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By Sarah Davis
(June 2008) Sunlight leaks through the branches of 75-year-old Norway Spruce trees in front of the AAA-rated Four Diamond Albemarle Inn in Asheville. The Greek Revival home’s four giant white columns attest to the grandeur that was Asheville in the early 1900s.
Surrounded by the trees is an award-winning garden that owners Larry and Cathy Sklar have filled with roses, lilies, hostas, spider plants, cannas, coneflowers and more.
“I designed the garden based on the great gardens of England, but Larry is the master gardener. He makes things grow,” Cathy said while giving a tour of the grounds. On the walk, Larry stopped every few minutes to pluck a small weed he found.
While the grounds please the eye, inside is even grander.
Guests don’t enter up the steps through the massive columns, but through a side entrance with a carport. Stepping inside, guests find an intricately carved, oak staircase on the left. Flooring on the first floor is oak as well.
Fourteen-foot ceilings on the first floor and twelve-foot ceilings on the second give guests a feeling of splendor and space not found in most homes today.
That splendor attracted the Sklars to the inn, as guests, years ago. Both fell in love with the hills of Asheville after being successful attorneys.
“We both were interviewing to join law firms in Asheville and somehow ended up buying the bed and breakfast instead,” said Cathy.
They purchased Albemarle Inn in 1998 and began extensive renovations.
“No floor or wall surface is the same as when we bought it,” Cathy said.
 Their love for the inn is featured in the Oct. 4, 2004 issue of Fortune magazine, which highlights couples who successfully made career changes later in life.
Dr. Carl V. Reynolds built the home in 1907 and later sold it to Grove Park School. Years later, it became the Plonk School for Girls.
Public areas
Straight from the foyer is a main sitting room with antique furniture surrounding a seven-foot marble and brick fireplace topped with an oak mantle.
Some of the furniture has been passed from one property owner to another. Buffet tables and a china cabinet in the dining area (just after the main sitting room) have been in the home since it was a school.
The Veranda
Also on the first floor is the veranda. Leading the way to the veranda, overlooking the gardens, is Cathy’s Grandmother Paula’s portrait.
Each day beginning at 5 p.m., the Sklars and their managers serve light hors d’oeuvres and beverages on the veranda. This provides guests with the opportunity to mingle with others while enjoying the house special Vanilla Berry Tea, served warm in the winter and chilled in summer.
Hors d’oeuvres include warm, carmalized onion tartlets, eggplant tapanade with goat cheese on homemade crostini and a variety of cheeses, crackers and fresh fruit.
 Breakfast
Guests have the choice of enjoying breakfast in the period dining room, next to the original tiger eye oak fireplace, or in the sunroom. The sunroom is a cheery, window- lined room in yellows and whites with white wicker furniture surrounding individual tables set for two or four. Tables are set with fresh linen, gleaming silver and fresh flowers. Soft classical music and the flicker of candlelight set the mood for a perfect beginning to the day.
The inn was recently named “Best Breakfast in the USA” by Arrington’s Inn Traveler and breakfast highlights the stay. The Sklars make it a point to review the guest list to be sure the same breakfast is not served twice to a visitor, and the meal is typically two or three courses.
Breakfast is served between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on off-white Lenox china lined with gold. The meal usually starts with a fresh seasonal fruit course such as peaches served over mango sorbet topped with honey/lemon verbena syrup. The fruit course is then followed by something more substantial such as Chef Tracie’s Belgian waffles with apple-cranberry compote and sausage or Frittata Albemarle, egg with fresh dill, zucchini, grape tomatoes and feta cheese. Dessert courses include apple-raisin scones served with an English lemon jam and Cathy’s mother’s beloved sour cream-raisin muffins hot out of the oven. Many herbal ingredients and tomatoes in meals come from the home garden, just outside the sunroom wind
Guests seeking a more private meal can receive a continental breakfast complete with locally roasted coffee or a choice of teas, fruit dish and home baked tea bread, muffins or biscotti delivered to the room on a handpainted tray.
 The Rooms
Instead of numbers, each of the eleven one-bedroom rooms is given a name, such as the Blue Ridge Room, Vanity Fair or Ribbons and Roses.
Custom-made shower curtains and window treatments accent the themed decor, and plush robes match the room as well. Each room has two fresh roses, two glycerine complexion bars and Gilchrist & Soames foaming bath bar, shampoo/ conditioner and body lotion.
Giant oak pocket doors open to two rooms on the first floor that were formerly parlors. As guests make their way up the stairs, an interior balcony makes for intriguing architecture. Original curved-glass windows and a rounded staircase create a full circle.
The second floor begins with a roomy sitting area with a couch, bookcase containing available books and an antique radio cabinet. This floor was believed to be the lodging floor for the Reynolds family, with servants’ rooms on the third floor.
Three second-floor rooms, Sunrise Suite, Juliet’s Chamber and Vanity Fair, have full canopies and Juliet’s Chamber has a private balcony that has seen its share of wedding proposals.
 “Something like this provides such wonderful romantic opportunities,” Cathy said of the entire bed and breakfast. The future groom often calls ahead to get some suggestions of how the pop the question and “we love being part of the plot.”
Four-foot-wide windows in most rooms provide great views, especially from the Garden Room, which overlooks the gardens.
Rooms are equipped with plenty of sitting space. For example, Vanity Fair includes a love seat, chair, dressing table and dresser.
While third floor rooms don’t have the taller ceilings, two rooms on that floor have an alcove with an extra bed.
Claw-foot tubs are in every room except the Royal Hideaway room, which has a two-person marble whirlpool bath and a glass and brass shower with atmospheric lighting. The Royal Hideaway, on the third floor, typically is considered the honeymoon suite with a marble-topped bureau and nightstand. The antique sleigh bed offers an elegant half-canopy.
Another third-floor room is Bartok’s Retreat, where composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) lived for six months when the inn was a boarding house. During this time, he composed Piano Concerto No. 3, inspired by the birds heard outside his window. A leatherbound album in the room contains various news clippings that the Sklars have collected about Bartok and his stay in the 1940s.
Rooms are equipped with telephones and televisions and wireless internet access. An iron and board will be delivered to your room upon request.
Rates vary in season from $130 for the Shangri-La Room to $350 for the Sunrise Suite. Special packages are available, too. For $70, guests can receive a Romance Package that includes gourmet chocolate truffles, a sparkling beverage and a custom flower arrangement. Or guests can relax with an in-room massage by local spa Sensibilities for $90. The innkeepers are happy to customize a package for guests as well.
Special features: winner of Best Large Flower Garden in Asheville by the Men’s Garden Club and Quality Forward; turndown service each night; armoire with brochures on nearby activities and attractions with a city map; books and games available; tour booklet for self-guided tours in the Grove Park historic area; robes that match room decor; rated Best Breakfast in the USA by Arrington’s Inn Traveler; plenty of sitting room on the veranda or in the garden; beverages and light hors d’oeuvres in the afternoon. (Updated June 2008)
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