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Original Ownership
The history of our North Carolina bed and breakfast inn begins in 1907 when David Latourette Jackson, a businessman who owned the Euneeda Bakery and Dairy restaurant, purchased "Lot #4 and a portion of Lot #3" on what had been called Iola Circle and was changed to Cumberland Circle. Those land tracts are where the house at 46 Cumberland Circle, called "Jackson-Peyton House" on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, also known as Abbington Green Bed & Breakfast Inn, now stands.
Architect Richard Sharp Smith was engaged to draw up plans for a substantial home for Mr. Jackson and his wife. Richard Sharp Smith had been the Supervising Architect under Richard Morris Hunt while Biltmore Estate was being constructed for George Vanderbilt from 1890-1895. We have been fortunate to be visited by one of Mr. Jackson's granddaughters who shared some photos of her father as a young boy less than 10 years old that were taken outdoors with this house in the background.
A complete set of floor plans for the house comprising each floor as well as front, side, and rear elevation drawings, all signed by Mr. Smith, were rediscovered at the Historic Archives at the Asheville City Hall in early1994. This discovery was made about four months after I had completed the total renovation of the house.
Research has revealed that the house was purchased by Mr. Wythe Peyton in 1921. Mr. Peyton had been one of North Carolina's first highway engineers. He later became Post Master of Asheville. The Peytons raised four sons while living here. Mr. Peyton was also a prominent member of the Men's Garden Club of Asheville and was known for prize fruits and vegetables from the extensive gardens that were on the property at the time. Mr. Peyton died in 1956 and his widow held the property into the 1960s.
Owned by an architect from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, and later by another landlord, the house became a "group style" rental property. It was occupied by people who shared the kitchen and living room, and lived in all the other rooms and in the "garage apartment" in the rear.
I purchased the property in early 1993 with the intention to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Work began in May, 1993 and our first guest checked in on October 1st, 1993. I believe we must have set a "land speed record", completely renovating the 6300 sq. foot house in only 4 1/2 months!
Abbington Green was the tenth bed & breakfast to open its doors in the Montford Historic District. Currently there are 11 licensed bed & breakfast Inns in Montford. Among the innkeepers, I have been here the longest!
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