black Bass Hotel, in Lumberville, said to have been built in the 1740s. Lore has it that it has, over its years, served as a refuge for river travelers and traders. George Washington is rumored to have been turned away from the inn — the innkeeper at the time was loyal to the Brits. Flash forward to 2008, when Jack Thompson purchased the inn at auction. The state of the property was poor. “One building inspector referred to the Black Bass as being ‘in imminent danger of catastrophic structural failure,’ ” says Laura Krein, the hotel’s sales and marketing manager. “No meaningful upkeep had been done over the previous decades.” Case in point: a basement beam meant to support the entire structure was seriously cracked. Thompson quickly replaced it with a sturdy new steel beam.
The building was charming but uncomfortable: no air conditioning, a small, hot kitchen and musty guest rooms with tilted floors and lumpy beds. “Literally everything in the building needed a good cleaning up, from the walls to the floors to the furniture,” Krein says. Ten guest rooms, eight of which had shared bathrooms, were transformed into eight restored guest suites, each with private baths. A new eating/cooling system was installed, all the windows were replaced and all the artwork was restored. Throughout the overhaul, the team took pains to maintain the inn’s historical integrity; it has just been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “One of the highest compliments that we hear over and over is that it’s wonderful that it’s still the Bass, yet it’s so much better,” Krein says.
•Black Bass Hotel, 3774 River Road, Lumberville;
215-297-9260; www.blackbasshotel.com

Opening the door to karma
Set on 10 acres of preserved farmland high above the Delaware River, surrounded by a 300-acre bucolic expanse, the Woolverton Inn, in Stockton, NJ, wasn’t always the upscale bed and breakfast it is today. In fact, says co-owner Carolyn McGavin, a few sets of recent renovations brought the place up to its current condition.  When McGavin purchased the property in 1999, along with business partner Bob Haas, the previous owners had already completed a solid series of updates that included private en suite bathrooms for each guest room. “The house was in very good shape, but it only had 10 rooms, and it didn’t have the amenities we wanted to provide for our guests — whirlpool tubs and fireplaces, etc.,” McGavin says.
In 2000, she and Haas focused their efforts on the 1860 manor house, turning the 10-room structure into an eight-room one by conjoining certain guest rooms. They also created an outdoor sitting area and garden. A year later, a second round of renovations produced a handful of cottages, all varying in décor. All have outdoor sitting areas; two have enclosed screen porches. “We wanted to keep the feeling of a country inn,” she says. “So when we built the cottages, we designed them to look like ‘out buildings’ that had been renovated.” In 2003, the final renovations were completed in the main house: they installed two-person whirlpool tubs and steam showers, moved or erected walls to create flow and added fireplaces to the third-floor guest rooms. The recent improvements have yielded just the results the owners had hoped for. “Our guests are first impressed with the country setting and the sheep and then they feel the good karma that the inn exudes when they walk through the door,” McGavin concludes.
•Woolverton Inn, 6 Woolverton Road, Stockton, NJ; 609-397-0802;
www.woolvertoninn.com

1. The recent improvements have yielded just the results the owners had hoped for.

   Posted by San Diego Roofers | July 28, 2010, 9:31 am