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February marks the 10th anniversary of The Conyers House, the first bed and breakfast in Rappahannock County. The opening of The Conyers House spawned a hospitality industry that now makes Rappahannock the B&B capital of Virginia with, by far, the highest number of B&B’s per capita among any county in the nation.
In the decade since The Conyers House welcomed its first guests, the county has seen a total of 24 other B&B’s, inns and retreats, 14 of which are still in operation.
A spinoff industry that The Conyers House also pioneered is in equine recreation. “We began with just trail rides through beautiful countryside and today have expanded to foxhunting, dressage and inn-to-inn trekking. At present, there are several other stables in the county catering to different equine specialties,” said Sandra Cartwright-Brown, who with her husband Norman founded The Conyers House and continues to reside there.
“I’ve never thought of [ourselves] as pioneers,” laughs Mrs. Cartwright-Brown. “We actually brought this old house in 79 to use as a weekend country retreat for our family when we were living in Kenwood.”
Mrs. Cartwright-Brown doesn’t consider herself a planner or organizer and greatly admires the students who attend the innkeeping seminars that The Conyers House offers, because they attend with a purpose.
“The workshops are a perfect example of how things evolve,” said Mrs. Cartwright-Brown. “I never planned to offer a seminar, but when I found that each weekend we were answering the same questions and that 20 percent of our guests had entertained the B&B-owning fantasy, I put together a day-long workshop to fill the need. The first one was in 1986 or 1987 and now I just do it once a year.”
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