HOT SPRINGS — Make sure to add The Gables Inn Bed & Breakfast on your list of new places to stay the next time you visit Hot Springs.
As you get to know Judy and David Peters, who manage the oldest such establishment under continuous ownership, you may be pleased to find out they're both active, practicing Catholics at St. John Church in the Spa City. Both are converts to the faith — David a generation ago and Judy within the last two years — and they're on fire with their love of the Catholic Church.
"It's just the feeling," Judy said. "It's just knowing that this is the Church that Jesus founded. Every other church I went to was 'It was started in the 1800s or 'It was started here.' This is the church that Jesus started."
Their passion for the faith has poured out in their management of a 1905 Victorian mansion that they bought 16 years ago from the second owner. The house has a fascinating history of having been built on that location in 1904. The Great Fire of 1905 consumed the house and a photo in the lobby shows their burned out block with their house clearly missing. The house owners, the Sammons family, rebuilt the exact same house in that location. They were known for a large mercantile in town — kind of the Wal-Mart of its time. Their daughter, Gladys Sammons, lived in the house until 1991.
David said with a grin that the house has needed a fair amount of upkeep. "The good thing is she didn't do anything to the house. The bad thing is she didn't do anything to the house," he said.
Expect to walk into 1905 from the first sight of the house, with shrubs neatly trimmed and a very inviting porch with wicker lounge chairs. Inside, a sweeping staircase greets guests to the inn. To the right is an elegant living room and dining room. Upstairs, four rooms of two with king-size beds and two with queen-size beds await visitors. There is a snack shop with glasses and juice. Free videos are available for use of patrons. One suite even has its own porch.
One room is the Governor's Room. The Sylvia Room is named after Judy's mother. The Lillian Room after David's mother. The Sunshine Room is named after Judy's nickname.
"A lot of people say it's like staying in a museum …" David said.
"That you can touch," Judy added.
They also cannot rave enough about the location of the establishment. It is four blocks from all the festivals and events of downtown Hot Springs. They have arrangements so that visitors may use the Quapaw or Buckstaff bath houses. Package deals are available for anniversaries, birthdays, honeymoons and spa experiences.
"This is the great thing about Hot Springs," David said. "Hot Springs lends itself to be a year-round tourist destination."
They also cater to prospective grooms who want to send engagement rings ahead of time for the right moment to pop the question. Several stories come to mind about their visitors who have traveled to Hot Springs from as far away as Australia, Canada, England, India, Japan and Mexico.
"This particular couple comes every year for the Miss Arkansas Pageant and they come every December just to get away for the holidays," said Judy, 48, a native of Bearden.
Judy spent a career in the Air Force Reserves and David in the retail sector before they started the bed and breakfast in Hot Springs.
"We've both worked for retail. We've both worked with people so this was a natural transition from the corporate world," said David, 54, a native of Amarillo, Texas.
The balance of faith and business is fairly easy for them. There is ample time to attend Mass on Saturdays, when they have less interaction with the visitors of their inn. But their religious life in the parish goes far beyond Mass. Judy is the sacristan at St. John. David works on the Cavalry Cemetery board and also with the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
David's conversion to Catholicism several years ago in Amarillo was partly influenced by a pastor who made an impression on him as being a genuinely nice man. He also reflected that the Church offers the same teachings whether in Arkansas or California or some other state.
"It's so strange for us to hear 'We're shopping around for the church we want,'" he said.
But after Mass or work with people in need of emergency help, it's back to the Victorian bed and breakfast that they both love so much.
Judy said, "He's the cook and he's the plumber and he's the maintenance man and he's the errand boy."
David said, "She's the hostess, we split rooms to clean and she does reservations."
For information
The Gables Inn Bed & Breakfast
318 Quapaw Avenue
Hot Springs, AR 71901
(800) 625-7576
www.gogables.com
