By Tom Crosby
(March 2008)Nearly a century ago, a seven-bedroom, three-story gray stone neo classical revival style home was built in Wilmington, NC for the widow of railroad magnate Preston L. Bridges.
Today, after more than $800,000 in tasteful and historically accurate renovations, it has become the Graystone Inn, a classic bed and breakfast that is the only AAA Four Diamond rated accommodation in Wilmington.
It is located in the heart of the city's massive 240-block National Registry Historic District and within three walking blocks of ten churches or synagogues. Also, three blocks away is the Riverfront, a bustling area of restaurants and shops undergoing a renovation renaissance.
Crepe myrtles, azaleas, ferns, ivy, black-eyed susans and a variety of blooming flowers embrace the small lawn bisected by a stone walkway in front of the home's entrance. The limestone walls are from Indiana, hewn in South Carolina and railroaded to Wilmington for the construction.
Parking is on street and free (although there is a wide driveway that can handle four vehicles on the left). Visitors ring the outside doorbell to be personally let into the small foyer. Guests are provided keys to the outside door.
Four three-story high Corinthian columns beneath a pair of fluttering flags (US and North Carolina) provide the first clue to the turn of the century grandeur and elegance found after passing through the foyer. Footsteps softened by an Oriental rug, the foyer has matching semi circular dressers and umbrella stands with brochures and fresh-cut flowers in brass vases on the facing dressers. Through the foyer's interior door, a hand-carved oak Grand Renaissance style staircase holds center stage as the magnificence of the home's huge grand lobby with its decorative plaster molding and 14-foot high ceiling takes hold. On the right are two rooms - one a sitting room, the other the dining room. On the left is a massive drawing room housing couches, chairs and a finely tuned grand piano. A chest-high desk serves as the check-in desk.
Behind the drawing room is the library with dark mahogany paneling, soft leather chairs, a chess set, games, books and personal items collected by hosts and co-owners Paul and Yolanda Bolda. Atop one ledge is a collection of antique wooden cigarette boxes, fitting for the only room in the house where smoking (cigarettes only) is allowed. Cigar smokers can exit through the library to the veranda or stone patio next to the flowering garden and enjoy a cigar while using the black wrought-iron mesh furniture. With sherry served each evening at 5:30 p.m. and a television for sports events; this is often the social heart for the inn's guests.
The dining room serves as a morning gathering place with breakfast served between 8:30 am and 9 a.m. A huge polished wood rectangular table seats twelve and two small tables for three each. A huge gilded mirror hangs above a sideboard loaded with fruit, coffee cakes, milk, orange juice and cereal. Another sideboard is laden with cups and saucers along with a silver coffee pot and a box full of select teabags.
Yolanda, a career interior designer and a hospitable working host, cooks breakfasts with the same style she used to decorate the house. One of our two meals was a tortilla under scrambled eggs mixed with spring onions topped with an avocado and sour cream, bacon and a sprinkling of cheese.
Paul Bolda, 42, a retired rental car executive, serves breakfast and chats with guests, using his years of customer service to attend to guest questions and needs.
Each of the seven rooms located on the second and third floors (stairway only, no elevator) is uniquely shaped and has been furnished with a distinctive style and color scheme using period furnishings.
The bathrooms are all shaped differently (they were first added in 1972) and most have claw foot tubs with shower. All use brass fixtures and small mosaic tile floors, with each, like the rooms, having a different color scheme. Room carpeting colors are different but have a subtle, yet tasteful leaf pattern that makes the carpet always look like it was just cleaned.
Bathroom amenities include Caswell-Massey conditioning shampoo, sandalwood soap, Tylenol, shower cap and a shoe cloth/shine kit. Antique dressing tables are located in rooms adjacent to the bathroom. In our two-room St. Thomas and Latimer Suite (all but one room is named for what you see out the window), the dressing table contained a television set, modern make-up mirror, an old-fashioned pin cushion, tissues, hand lotion, Q-tips and cotton balls. The bathroom - the only one without a tub - has a Victorian circular brass cage shower that partially surrounds you and sprays water from the brass cage's ribs from knees to chest.
All the rooms have fireplaces with decorative mantles, although the only fireplace that currently works is the wood-burning one in the library. The Boldas are seeking permission to hook up and install gas lines to make all the fireplaces operational.
Antique side tables, coffee tables are all wood surfaces covered with a form-matching glass top to prevent scratching and stains. Beds are also unique, although each having a hard mattress covered with a soft comforter over which bed sheets are placed. Pillows are fluffy, yet firm.
On the second floor public area, a wooden armoire contains a refrigerator containing complimentary sodas and bottled water. A coffee maker and cups help ease morning awakenings. On the third floor, a 2,500-square-foot ballroom for events sports window seats on each side of the fireplace, two Corinthian columns and three arches and a tri-level ceiling reaching 18 feet at the highest point. One of the two third-floor bedrooms also has 18-foot ceilings and once served as home to actor Billy Zane (remember the fiancé in "Titanic"?) during the filming of another movie.
Many celebrities have stayed at the Inn, due to Wilmington's emergence as a major site for movies and local studios; the Inn itself has been in movies such as "Rambling Rose," and "Cat's Eye." It was also in two episodes of Dawson's Creek, the hit television show that is filmed in Wilmington has attracted visitors looking for familiar scenes.
Recently named as one of the 10 most romantic inns in the country, Graystone also has become the site of weddings and other special events.
Kelly McCune and Alan King, a civilian working in personnel for the Army in Fayetteville, had their wedding there in July 2000 - two years after the inn re-opened under the Bolda's ownership. "We wanted a small wedding that would be quaint, intimate and original," said Kelly, " and we wanted it someplace where we could come back and visit, someplace very personal." The first time they visited, "We got a warm feeling when we came in the front door and saw the piano, the decor and then we saw the garden at night," said Kelly. "It was just what we wanted." They found the Inn on the Internet and Bolda proudly states that many guests tell him after staying there that the website does not do the Graystone's charms justice.
There is a small workout gym on the right as you enter the kitchen. Health laws require guests to visit only by appointment because health officials do not want guests to enter the kitchen area unsupervised. The gym includes a mutli-function Universal weightlifting machine, a life cycle and a treadmill.
Special features: Movable waist-high toilet paper racks, Elise (a stuffed statue of a cleaning lady in a lobby window seat), the automatic light that comes on in the closet when the door is opened, a Victorian circular brass cage shower in our bathroom, cushy pillows, a soft comforter underneath the sheet over a hard mattress, Egyptian cotton towels, monogrammed 100% high density cotton robes sold for $85 each, wooden cigarette boxes in the library and the English chess set made of resin, glass doorknobs, and as many as six different free newspapers to choose from at breakfast. (Updated March 2008)
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