In January 2005, we purchased the historic Purcell-Killingsworth Home, which over the last 60 years was used as a private residence. Our heart’s desire was to create a Christian bed and breakfast that would glorify the Lord, be a place of refuge, comfort, rest, and renewal for those in full-time ministry, and provide a warm welcome to all who would come to stay.
Thus began an almost year-long project of renovation of a home that had not seen major improvements since the late 1940s. Wonderful friends and family came to help, seeing the vision of our dream and the possibilities and opportunities for ministry.
Ray and Juanice Harrison spent countless hours cleaning, dusting, priming, and painting in the Garden Path Inn. As a gift to us, they painted the dining room, now named the Harrison Room, a beautiful dark red. After six coats of paint, they finally were able to call it finished.
Martha Nell Pybus came along and asked to help somehow with this home. After years of cabinet making courses, she became the cabinet contractor for the prep kitchen and the cooking kitchen. Martha Nell was in her seventies when she began this project and worked circles around us, often having projects finished before we were ready for them. The projects included an island for the prep kitchen and new cabinet doors, an oven cabinet custom built to hold two ovens, a drawer, and overhead cabinet, and a cook top command center. The kitchen is now called Martha’s Kitchen, after Martha Nell, and bears a plaque to remind us, and all who see it, of the precious gift of her time and talents.
After almost a year of hard work, and a lot of sweat and tears, the Garden Path Inn opened for business in December 2005.
Gary and Diane Norman, Innkeepers
Garden Path Inn Bed & Breakfast
Jer. 29: 11 |
