Rogers House Bed and Breakfast

2145 B St.

www.rogershouseinn.com

When the Rogers House opened, some tourists were unfamiliar with the B&B concept. Nebraska had just four bed and breakfasts then, said Nora Houtsma, who opened the Rogers when she was just 33.

About 23 years later, she’s been in the business longer than any other bed and breakfast in Lincoln and was a founding force of the Nebraska Bed and Breakfast Association, which strives to ensure quality and consistency among its members.

Her pioneering project required new precedents in zoning and safety to be set within the city, but Houtsma and two partners took the gamble and chased their dream.

It has worked out so well that Houtsma, now the sole owner, bought an American prairie style home next door to the brick Rogers House just seven years after her first house opened.

Between the two, she has 11 rooms, a few with Jacuzzis and sitting areas.

Plus, she has a staff, including a team of students who live in rooms in the basement in exchange for working the front desk; an onsite innkeeper; and other maintenance and cleaning help.

The Rogers House was built in 1914 for a Minden banker who retired to Lincoln. It features dark mahogany paneling in a formal dining room, a spacious living room, sunroom and formal entry. All the bedrooms have their own bathrooms and have been renovated with original and salvaged hardware, woodwork and tile to keep the turn-of-the-century feel. The multipaned windows and wood floors are original.

“It almost feels very English,” Houtsma said.

The more American house next door is actually older, from 1909, but features light wood and more contemporary styling and lots of sunlight.

Both houses have antique furnishings, but embellishment is spare. Some bed and breakfasts are filled with floral prints, Victorian accessories and wall hangings, but the Rogers house is decorated simply with damask wallpapers in soothing colors, accent lamps and period-appropriate bedspreads and furniture.

Houtsma caters to couples (many have been married in the main house), but she welcomes businesspeople seeking a more interesting stay. As a result, she has added some desks and has free wireless Internet access.

“I love the size of Lincoln,” the Denver native said. “Having this business anywhere else, the dynamic would be completely different.”

Atwood House

740 S. 17th St.

www.atwoodhouse.com

Some might recognize The Atwood House, the white neo-classical Georgian Revival home at 17th and G streets, from years of holiday teas and home tours.

Or from weddings - 184 couples have been married in the foyer, with brides gliding down its central white staircase.

The Atwood was built around 1894 by Frank W. Little, president of the Lincoln Street Railway Co. It takes its name from local quarry owners Samuel and Myrtle Atwood, who bought the home two years later.

The house was gradually converted into more and more apartments from the 1940s to the 1970s. In the 1980s, it was renovated as office space.

But Larry and Ruth Stoll saw something else there when they bought the home in 1992, despite the lack of a kitchen or full bathrooms: They saw a home for themselves.

So they got to work remodeling. Three years later, they saw something more: Plenty of space for guests. The city gave the Atwood House approval to open in 1995.

Now the Stolls live in an apartment on the third floor and use the rest of the 7,500-square-foot home for entertaining space and three guest suites. A carriage house next door serves as another suite.

The rooms are grand, decorated with antiques and period furnishings and details the Stolls had collected with the idea of opening a store. Ruth Stoll collects tea services, and guests can eat in the large dish-bedecked dining room or in a sunroom with antiques such as a jukebox and a 1920s slot machine.

Suites have leather sofas, big-screen televisions, fireplaces, French doors, Jacuzzis and more. The Stolls provide fresh flowers, and chocolates for guests and the kitchen is stocked with cakes, cookies, scones, candies and soda.

It’s a surprising amount of work to keep it all running, said Ruth Stoll, 58.

The couple scrambles from the time guests leave before noon until new guests arrive in late afternoon �” baking snacks, arranging flowers, cleaning rooms and setting up. Larry Stoll, 59, makes breakfasts each morning and keeps a log so they don’t serve their many repeat guests the same dish twice.

The Atwood is full most weekends and generally books a room or two on weeknights, Larry Stoll said. Overall, they operate at 60 percent occupancy.

The Stolls say the work makes it difficult for them to leave town, though an employee will housesit at times. The retired Army man said he and his wife don’t mind staying put after years of frequent moves.

“To us, it still feels good to stay home,” he said.

Anniversary Mansion

1149 S. 17th St.

www.bbonline.com/ne/anniversary

Ever wondered about the two matching, white-pillared mansions on South 17th Street?

They were designed by the same architect and known as sister homes because of their similar appearance.

Now, they’re sister homes in operation as well.

Anniversary Mansion is run by David and Cynthia Hoesch; she’s a sister to Ruth Stoll from the Atwood House.

The interior of Anniversary Mansion is different. Its impressive central staircase in the large foyer is made of dark wood and the plum-toned parlor features dark beaded wood and an arched fireplace. The sage green dining room features a mural imported from France.

The house still has its original butler’s pantry, a galley with free fresh-baked cakes, cookies, treats and beverages for guests.

Upstairs bedrooms also have their own bathrooms, some with Jacuzzis with polished rose marble or Ming green marble and rainfall shower. Like its Atwood sister, the Anniversary Mansion also offers its guests fresh flowers and chocolates.

The owners have borrowed quite a few ideas from the Atwood House, as well as the Stolls’ expertise. A plaque in one suite dedicates the room “To our brother and sister, our advisors, our mentors, our friends.”

The Anniversary Mansion is also known as the Weil House. It was built for Lincoln banker Morris Weil in 1902. It was a nursing home at one point before previous owners opened it as a bed and breakfast in 1994.

David Hoesch was a pastor in Nebraska and South Dakota before the Stolls talked the Hoesches into starting a B&B in 2004.

“The best part really is being just down the street from your sister,” Cynthia said.

Westview Bed and Breakfast

7000 N.W. 27th St.

www.westviewbb.com

Transforming the sprawling Lancaster County Poor Farm into a home has been a long labor of love for Jim and Colleen Burden.

The couple bought the house in 1978, a few years after it ended its long public service.

Its institution-like interior remained.

Back then, the house had dormitories instead of bedrooms, an industrial kitchen, bathrooms with stalls and even a holding area with cells and iron mesh windows.

Now it’s a home with several apartments, including one the Burdens turned into an upscale bed and breakfast suite two years ago.

A separate entrance opens into a spacious living room with vaulted ceilings; contemporary furniture, including a leather couch and wingback chair; an oak dining table and chairs, and a rolltop desk.

The bedroom has an in-wall fireplace and a travertine marble Jacuzzi, adjacent to a separate bathroom with clawfoot tub and shower.

The full kitchen has a marble floor and new appliances, and is stocked with ice cream bars, fruit, cookies, popcorn, soda, several kinds of cereal and more.

The 15,000-square-foot-building had been a labrynth of corridors and odd-angled renovations, Jim Burden said. Tearing out a broom closet, they found a walled-over oak staircase. Some of the foot-thick masonry walls once had doorways that were later encased in concrete.

The first poor farm house was built on the 240-acre grounds in 1871, though a fire claimed the wood frame building and the fire-proof masonry one replaced it in 1915.

As many as 30 people at a time lived off 40 head of dairy cows and 80 head of cattle, as well as pork, chickens and an orchard. It was a self-sustaining operation for decades. It later served as a juvenile detention facility.

The Burdens hope someday to have eight rooms to offer guests.

Hawley Bed and Breakfast

545 N. 25th St.

www.hawleybb.com/

The Hawley is a work in progress, according to innkeepers John and Peggy Struwe.

The home at 25th and T streets was once a symmetrical duplex, with mirror-image townhomes on each side.

That history is made clear in the layout �” including a wide, dark-wood staircase in the foyer that is split down the center by a wall.

Struwe is refinishing the staircase as well as updating the rest of the house, which was turned into four apartments in the 1930s.

The lower left portion is now a suite with a bedroom, sunroom, private bathroom and sitting room.

The living area features a fireplace with faux fire and a mantel set with Blue Willow china. French doors separate it from a central dining room where breakfast is served on china and crystal. For now, guests also can prepare their own meals in a kitchen in the rear. TV can be watched in Struwe’s office area, which is just off the dining room.

Opening the Hawley has taken more than a decade. The city agreed to let the Struwes create 10 rooms there in 1993, but they finished their first suite a year ago.

And they scaled back their plans. Citing work demands and hopes for relaxation in their future retirement, the Struwes plan to make just two more suites in the vacant area upstairs.

The Hawley is more modest than the other bed and breakfasts, many of which were built by Lincoln business barons of bygone eras.

The Hawley was built in 1892 by a contractor who built several other homes on North 25th Street that now are gone.

“It isn’t a grand Victorian home; it was part of a working class neighborhood,” Peggy Struwe said.

Most of her guests are looking for a home base for a few days, such as an Irish woman who wanted to be near a daughter attending UNL, or a roller skating champion who was in town for a competition and wanted a place where he could prepare meals and do a little laundry.

Renovation continues alongside running the inn.

The Struwes saved several architectural motifs as they recreated the façade of the home, which included building a 10 foot by 61 foot front porch. They installed new water heaters and four furnaces and central air units.

They have plans for the future, but they won’t be opting for opulence.

“I’m not interested in weddings. I’m not interested in putting in Jacuzzis. This is a home atmosphere,” Struwe said.

F.M. Hall House

1039 S. 11th St.

In the 1990s, the F.M. Hall House was restored into a home and inn by Ed and Yana Beranek, who recently were honored for their efforts by the Preservation Association of Lincoln.

The couple recently moved to Kansas City and their house and business are for sale.

“I’d love to find someone who will use it as a bed and breakfast,” said Home Real Estate agent Greg McCown. “It’s a house that should be enjoyed.”

It has the stained glass, tall ceilings, filigree and ornate woodwork typical of its history, McCown said.

Its Victorian porch was remodeled into a neoclassical style in the 1920s, he said.

The home also features a distinctive gazebo and carriage house.

The F.M. Hall house, a Queen Anne-style home at 1039 S. 11th St., opens its doors for the holidays Nov. 21 as part of the Homes for the Holidays tour, sponsored by the Lincoln Women's Chamber of Commerce.

It is one of five homes on the tour.

The Hall house has been a Lincoln landmark since it was built in 1884. Frank and Anna Hall lived there from 1895 to 1928 and added a wrap-around porch, sunroom, brick gazebo and an iron fence. Inside, they used birch, mahogany, cherry wood and oak in different rooms on the first floor and installed a master bathroom with intricate tile on the floors and walls.

The house was converted to apartments in the 1940s. The Beranek restored the home for use as a bed and breakfast.