bed and Breakfast inns

An Historic Perspective.

A Different kind of Short Break..........

        Many travellers these days want to stay in a place of accommodation that takes them away from the ordinary, a place where they might gain something from their stay. A place of history can have this effect on people. As said above, bed and breakfast inns are a product of the need for transport, B & B's were essentially a stopover on a long trip. The look and feel of this time is now being reproduced in Bed and Breakfast Inns, and places of history are being turned into Bed and Breakfasts..........

Gingerbread Mansion Inn........

       The Gingerbread Mansion Inn has a vast history behind it. Built in the late 1800's, it was firstly the home of a doctor. He later turned it into the Ferndale General Hospital. After his bankruptcy, there were a number of uses for the Gingerbread Mansion, through the preceding years. In 1920, the hospital reopened again, but after suffering a lack of funding once again, it closed down. After a period surviving as apartments and residences for a number of people, in 1981, the building was bought and was opened as the Gingerbread Mansion Inn as a bed and breakfast in 1983.

          It is this kind of history that gives people a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy. The Gingerbread Mansion has held so many memories and facets of time, in the last 100 years, that people feel compelled to stay there, as if they can experience it for themselves. And in a way they can...........the Gingerbread Mansion Inn still has the look as if it has stepped out of the pages of time. This is the essence that Ken Torbet, the owner, was probably looking for.

The picture on the left is of the Gingerbread Mansion Inn, when it was previously the Ferndale Hospital. On the right, is how the Gingerbread Mansion looks today. The changes are minimal. The style of the Gingerbread Mansion Inn is a mix of Queen Anne and Eastlake style, with English Garden surroundings, though it is situated in North California.