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ambience, hence the St. Botolph name and the
naming of various rooms and cottages: the St. Peter
& Paul Room, St. Luke Room, The Upper Room, the
King David Suite, the Garden of Eden Cottage, etc.
“The name was St. Botolph Inn,” Buttolph
explained. “And St. Botolph is in my family tree. He
was a saint in England. The name is spelled a little
bit differently; but that’s only because our current
name was corrupted from his name. … ‘Boston’ is
another of the iterations of his name, and Boston is
named after him; he’s the patron saint of Boston.”
For 14 years the gorgeous 6,600-sq. ft. “painted
lady” at 808 S. Lamar welcomed guests and hosted
weddings, receptions, parties and tours. Buttolph
said the inn accommodated almost 15,000 “heads-
in-beds” houseguests and another 10,000-15,000
people who attended the various functions held
on the premises. He is emphatic that their run as
innkeepers was a great time in their lives — not
one thing stolen or broken over 14 years! But for
everything there is a season. The doors closed to the
public in 2006.
“Our reason for closing was two-fold,” explained
Buttolph. “First of all, we were getting older, as such,
and Shay has a ministry in South Sudan concerning
international orphan adoption. She was going over
there twice a year, and she’d be gone two or three
months, and one time nearly six months. So I was left
here kind of running the bed and breakfast by myself,
and I am not a cook. So we had to hire a cook. And
she wanted to get more intense in her ministry.”
It was simply time, Buttolph summed up.
“This was our second career, and we were getting
on — we were in our sixties then, 67 for me. It was
just time to stop.”
The former innkeeper estimated that over the
years St. Botolph dropped about $38,000 in to city
coffers via hotel/motel taxes.
Whether the Buttolphs will remain in the area
after their beautiful house sells is unclear. “We don’t
know,” Buttolph said. “The Lord put us here. [But]
because of Shay’s ministry, we even have a thought
that we’ll go over and live in East Africa — Uganda,
South Sudan, somewhere over there, for a short peri-
od of time before we make up our minds on where
we want to come back to. We don’t really know, at
this point. The Lord will help us.”
The Buttolph home on South Lamar is listed
at $1,195,000, and, according to realtor Rozi
Stone, interested parties are being asked to provide
evidence of financial viability. No looky-loos need
apply.
“I felt very honored to be chosen [as realtor], and
I have really enjoyed not only learning about the
house, but getting to know Mr. and Mrs. Buttolph.
They’re just exceptional people,” Stone said.
The house, as you’ve probably gathered, is excep-
tional too. Interested parties should contact Stone at
817-454-0250, or at [email protected].