Photography by Kirsten Beckerman
Climbing the weathered, GRAY stone stairs to the Spencer-Silver Mansion, I wondered what Havre de Grace’s Victorian-era moguls who built these joints had been hiding.
They constructed mini-fortresses, including this gray Port Deposit granite structure embellished with Victorian goodies like a four-gabled slate roof and two-story curved-glass bay windows. Stalwart homes apparently bespoke rectitude, responsibility, stability—and made sure that what went on behind stone walls stayed behind stone walls.
The B&B takes its name from its first two owners—John Spencer, a multifaceted entrepreneur who built the house in 1896 and lived there until 1916; and Charles Silver, a cannery owner who occupied it until 1952. The current owner, Carol Nemeth, met me at the door accompanied by her gregarious housecat, Ferdley Boy. They ushered me into a turn-of-the-century showcase filled with plants and paintings, mirrors and lace, hardwood floors covered with Oriental rugs, enough old treasures to stock an antiques mini-mall—an altogether irresistible setting for nurturing my own Victorian secrets.
The Innkeeper Carol and her then-husband were living in a historic 1830s home a few blocks away, but they were running out of room. “I had all these antiques. Antiques for me were like gambling, and I kept collecting them,” says Nemeth. Even though the Spencer-Silver house was “just a mess”—with painted woodwork, fallen upstairs ceilings, collapsing porches, lousy heating—they jumped on the local landmark when it came up for sale in 1987. They never considered the archetypal money pit anything but a single-family home until the proprietor of the nearby Vandiver Inn persuaded Nemeth to “lend” him some rooms for his overflow.
After renting rooms on the side for a while, Nemeth chucked her day job at an international banking firm in Baltimore and, in 1993, became a full-time innkeeper. “But I did not buy this house with the intent of turning it into a bed and breakfast and then start filling it with antiques,” says Nemeth. “I started with a dream to save a house.”
The Rooms Four guest rooms are located on the second floor of the mansion itself. I stayed in Carol’s Room, so-named because Nemeth and her young daughter spent much time there when they first moved in. The large antique-filled space, with a pink settee in the bay window overlooking Union Avenue, shares a bath with the Swan Room, another large space distinguished by a three-window turret. The Garden Room, with a queen-size four-poster bed and clawfoot tub in the private bath, overlooks the Victorian-style gardens. The big draw is the romantic Iris Room, with its capacious private bath, complete with a Jacuzzi sequestered behind stained-glass double doors. But the most popular spot is the two-story Carriage House, a converted doctor’s office and nurse’s apartment that sleeps up to four.
Special Touches
Antiques galore, especially in the two first-floor public family rooms and parlor. Nemeth takes particular pride in her antique lamp collection—stained-glass lamps, soapstone lamps, a statuesque lamp of a fairy peering into an urn—and antique fixtures (no reproductions) refitted by a couple in Doylestown, Pa. Coffee and tea, available at all times in the dining room, are supplemented each afternoon with home-baked goodies—brownies, cookies, cakes, “or pretty much what I have a hankering for myself,” says Nemeth. All rooms have fresh fruit, candy, cable TV, DVD players, and wireless Internet is available throughout the premises.
What’s for Breakfast
At breakfast, I shared a table for six in the cozy dining room with Doug, a veterinarian in the process of relocating from Illinois, who was a regular sojourner in the Swan Room, and three jolly friends, all named Jim. Nemeth served peach French toast with beef sausage and fried potatoes as the main course that day, but waffles, crepes, a variety of omelets, egg casseroles, and quiches may also appear on the menu. You can also count on a choice of juices, dry cereals, and yogurts, hard-boiled eggs, and fruit salad any day of the week. This ultra-hearty breakfast is normally served from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., but you can eat earlier upon request.
Diversions
All Havre de Grace pleasures lie within a few blocks of the Spencer-Silver Mansion. Walk north to the business district, where restaurants like Tidewater Grille and MacGregor’s feature traditional Maryland seafood and river views, while Laurrapin Grille offers more creative cuisine. Downtown also boasts an eclectic assortment of galleries and antiques stores where, Nemeth notes, “the shopkeepers are very good about dickering.”
Head south from the mansion to Havre de Grace’s most outstanding physical attraction—a wooden promenade that loops around the curving shoreline where the river meets the Bay. During a moonlight stroll, I observed that the boardwalk is understandably popular with lovers. I came back the next morning to check out the two waterside museums alongside—the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, which charts the region’s passionate relationship to the water, and the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, which verifies the sobriquet “Decoy Capital of the World.” Alongside the Bay, I visited the dock where the skipjack Martha Lewis embarks on a variety of daytime and nighttime cruises and the Concord Point Lighthouse, one of the oldest lighthouses on the East Coast.
Romance Factor
Romance loves privacy, so check into the cozy two-level Carriage House, a stone cottage set discreetly apart from the mansion. A tidy Victorian sitting room and kitchenette occupy the ground floor, but at the top of the spiral staircase—reportedly the same model that graces one of Donald Trump’s abodes—there’s a second-floor garret that’s pretty much all queen-sized bed.
What It’s Going to Cost
The Swan Room and Carol’s Room—with shared baths–cost $85, the Garden Room is $115, and the Iris Room is $130. The Carriage House is $160.
When he’s not exploring, Theodore Fischer writes from Silver Spring.
The Spencer-Silver Mansion
200 S. Union Ave.
Havre de Grace, Md.
410-939-1485 or
http://www.spencersilvermansion.com
