The story below is from our January/February 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photos By Karin Smith
A dream-house-turned-welcoming-hotel greets visitors and inspires those working on their own renovations.
Diane Hailey has always had a soft spot for old homes. Growing up in Stuart’s Draft, she used to admire Victorian homes in downtown Staunton as a teenager. After attending Ferrum College, moving to South Carolina, and settling down in Roanoke in 2012, Hailey went after her dream of buying and renovating an old home of her own — one others could also one day enjoy as a bed and breakfast.
She found the dream house in Old Southwest: a run-down, animal-infested structure with a beautiful brick exterior. After two years of renovations, Hailey opened the Roanoke Boutique Hotel in October 2018. Now, it’s hard to picture the house in the state she found it. It’s an inviting blue brick house, with a warm, open kitchen and bright, airy guest rooms.
Since opening the hotel, Hailey has discovered many of the guests to be Roanoke newcomers on the house hunt. With its walkability to downtown, residential feel, and Hailey’s fresh supply of advice on buying and renovating one of Roanoke’s neglected but potential-filled homes, she believes the hotel can be an immersive resource for visitors hoping to picture life in Roanoke.
Hailey says the hotel offers a source of inspiration for renovation projects among guests. “It’s funny, the husband and wife come in, and I can just see it: her eyes light up and she starts smiling,” she says. “And the husband is just like, ‘Oh, no.’”
Meghan and Patrick Riley, a Chicago-based couple moving to Roanoke, can vouch for the effect. They stay at the hotel while house hunting.
“It seems like what she did there is representative of what’s happening in the town right now,” says Riley. “People investing in it, and doing really cool things. It’s exciting.”
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