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Traveling through the Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast in Red Wing, Minnesota
"Enough. We've been researching the B&B business for 4 years. We've looked at 115 properties in the past two years. The township meeting we just came from has too many people opposed to a B&B in their area to even consider this property we've worked to buy for the past 5 months.
Our B&B dream isn't meant to be." Chris was in somewhat the same mindset as we drove the 40 miles home to St. Paul. The following week we spoke little about our dream. The next week Chris informed me our realtor, Nancy, who had worked with us the entire period of our search (having made absolutely no money from her efforts) had a property in Red Wing, Minnesota to show us. "Absolutely not. I'm sick of looking at homes. This will be another wild goose chase." "Mikel," Chris said, " Nancy has worked for us continually. We owe this one to her. If it doesn't work out we'll let her know we're done looking."
I hate it when Chris is right. We drove the 55 miles to Red Wing, Minnesota on Thursday after work and pulled up to a monstrous home that dominated the southwest corner of Pine and Fourth streets. Nancy pulled up a few minutes later and we entered the home. Surgery was needed to repair both Chris and my jaws after they hit the floor.
So what did we see and what will you see when you enter the Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast? Imagine your first experience is walking onto an enormous pillared porch, opening a 10 foot high oak door and entering into a foyer with 12 foot ceilings and a sweeping walnut staircase descending from the second floor toward you. Look at the original chandeliers with their signed Tiffany and Steuben globes. Look at the original gilded, stenciled ceiling that covers most of the Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast foyer . The first 5 seconds is up.
How's your jaw? Chris and I were amazed. We turned left into the hotel lobby, err... living room. Big fireplace, huge windows, more chandeliers, beautiful oak and walnut floors (which are throughout the house), and shimmering walls (turns out the loose woven burlap wallpaper in over copper foil so that the light is reflected; a nice touch from the 1920's). Next stop, the dining room. The usual 12-foot ceilings, chandelier, and solid oak walls extend 7 feet upwards. Who built this place?
We are taken upstairs to the 5 bedrooms. It's your choice in sizes at the Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast, large or extra large. Plenty of light and incredible views of the Mississippi River cliffs and the bluffs of Red Wing, Minnesota. Exceptional woodwork and hardwood floors. Ten foot high ceilings. Very spacious. By this time we were pretty well sold and still had the third floor to look at. It wasn't much then but you should see it now. I'm ready to sign papers NOW but Chris keeps a level head. Next we go out back to the two story, two thousand square foot carriage house. Chris faints. It's just too much (kidding of course). Our search is over. It takes us five months to close the deal and another fourteen months to renovate what is now The Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast in Red Wing, Minnesota. Will we ever get open? YES, YES, YES.
I wanted to convey a taste of our process and a little about Chris and myself, and, in case you are wondering, I'm writing this because I like to write just like Chris loves to make a gourmet brunch. It's a division of labor. I'll share a few facts about the Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast. It was built in 1874 by Dr. A.B. Hawley who had practiced medicine in Red Wing, Minnesota for many years.
The main house has approximately six thousand square feet of space on the top three floors plus a finished basement. The carriage house now has a twelve hundred square foot owners apartment and an eight hundred square foot garage. Both structures are made entirely of eighteen-inch thick limestone block quarried locally. No other home in Red Wing, Minnesota is made entirely of this block.
The Moondance Inn Bed and Breakfast is substantial, sits on two city lots on a hill, and is in Red Wing's historic district, which is an easy walk to all downtown shops, the thirty-eight mile round-trip Cannon Valley bicycle trail, and the Mississippi River.
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