Marshall House Inn new owner to move away from bed and breakfast model

MARSHALL - The Marshall House Inn will move away from the bed and breakfast model it has long operated under, according to new owner Lindy Paz.

Paz and her husband Daniel, both 35, bought the six-bedroom historical home June 8 from John and Kirstin Davis.

According to Paz, she hopes for the inn to be operational by the middle of July.

"My goal for the event piece is to first focus on the short-term rentals," Paz said. "My goal is really to (figure out a balance between) things where I can learn more about how that model integrates into the property and how it integrates into the community.

"I love bringing people together and thinking about those things of what we can do to make people feel more comfortable," she said.

History

The home was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1989, according to the inn's website.

The Marshall House Inn was built as a private residence by James H. White for his new wife Annie Mae White in 1903. White was a county sheriff, as well as a successful local businessman. He hired Richard Sharp Smith, who had been the supervising architect of the Biltmore Estate, to design his new house.

In 1940, James and Bessie Penland purchased the house and opened it up as the Balsam Tourist Home. The Penland family was involved with several businesses in town, including Penland & Son's Department Store, located on Main Street in downtown Marshall.

The Penland family continued to run the Balsam Tourist Home until 1988, when it was sold to Ruth Dunkinson and James Boylan, who ran it as the Marshall House Bed and Breakfast.

In 2021, Dunkinson published her memoir, which details in part her time as the inn owner.

"Having a historical property that can house this many people, I think it differentiates it," Paz said. "Just emotionally too, it feels different. This was a property that was already set up for that."

Business model plans

While former owners John and Kerstin Davis used the bed and breakfast model for the spot after buying it from Dunkinson in 2016, Paz said she has plans to utilize the Inn for more large family-oriented gatherings, renting out the whole inn for short-term visits.

"Particularly given my interest in doing more intimate 50-person weddings, and early end times, those are things that will appeal to the clientele that I'm looking for that are interested in a historical nature property," Paz said.

Paz, originally from Michigan, said she felt another added bonus of buying the inn was that it could host her big family.

"I've had some properties where I was potentially more wedding-focused, and then as it kind of evolved, and I also thought about the work-life balance, I thought having a house that can hold my huge family," she said. "I have a huge family, and for my wedding, or some other weddings that I've helped plan - people doing really large gathering spaces where their whole family can stay in the same place, it really makes it, I think, a lot more special than one night at some strange hotel, where someone else plans it and it's not intimate. So, something that you can do to have it be where everyone is together for several days leading up to it makes it much more intimate."

Paz, who studied hospitality at Cornell, worked in hotels during her high school years in Michigan. After graduating from college, she did event planning and catering in Miami, where she met her husband, Daniel.

"Four or five years after graduation, my work evolved more into doing consulting for hotel operations," Paz said, adding that she has worked professionally in that role for the last six years.

The new owner is excited about the idea of being on the other side of the business model again, she said.

"I'm very into interacting with guests, whereas (working) hotel openings is multiple steps removed from that," she said. "It's exciting. More than anything, I think the pandemic reinforced a fear of 'If this market is going down, I don't want to have to leave the area.' With this, I'm building something for myself. I like the idea of being a part of the community - living here and not just working remotely."

Paz said she began the process of finding a business space in October.

In light of the Madison County Board of Commissioners' upcoming meeting in which it will decide whether to implement a moratorium on event venues after receiving an influx of complaints from residents, the new Marshall House Inn owner said she has been mindful of being a good neighbor throughout the process.

"Noise around here doesn't work the way it's going to be sometimes, and that was truly a consideration when I looked at a place that was just 4-5 minutes from here. I love the historical aspects of the home. I'm not going to be like, 'Hey, you want to party in Asheville? Don't do that, come here.' I have no interest in that. You need to be very careful with vetting, because you need to be respectful to your neighbors, and also the space. I used to catering events in Miami, so I know what partiers do to a property. I don't have any interest in that happening here."

According to Paz, she applied for and received a special use permit to operate the house as a hotel/motel/inn.

Paz foresees building her clientele in phases, she said.

"There are almost two pieces to it - there is the short-term rental aspect of it, and the wedding aspect of it, which I don't expect to happen right away," Paz said. "I think retreats are certainly a thing. Because of the way the property is set up, where it really has six rooms that have bathroom access, it also works well for people that are doing more of a corporate retreat where they can still have their own separate space, and then come together when they want. From a personal perspective, I love families coming together."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Marshall House Inn new owner to move away from bed and breakfast model