Arrowhead Inn's Log Cabin and Garden Cottage
There is a garden cottage on the grounds and a refurbished log cabin, complete with loft bedroom. |
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By Jack Kneece
The Arrowhead Inn is a great place to get away without really getting too far away.
Situated on the northern edge of Durham, N.C. at 106 Mason Road at its intersection with 501 Highway North, the bed and breakfast and its quiet, bucolic charm seem a thousand miles away from city traffic once you enter its grounds. Yet you are just a few minutes’ drive to Duke University and all that Durham as to offer. A few minutes more and you are in Chapel Hill or Raleigh.
The 501 North exit off Interstate 85 is the quickest way for most travelers to slip into this time machine and escape the fast pace of modern life.
The Arrowhead Inn occupies six acres of lawns and gardens. It has several magnolia and pecan trees on its fragrant grounds, along with velvet pansies and hibiscus. Built in 1775 as a plantation home by the John Lipscomb family, the B&B has been painstakingly renovated, starting in 1998, with much of the work hands-on, sweat equity by owners Phil and Gloria Teber. Phil is an excellent carpenter and obviously takes pride in his work. Much of the cabinetry, wainscoting and wood trim work in and around the Inn is his work.
His work is so craftsmanlike, that it is virtually impossible to discern his work from the original workmanship of the home.
 The Arrowhead Inn is a member of the Select Registry and has been awarded recognition by the Durham Historic Preservation Society. It also was featured in Southern Living.
The Arrowhead Inn, the only AAA-rated Four Diamond bed and breakfast in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, has nine high-ceilinged, elegantly furnished rooms or cottages. There is a garden cottage on the grounds and a refurbished log cabin, complete with loft bedroom. Both offer more privacy than a room in the main house. An added bonus is the view of the ante-bellum plantation home.
There are two-person whirlpool baths in five of the rooms, including the log cabin, which also has a steam shower in a bath flooded with light through glass blocks installed by Phil Teber.
There are wood-burning or gas fireplaces in all rooms, cable TV/video/CD in all rooms; phone and data ports in each room. Wireless broadband Internet access is available. The log cabin also is handicapped accessible.
Rates include a full gourmet breakfast and late afternoon refreshments. Wine and beer are available on request.
Although the furnishings appear to be antiques, the Tebers say that most are modern reproductions of antiques, even down to stressed wood here and there with a few dents. The four-poster beds in most rooms probably would pass as antiques to all but veteran antique dealers. The beds and tables are handcarved from fine woods.
Taber has worked his craftsmanship in many of the rooms, including trim work and the wood trim around a fireplace, including dentel molding in one room. He also has done much work in the log cabin, which was formerly a tobacco barn.
The log cabin is furnished with a love seat, wall tapestry, large television set hidden in an armoire on the first floor and a decorative basket on the fireplace mantel. Although its square footage is small, somehow because of the open loft, it seems more spacious and even soaring because of the steep pitch of the roof. It also has a microwave oven and small refrigerator with complimentary bottled water.
Two bathrobes and a full complement of Provence toiletries, a hairdryer and other bath conveniences are provided.
A recent visitor enjoyed a breakfast of fresh strawberries, coffee and a banana stuffed French toast served on fine china. Breakfast is served 8 a.m.-9 a.m. on weekends and holidays, and 7:30 a.m.-8:30 a.m. on week days.
There also are fine wines with afternoon refreshments.
The inn is a classic looking Southern mansion in the plantation style with four large columns supporting a stately portico. A curved gravel drive brings guests to check in, although long-term parking is on the left side out of view.
The grave of Susan Lipscomb, wife of the builder and plantation owner, John, is in the garden under a pale, veined marble slab. You can understand John's affection for his wife because he had inscribed into the stone: "Susan, 31 years, 5 months, and five days." She died in childbirth. Phil Teber says people have heard her speaking and felt her presence with a sudden spot of cold air in the main house. But he said it is a friendly aura that always leaves those who experience her ghost with a good, uplifted feeling.
“Guest feel it upstairs, too," said Phil Teber. "It only lasts a few seconds, and it's always followed by a wonderful feeling of calm."
The Lipscomb family bought the property and 2,000 surrounding acres from Joseph Britain in 1775. Slaves or their offspring worked the surrounding cotton and tobacco fields for 100 years after this, spanning the Civil War and afterwards.
North Carolina historians say the site of the plantation was a well-known resting stop for Waxhaw, Tuscarora and Occoneechee Indians and later early pioneers on a trail that began in Virginia and wound its way west to the Great Smoky Mountains.
Here is a thumbnail description of each room and its current rate, which is subject to change:
 --Carolina Log Cabin, $295, includes a wood-burning fireplace, a double whirlpool bath, a glass-enclosed steam shower for two, a private porch with rocking chairs.
--Garden Cottage, $265, two-person steam shower, oversized whirlpool bath for two; gas fireplace; five outside windows overlooking the gardens; a four-poster cherry queen-sized bed; spacious veranda with swing and inside sitting area with an Oriental rug. (pictured to the left)
--Britain Room, $245; An airy, spacious room featuring a double spa whirlpool tub, a wood-burning fireplace; a king-sized, four-poster bed, oriental rug, refrigerator. The north and south facing windows and Far Eastern decor provide a restful atmosphere. The bath includes an over-sized shower.
--Duke Suite, $220; An elegant suite featuring a rich Oriental rug, a sitting room with a gas fireplace, loveseat, and wing chair. French doors open to a sleeping room with a stately mahogany queen-sized bed. The luxury bath has a two person whirlpool and separate shower. (pictured below)
 --Benson Room, $200; Decorated with a blue floral wall covering, it includes a queen-sized four-poster bed on an Oriental rug in front of a gas fireplace. A double spa whirlpool tub with a rain-forest style shower is included.
--Pyne Suite, $180: A Williamsburg style sitting room with high ceiling features a gas fireplace, an Oriental rug, loveseat and wing chair. The sleeping room has a queen-sized, canopied plantation bed. It also has a large private bathroom and double sinks and a water closet.
--Lipscomb Room, $150: A sunny room with a Williamsburg floral wall covering, queen-sized canopy bed, a gas fireplace, private bath with double sinks.
--Montclair Room, $145: A soft blue toile room with high ceilings offers a king or twin bed arrangement, gas fireplace and private bath with shower.
--Mason Room, $130; An intimate room featuring deep burgundy wall coverings, a queen-sized bed, with soft quilts, and a gas fireplace, cozy bath and shower.
The Inn accepts all major credit cards and personal checks. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the inn.
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