Photography By Kirsten Beckerman
Our theory is that if you go to a bed and breakfast, nothing should remind you of home,” says Ruth Cort. Ruth and her husband, Jan, operate Peninsula House, the new kid on a neighborly block of Annapolis’s Eastport section. The updated inn offers gracious out-of-home experiences just an arm’s length from, but within walking distance of, the hectic City Dock scene.
Peninsula House, which the Corts purchased two years ago and opened for business a year later, is a much-augmented version of a Sears catalog ranch-style home. Previous owners had built second-story bedrooms, the Corts a thousand-square-foot, two-level addition. A broad porch has wicker rockers and a swing overlooking English gardens. To the left of the entry foyer - the original living room - is a library with a corner fireplace, a wall of well-thumbed tomes, and a cluster of comfy chairs. Furnishings throughout Peninsula House consist of a melange of American antiques and pieces the Corts acquired during a two-year stint in Taiwan, notably a calligraphy scroll by one of Jan’s co-workers on the stairway wall and a striking Chinese screen in the library.
The three guestrooms of Peninsula House are named after the bodies of water that form the Eastport peninsula: Spa Creek, Back Creek, and Severn River. I drew Spa Creek, a spacious corner room with buff walls and purple curtains, where the Corts have transformed a closet into a cozy reading nook. Like the two other rooms, Spa Creek features a queen-sized bed and ample en suite bath; unlike my room at home, it had no phone, no radio, no television, no noise, no clutter, no grime, no cats - no dissonant irritants whatsoever.
After the house tour, Ruth and Jan sat me down in the family room of the new addition, explaining that this was where the two Naval Academy plebes they annually sponsor watch TV, listen to music, eat junk food, take naps, and partake of other pleasures that don’t remind them of their home on “the yard.” Over a tall glass of peach iced tea and homemade cookies, they told me the story of their lives.
While the Corts are relatively new to Annapolis, as innkeepers this is their second time around. While working full-time in Atlanta - Jan as a Ford Motor Company engineer, Ruth as a nurse - they converted a house in rural northeast Georgia into the Sylvan Falls Mill bed and breakfast. “We had a two-year plan,” says Ruth. “While we were working, we were up at the inn every weekend trying to find out if this is what we want to do when we retired.”
Once they did retire (temporarily for Jan, who’s back working full time), they canvassed the East Coast for the ideal location and settled on Annapolis. They came here partly because it’s reasonably convenient to grandchildren in Atlanta and Connecticut, partly because the water environment evokes their Jersey Shore origins, partly because it’s a four-season tourist destination. But mostly because it’s a terrific place to live.
“We did look at Charleston and other towns along the coast, but we didn’t find anything that had everything,” says Jan. “A lot of places had great business potential, but they didn’t have what we wanted for our own lifestyle.”
The Corts particularly relish the lifestyle of Eastport, a watermen’s community across Spa Creek from Annapolis (which annexed Eastport in 1951), where modest cottages share space with affluent newcomers’ pricey rehabs. Thirty percent of Eastport is zoned maritime commercial, which restricts businesses on all three waterfronts to enterprises like marinas, sailmakers, and boat builders.
Later I strolled through Eastport and crossed into Annapolis via the Spa Creek Bridge - which overlooks the spot where each November a philanthropic group known as the MRE (Maritime Republic of Eastport) sponsors an Annapolis versus Eastport tug of war across Spa Creek. I browsed some shops and grabbed a drink in a bar overlooking “Ego Alley,” the channel where the boats strut their stuff, before crossing back to Eastport for dinner.
The Corts see the Peninsula House competitive advantage as larger rooms, ample parking, Eastport ambience, and the sumptuous two-course, sit-down communal breakfast. “We serve breakfast at 9 and 11 o’clock, and as often as not, guests are still sitting there because six people from Timbuktu, Timbukthree, and Timbukfour have found something in common,” says Ruth.
The next morning over breakfast, I reminisced about places and faces in the New York City area, where I used to live, with Vin and Margaret Grealis, a couple from Point Pleasant, N.J. Breakfast that day consisted of an artistic array of fresh fruit followed by Ruth’s house specialty, crab-and-white-wine strata. The couple raved about yesterday’s meal: French toast stuffed with strawberries, cream cheese, and a secret ingredient, which Ruth won’t disclose. (The breakfast rotation also includes crabs benedict, stout and gouda pancakes with lemon butter, and apple strudel French toast with Parmesan tomatoes.)
The Grealises also raved about Peninsula House. “It’s very clean, quiet, meticulous,” said Vin. “And we like the fact that we do have to walk. This place is not for people who don’t like to walk.”
I felt utterly at home at Peninsula House and highly recommend it based on the Corts’ warm hospitality and generous helpings of local lore, the spirituous breakfast, and for affording me the opportunity to experience the real Annapolis up close and personal.
The couple also confided that they preferred Eastport’s restaurants to the “pub atmosphere” of so many City Dock eateries. They planned to spend that evening at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, although beef-loving locals favor Lewnes Steak House nearby. For fine seafood and Spa Creek views, the
Corts recommend Carrol’s Creek and O’Leary’s. And I devoured a tangy soft-shell crab sandwich at the Boatyard Bar & Grill, a neighborhood hot spot and famous sailing bar.
If you absolutely, positively have to go to Annapolis, it’s fifteen minutes to City Dock by foot - and even less by water. “We send our guests a couple of blocks to take the water taxi,” says Jan. “It only costs $2, and it really gives you the feeling of Annapolis as a water town.”
Peninsula House, 11 Chester Ave., Annapolis. 410-267-8796 or http://www.peninsula-housemd.com. Rates: $145 per night.
