The healing place: Elizabethtown Inn a former Civil War Hospital

ELIZABETHTOWN – Christine Marais, while living in France a few years back made a statement that she would never live in an old house again.

And here she is, the owner and manager of a bed-and-breakfast that was built somewhere in the early 1800s.

According to the Elizabethtown Inn website, “Dating to around 1834, the Elizabethtown Inn is one of the oldest structures still standing in Bladen County, North Carolina. Originally the home of Colonel John McDowell, the house reportedly served as a hospital during the Civil War. The house is in the Greek Revival style of architecture, and has been called home by half a dozen different families over the years. Several renovations and additions have been made since the house was originally constructed, and in the late 1930s the house was moved a couple of hundred yards from its original site, just east of the current location. In 2015, renovations began to create the Inn.”

The home was originally owned by John McDowell who was injured while serving with the 34 ^th Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry.

According to the National Park Service, “34th Infantry Regiment was assembled at High Point, North Carolina, in October 1861. Its members were recruited in the counties of Ashe, Rutherford, Rowan, Lincoln, Cleveland, Mecklenburg and Montgomery. After serving in the Department of North Carolina, it was sent to Virginia and placed in General Pender’s and Scales’ Brigade. The 34th was active in the many campaigns of the army from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor and later participated in the Petersburg siege south of the James River and the operations around Appomattox. It reported 53 killed and 158 wounded during the Seven Days’ Battles, 2 killed and 23 wounded at Second Manassas , 2 killed and 17 wounded at Fredericksburg , and 18 killed and 110 wounded and 20 missing at Chancellorsville . Of the 310 engaged at Gettysburg , 21 percent were disabled. It surrendered 21 officers and 145 men. The field officers were Colonels Collet Leventhorpe, William Lee J. Lowrance, and Richard H. Riddick; Lieutenant Colonels George T. Gordon, Charles J. Hammerskold, William A. Houck, John L. McDowell, and George M. Norment; and Majors George M. Clark, Joseph B. McGee, Eli H. Miller, William A. Owens, Martin Shoffner and Francis L. Twitty.”

Marais, the owner of the Elizabethtown Inn since 2018 has had a very cultured and exciting background, being born in South Africa.

“I was born in a town called Benoni, which is just outside of Johannesburg,” Marais said. “I lived there until 2011 and then we moved to Bahrain in the Middle East, lived there for three years and then we lived in France for six years and I’ve been here six years. It’s a lot of different culture which makes me have no culture.”

She takes time to laugh at her quips and makes those who listen to her stories laugh right along. Her laugh is infectious and her tears are precious, and Marais is a woman who wears her heart on her sleeve and is unafraid to be just who she is. And who she is, is genuine.

Running a bed-and-breakfast from the business standpoint alone can be overwhelming, but handling as well, the day-to-day operation takes someone who either can get a lot of helpers or who wears a lot of hats. Marais has two helpers for the housecleaning chores and one man who comes to handle her maintenance.

Other than that, it’s all on her shoulders. From her charm with the guests to the incredible meals she cooks, bakes and serves she works with a flair that gives evidence of her background as a mother who knows her way around managing a successful house.

“I’ve never run a bed-and-breakfast, but I am a mother,” she said. “AND, she said, my children had sleepover parties very, very often. So, I think that every mother is an innkeeper. My motto would be that people would feel like they are coming home away from home. Especially business travelers or the cyclists including this coming weekend.”

Stated very simply and humbly, she said that she just wants the people who come there to feel at home. She also said that it’s not a “fancy-pancy” type of breakfast, it’s just a home cooked meal. Marais provide each guest upon arrival a breakfast menu for each day of their stay. They must mark what they’d like and the time they want to be served.

Of course, Marais complies with bells on. As the tired travelers come down from their cozy nests in the morning, they begin to smell the scent that one could only describe as “home.” They find their way to the elaborate dining room where the table is immaculately set as if it were a royal banquet. Soon after, Marais comes around the corner out of her kitchen with her hands full of magnificent concoctions and made to order specials fit for a king or queen or maybe even a young prince and princess. The filling is more than enough for all the adventuring they are about to experience in Bladen County and surrounding areas.

“You get a custom-made menu during the week,” Marais said. “On the weekends when the house is full, I make a buffet and try to accommodate everybody’s tastes.”

One guest who recently was staying with his wife, his daughter and new son-in-law from England said he’s never tasted such a breakfast complete with freshly baked blueberry muffins or perhaps some cookies that Marais sends with the guests as they leave for their next destination.

“We actually bought the inn in 2017 and then reopened it in 2018,” she said. “The previous owner was a very talented architect and he had bought it from Hunter Cole. In that time, he had made all the rooms with ensuite bathrooms and made it into a bed-and-breakfast. Unfortunately, his mother became very ill and he was overwhelmed and just as I arrived, he put it on the market. So, it all worked out as it should.”

As for her first impressions of Elizabethtown after being a world traveler, she smiles as she recalls those early moments in Bladen County.

“It reminded me initially of the movie “Footloose” where Kevin Bacon arrived in that town which was as pretty and quaint as small-town America is,” she said. “And we are very lucky because not all small towns are equal to Elizabethtown.”

As stated earlier, her preference was not to live in an older home.

“I did not want to live in an old house with a large yard,” she said. “I wanted a brand-new house with a small yard and just play golf and travel, but I also know that I am just a simple country girl who really does like an old house. I walked in and I liked it very much. You could feel the love that this house has had and I am only the seventh owner since it was built.”

The Inn which is on the North Carolina Historical Records list has a map of Congress that hangs in her hallway and it is stamped 1887 and that document has marked Elizabethtown on their map.

“From what I’ve been told, it was Colonel McDowell’s house,” she said. “He was injured very early in the Civil War and came home and recovered here and then the upstairs was made into a hospital where other soldiers recovered. And downstairs, apparently, they had all the livestock. So here where we are sitting now, were horses and cows and chickens.”

Marais said that although there were some new additions to the home, there are also many things that are completely original. The floors, for instance have been walked on by people as far back as the 1800s.

To consider that it was once a hospital, guests would have to wonder if people were actually healing and healed in the rooms that they are now sleeping in. Many say that they can feel a calming peace in the home and that certainly would be conducive to a place where the purpose was to heal, to recover and to go forth.

“I don’t know any of the names of those who were healed here with the exception of Colonel McDowell who went on to recover and live a long and happy life,” she said. “Each room actually has been named after a previous owner, including the “Colonel’s Room” after McDowell.”

Marais said that through the years, she has made not only friends, but family. She said that so many are near and dear to her heart and many continue to communicate with her long after their vacation is over.

“I’ve got guests coming here now since I opened,” she said. “I have a youth cyclist who began coming here with his father and who will be here this weekend. He has been coming here since he was 13. Last year he finished high school. So, I saw him grow up. And I have other families that come every summer for the Fourth of July. Yes. People are my people.”

Nestled in the trees of North Carolina, away from the downtown area, situated out on 105 Cromartie Road, the sunsets seen through the trees make you remember that those woods have seen that same sight each night for centuries.

And as the birds begin to quiet and sleep, there is a peace that settles into that hollow and as you lay your head down on one of Marais’ soft pillows, the stress and the cares of life drift away. Guests will tell you that at night in North Carolina out under stars and in the midst of crickets serenading, there is almost a reverent calm and a quiet gratitude that puts you once again in touch with those feelings of being safe at home as a child.

Marais said that she is convinced that it’s not a magical place, but the people who are led here are the reason for the peace.

“The people are who make it fabulous,” she said with a tear as she remembers the faces and the smiles. “One of my favorite sounds in life is when strangers who come down to breakfast begin meeting people they’ve never met before and our gathering place is where new friendships are formed. I’ll go to my desk and do some paperwork and then I hear people who didn’t know each other five minutes prior, talking like they are long lost relatives getting together for a reunion. It’s fabulous.”

Marais accentuates the positive and even when asked about how she navigated the white-water rapids of covid and the new normal that followed, she said simply, “COVID was a nightmare.”

The hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit during COVID and the ones who actually didn’t close their doors for good are still feeling the ripple effects.

“For those months that we had to close, I just didn’t know if tourism would ever pick up again,” she said. “Other than when that hit, we face the normal economic challenges – especially in a smaller town. But we’ve got a lovely lake, live music, two five-star wineries and the people here are just amazing.”

Of Elizabethtown it is said, there are always flowers, there is always music playing, the people are kind and helpful and the climate is kind. Above all, though. There are always flowers.

To find out more information about the Elizabethtown Inn, or to speak with Christine Marais, please visit their website at: https://www.theelizabethtowninn.com/