ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606030015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEWBERN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Even when he was a boy, Doug Eads was fascinated by the Claytor Lake Homestead Inn.
"The whole time I was growing up, this was the place to come and fish," he recalled.
Now he owns it, and has plans for making it even more of an attraction.
"They say you can't go home again? You can. It's just like we'd never left," he said, even though he and his wife, Linda, have been all over the world since he graduated from Pulaski County High School in 1965 and later joined the Air Force. The couple even had the chance to help tear down the Berlin Wall while stationed in Europe.
"We actually thought we were going to retire," he said.
Linda's parents opened the Red Carpet Inn just outside Pulaski in 1968, and that's where she and Doug met when she was working there that summer. He came in looking for a job.
"Can I help you?" she asked. "And I thought: Wow!" Eads recalled.
Now they have three grown children, who will help out with the new venture.
Eads hopes to have the inn open for Father's Day weekend.
Besides the bed-and-breakfast business for which the inn is already known, Eads plans to offer reservations-only dinners on Fridays and Saturdays and lunches on Sundays.
"I'm the one who does the cooking. Studied for two years with a chef," he said. "We're going to offer an elegant atmosphere."
There will be no menu, he said. He will choose the courses, at least five per meal, for an all-inclusive price ranging from $18 to $20.
"Our goal is, if someone eats with us on the weekend for a year, they would never eat the same thing twice," Doug said. "We know the likes and dislikes of the area, and we're going to capitalize on that ... and just have a fun time doing it."
Eads retired last August after 221/2 years in the service, but he had been planning a venture along these lines for a couple of years before that. He and his wife did not know where they might settle, until they came back to the New River Valley to see family.
"Came here to visit, fell in love with it all over again," he said. "We're into the history of the house now, trying to research so I can blend a little bit of that into the dinner."
The house began as a two-story cabin built in the early 1800s of white oak logs. It grew over the years with various additions and expansions, the most recent being the porch in 1954. Now it has some 4,700 square feet of living space, including five guest rooms.
"That's why we need the whole family to help keep it clean," Linda Eads said.
"There's a lot of history," Doug Eads said. During the Civil War, farmers would hide livestock under the house when the military wanted to commandeer it. Later, it was a dairy with a creamery under the house. The lady who took orders for cream left telephone numbers of customers etched into the wood around where the old hand-crank phone used to be.
After that, it became a boarding house for teachers, Eads said. Then it was bought by a doctor, who raised his five children there. Those were the days Eads remembers from his boyhood, before the house went through various owners as a bed-and-breakfast.
Larry Nipper owned it when the Eadses returned to Pulaski County. They were looking at a house he had for sale and, in a chance conversation, reminisced about the inn. It turned out that some of Doug Eads' plans coincided with what Nipper had envisioned for the place, and the discussions became serious.
"He's happy, I'm happy, and here we are on the brink of opening a business," Doug Eads said.
"Aw, from the minute you saw this place," Linda Eads said, "this is what you wanted, and I kept saying, 'No, no, this is too big!'''
Doug Eads can't keep from smiling as he talks about his plans for the place: adding gardens, walkways and benches to give it a romantic air; reopening the closed fireplaces with gas logs; stocking a library not only with books but also with music and videos; and building an exercise room for guests. He already has been collecting library and gym materials for several years.
"This will be like five years down the road," his wife cautioned.
But Doug Eads goes right on, talking about rebuilding the beach along the lake; putting a gazebo on the dock where weddings could be held; putting paddle boats, pontoon boats and canoes in the water for guests; adding a separate honeymoon cottage with a whirlpool bath; maybe even building a swimming pool.
More immediately, Eads will offer the meals in the Doc Brown Dining Room (named for the man who owned it when Doug was a boy), adding private guest bathrooms to replace the hallway bathroom, and converting the innkeeper's apartment into a business meeting room.
Linda Eads said her husband paraphrased the Kevin Costner character in the "Field of Dreams" movie: "If you feed them, they will come."
"If you feed them well, they will come back," her husband amended.
For information, call 980-6777, or toll-free (800)THE LAKE.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB