Luxury Bed and Breakfast Suites and Historic Cottages in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

A Thumbnail Sketch of the Inn

The Inn is made up of CLIFF COTTAGE, THE PLACE NEXT DOOR and THE ARTIST'S COTTAGE, plus two individual HISTORIC COTTAGES (OSCAR WILDE'S and ZELDA'S STUDIO.) All suites have jacuzzis for 2, some have fireplaces, Oscar Wilde's Cottage and Zelda's Studio both have private outdoor hottubs. All have fridges with complimentary Champagne or white wine or sparkling cider chilled and waiting, coffeemakers with imported teas, coffee, hot chocolate, chai, cappucino, and CLIFF COTTAGE INN is the only B&B with an elf who delivers a full-gourmet breakfast right to your door if you are in a suite... For Zelda's Studio (which has a fully-equipped kitchen for light cooking), breakfast is an optional extra which guests order in advance when they make their reservations and the elf delivers it in a lovely basket, but it is not available to Oscar Wilde's which is too far from the main inn for breakfast delivery.

CLIFF COTTAGE SUITES (Sarah Bernhardt Suite and Alfred Lord Tennyson Suite). The cottage was designed by one of the Victorian period's most illustrious architects, Charles Locke Eastlake (1836-1906), a British art critic, Secretary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Secretary of the British Fine Arts Commission. Eastlake was also a furniture designer and in his book, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details (1868), he advocated a return to simple, straight-line designs inspired by country work, executed in oak and various fruitwoods. He also advocated that a single, cohesive style dominate the home rather than a hodgepodge of influences. In 1872 he re-published his book in the United States, where it became a decorating bible and planted the seeds of the Arts & Crafts Movement in America. He was commissioned by Sears to design their very first kit home sold in their catalogue and Cliff Cottage is just that...a Sears' kit home, built in 1881. It is a National Historic Registry house and is also honored by inclusion in the State of Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The cottage property has a lovely age-old cave many spelunkers have explored and which the innkeeper has turned into a wine cellar as it maintains 52 degrees year-round, perfect for storing vino!

THE PLACE NEXT DOOR SUITES, with Colette's Mini-Suite and Thoreau's Suite upstairs, was designed and built by Innkeeper Sandra in 1993 when she came to Arkansas after spending 7 years sailing alone in the Pacific. It is a Victorian replica with understated lines so as not to detract from the jewel next door (Cliff Cottage) and has a cathedral-ceilinged Great Room on the first floor where Elopement Weddings are performed. Most everyone thinks it is an old house she restored! There's a serene koi pond at the front door to set the mood for arriving guests, and Sandra had an artist design a waterfall coming down the bluff, ending in another pond which she uses as a transition pond for new-arrival koi!

THE ARTIST'S COTTAGE, the latest addition to the Inn's "monopoly board", is right next to Cliff Cottage and was built in 1910. Its first illustrious resident was a man named Jacob who was a stained-glass artist and a glassblower. The barn behind was his studio and when Sandra was building The Place Next Door, she discovered a beautiful old door on the back of the barn all covered with ivy and sadly neglected which Jacob had made and etched with two beautiful deer - he even signed the etching! Sandra rescued the door by donating a generous sum to the then owners of the property, Good Shepherd Humane Society who were using the house (which they bought in 1989 for $10 from Don Teeters, who coincidentally, was also a glassblower and stained glass artist!) as a thrift store to benefit the Society. When the Humane Society decided to move to larger quarters in June 2003, Sandra purchased the house as she was told it was going to be bought for a motorcycle repair shop! Suites are called Robert Louis Stevenson Suite and Emily Dickinson Suite and have the same luxurious amenities as the others -- the delivered breakfasts, fancy new jacuzzis that operate on air instead of jets (they even have spinal column "massage" features!), wetbars, one has exclusive use of a full porch overlooking all of downtown, and naturally, both have fantasy luxe decor lots of original art. The artist's studio barn became Zelda's Studio and it has a whimsical two-person shower and the hottub. All the original stone walls have been retained to give it a secret hideaway ambiance.

SOME BASICS: Suites and cottages accommodate 2 adults only -- Sarah Bernhardt's Suite can possibly accommodate two additional guests. The two suites in historic Cliff Cottage have connecting doors between and two couples or a family with older children can reserve both suites -- that way, you have Cliff Cottage all to yourselves!

CLIFF COTTAGE and ARTIST'S COTTAGE suites all have king beds as does ZELDA'S STUDIO; the two suites in THE PLACE NEXT DOOR have queens as does OSCAR WILDE'S COTTAGE. Artist Cottage suites, Oscar Wilde's and Zelda's are all strictly for non-smoking guests as smoking is not permitted anywhere on those properties. For Cliff Cottage and The Place Next Door Suites, guests may discreetly smoke on balconies or decks but cigars are not permitted anywhere on any of the Inn properties.

Any season, CLIFF COTTAGE INN is the perfect place to stay for enjoying Eureka Springs. During the Autumn, CLIFF COTTAGE INN is especially gorgeous with lovely plantings gracing the inn's gardens, setting off the koi ponds and waterfalls. The inn is surrounded by lots of beautiful age-old trees which create a lovely "painting" around the inn in the colorful fall and winter. During Springtime, the redbuds and dogwoods around the inn create a lacy pink canopy that envelops the inn like magic. If you're coming in November or later, or even in the early Springtime, ours is the best place to stay as we are within a few minutes of shops and eateries...in case we get any of that white stuff, you don't have to drive to find goodies and foodies! Here's what a recent outdoors editor had to say about Eureka in Winter:

"While the area is beautiful year-round, it's especially stunning during the winter months. The trees' loss of leaves makes viewing natural rock formations and wildlife even easier. Bald eagles can be observed in their winter habitat on nearby Kings River and just 20 minutes out of town at Lake Leatherwood. As many as 30 birds have been spotted at one time. Elk can be seen grazing all winter long just a short drive away in Boxley Valley on the Buffalo River. Hiking trails of varying lengths and difficulty criss-cross the area, providing visitors with the best possible venue for viewing and photographing the region's beautiful waterfalls and bluffs."

Spring and Summer are perfect for a stay at CLIFF COTTAGE INN, a splendid location to enjoy all the various fairs and festivals in downtown Eureka and there's no better location for a super shopping spree!

The Inn also offers small Elopement Weddings (for the bride and groom and up to a maximum of 4 guests), Vow Renewals and Commitment Ceremonies.....very lovely ceremonies either in the Inn's Great Room surrounded by antiques in front of a big pink marble fireplace or on the garden deck beside the 3-story high rock bluff and a fountain or in "Secret Garden" by a koi pond with lovely waterfall. The Elopement/Vow Renewal Package is $135 which includes use of the Inn's wedding facilities, the minister, the photographer, borrowed use of French silk Victorian bridal bouquet and matching boutonniere (Optional: Fresh flower Bridal bouquet and matching Boutonniere, mini-wedding cake and toasting Champagne For Two, add $75). The Inn is just 17 steps away from the Courthouse so it's real easy to check in to the Inn and then walk down for your license.

The Cliff Cottage Inn Caves

In 2003, Sandra purchased the arts & crafts movement house next door to Cliff Cottage During the renovation process,  she tore down some sheds at the back of the new property and discovered a cave. The first time it rained, after about an hour, all of a sudden, a gush of water came out of the side of the cave and completely flooded the yard. She had "inherited" a spring.   

When the yard dried up, she cleaned up the muddy mess and discovered a small channel hewn out of the rock bluff which had become all debris-blocked. That was cleaned out and the next time it rained, the water came out of the side of the cave and ran down the channel

But now there was another problem because the channel led to the 2-story building she was going to restore as guest quarters.  The area was solid limestone and impenetrable,  so the only thing to do was to allow the channel to continue to run  underneath the portion of the building where she wasgoing to put in a bathroom and out the front of the building into the new sewer line just put in.  Sandra asked the carpenter if she could have a glass floor in the bathroom and maybe have some fish swimming in there for guests to watch but he didn't like that idea. 

Next it was time to clean out the cave which went quite a ways back into the three-story high rock bluff. "In my other property next door, I found a cave as well when I was building The Place Next Door, the Victorian replica portion of the inn," explains Sandra.  "I discovered the cave maintained 52 degrees year-round...perfect for storing wine. So, being an old onophile from the years I spent living and studying wines in France, it was only natural to turn that cave into a wine cellar. 

"While clearing out that cave, I discovered where hippies living on the property in the past had been growing you-know-what in the cave!  No wonder the sheriff's helicopter went over the inn every Thursday years ago when I was building that house with the helicopter door open and an infra-red device aimed in the direction of my cave....until he realized hippies no longer lived there! 

Now, for the second cave.....Sandra cleaned it out and her girlfriend (a retired psychiatrist in her 70s!) removed about 18 inches of dirt that had accumulated for quite some distance outside the cave only to discover pipes leading from the cave to the house with some other wierd contraptions in the cave. She asked the plumber what all that odd arrangement was and he said, "They had a still here long ago!"  Sandra found that quite amusing, especially since her other house, Cliff Cottage built in the 1880s, right next door to the Artist's Cottage, had belonged to the first mayor of Eureka Springs!  No telling what secrets these age-old Ozark bluffs hold!

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