The Morris Harvey House Bed & Breakfast

By now you all know how shamelessly I promote West Virginia, and rightly so. After all, it's scenic beauty is nearly unsurpassed as evidenced by the picture of the New River Gorge Bridge, at the top of this blog.


I've also had inquiry into where is the best places to stay in the area. Fortunately, in recent years, there have been several hotels built in the area. But, if you really want to get the true flavor of a quaint, small town like Fayetteville, WV, I think your needs would be better served by one of the B & B's there.

My pick is The Morris Harvey House Bed & Breakfast and there are many reasons why. But, I'll let you read for yourself all about the historic B & B taken directly from one of the Charleston Newspapers:



Innkeeper trades city life for return to roots
The house that Harvey built
By Julie Robinson
Staff writer

New River Gorge landowner Morris Harvey built a gracious home in Fayetteville that now serves as a welcome retreat for whitewater rafters and other guests.


FAYETTEVILLE - As midlife changes go, it was a pretty big one.
Bernie Kania grew up in Oak Hill, but had lived and worked in Virginia Beach, Va., for nearly 30 years, when he decided to chuck his engineering job to purchase and run a bed-and-breakfast in Fayetteville.


Owner Elizabeth Bush placed Morris Harvey House - the bed-and-breakfast she and her husband, George Soros - had painstakingly restored in 1993 on the market in 2007. Since Soros' death in 1998, she had accepted guests in gradually smaller numbers.


Recently divorced, Kania was considering a change of pace and remembered the house from his youth. When one of his two sons chose to attend Kania's alma mater, West Virginia University, instead of a Virginia school, Kania bought the Morris Harvey House and moved to Fayetteville.
At 52, he started his new life as an innkeeper.


"It's definitely a change of scenery and career," he said. "I just wanted to do something different. I've been involved with the public before, but this is the best public job there could be. When everyone comes here, they're on vacation. They're already happy."


The house was built in 1902 by Morris Harvey with the fortune he amassed selling coal and railroad rights on his steep property bordering the New River Gorge.


Harvey built the Queen Anne-style house in which he and his wife, Rosa, lived until he died in 1908. The Harveys had no children, and Rosa Harvey passed the house on to the Methodist Church, of which they were devoted members, when she died. It served as a parsonage until the 1950s, when various families owned and lived in it, until Bush and Soros converted it to a bed and breakfast.


The inn's immaculate 14 rooms contain seven vibrantly colored Italian marble-fronted fireplaces, each in a different color scheme. All the coal fireplaces are outfitted in ornate black iron surrounds and fittings. Two of them were converted to gas to give a warm glow to chilled guests.


Guests are frequently whitewater rafters who enjoy the comforts Kania provides after a strenuous day on the river. Kania replaced the sitting room's antique furniture with overstuffed soft leather couch and chair and added a television, the only one in the house.


Kania shows his guests around small-town Fayetteville and fills them in on the town's diverse restaurant options. He kept the house open this winter for the first time this year, and hosted a steady stream of guests.


"We're busier in the summer during rafting season," he said. "I joke with the rafters that if there's a woman in the group and they're trying to decide between us and a hotel, I get the business."


Morris Harvey House has five guest areas, including a third-floor sloped-ceiling loft with two bedrooms and one full bathroom. "People tell me that it reminds them of when they visited their grandparents' house when they were younger and played in their attic," Kania said.


The master bedroom, called Rosa's Suite, is tucked behind the first-floor sitting room. Its private bathroom includes an antique claw-foot bathtub and raised water closet toilet - charming and efficient. Beside the bed in the bedroom sits a small sink, an original fixture. The sink's water was supplied by an 800-gallon copper cistern on the second floor, which provided some of the earliest running water in town, Kania said. The cistern no longer functions, but it's visible through a window cut into an upstairs hallway wall.


The house was built without a kitchen on the premises. Hot and noisy cooking chores were conducted in the detached cook house, which Kania converted into his own residence. "I'm close enough if a guest needs anything, but far enough away to give them their privacy," he said.
Vinyl siding outside clearly differentiates the kitchen as an addition to the wood-clad house.
The distinction is required by the National Register of Historic Places, on which the house is listed.


Guests gather around the dining room's spacious oak table where Kania serves homemade breakfasts such as pineapple upside-down French toast or breakfast parfaits with yogurt, fresh fruit and granola. A typical breakfast also includes an egg dish, assorted breads or his homemade pineapple banana bread.


"I grew up in large Polish family. Breakfast was always a big deal," he said. "I'm just carrying on that tradition."


Kania runs the bed-and-breakfast with a little help from his family. He calls his 21-year-old son B.J. his "housekeeping manager." B.J., who has Down syndrome, is a whiz with linens and towels.



Although none of his three sisters lives in-state, they've each contributed their special talents toward the house. Sheila, his sister in Pennsylvania with an eye for antiques, purchases furnishings for the house. The house came with some furnishings, but Kania's changed and added others. The only original piece from Morris and Rosa Harvey's days is a bench in the front hall.
His sister Barbara and her husband, Tom, of Winchester, Va., help with house maintenance and gardening. Tom tends the formal gardens that can be viewed from the comfortable furniture on the inn's wraparound porch, as well as the rest of the grounds. A fleur-de-lis pattern from the stained-glass windows is repeated in the garden design.



Brenda, his sister in Florida, bakes breads and muffins, often with freshly picked mangoes, which she ships north for his guests' breakfasts.



Upstairs, the Library is the most modest bedroom and lacks a private bathroom. Kania named it in reference to the room's extensive bookshelves. The black and gold Harvey Room down the hall has a half bath and shares a full with the Library occupants.



The Grand Suite features a private bath. All the bedrooms are furnished with antiques, with occasional concessions to modern tastes. "Most antique beds are three-quarter-sized, which is too small for most people today. Our beds are queen-sized," Kania said.



A sign on the door advises visitors that if Kania doesn't answer, he'll be back shortly. He usually isn't too far away. The post office, bank, barber and library are all within a block of home. The small-town charm and convenience provide a welcome change from Virginia Beach, which grew too congested and crowded for Kania's taste.


"I think my friends in Virginia Beach probably think I'm crazy, but I have everything I need right here," he said. "I like the mountains and the green spaces. It was good to get away from the city and into a more country environment."




For more information or reservations, please visit: http://www.morrisharveyhouse.com/