Washington Hous
by Patti Guthrie
We think of ourselves as a boutique hotel,” said Elayne Brick when she described the newly opened upper floors at the historic Washington House in Sellersville. Elayne and her husband William Quigley purchased the iconic landmark in 1985, she said, “We were buying the Washington House Restaurant. We originally bought it with William’s parents Bill and Emily and his Aunt Bernice Quigley. They helped us get the restaurant up and running,” Later when William’s parents and Aunt Bernice wanted to retire, she and her husband purchased their shares of the business.
The original Washington House building consisted of two rooms on the ground floor and two above. It was already standing in 1798. In 1871 the third and fourth floors plus the brick tower were added. In 1910, the large ground floor dining room was built, along with a second story over it. Constructed of wood frame, the first floor ceiling joists were joined to the porch roof instead of the bearing wall, and the roof cantilevered to the second floor. This “interesting” construction led to sagging ceilings. Elayne said, “When we discovered this, we had to remove everything except the outside walls. Basically, it was open from the ground floor to the sky. But, with rain in the forecast, we had to put in several supports to keep the roof over the area during reconstruction.”
Elayne and William have redone the dining areas three or four times, and it now has five dining rooms, plus the bar and two areas outside. Their last renovation, to convert the upstairs into hotel rooms, started about five years ago. Elayne said, “We spent a couple of years thinking about it. We first had to clean out the upper floors that we’d been using for storage for 25 years. For instance, when we got new chairs for the restaurant, we’d put the old ones upstairs.” The actual construction took about a year. She said, “Karl Weiss is our architect and has been for thirty years.” She added, “We feel very fortunate to have a loyal customer base that includes our general contractor, Ed Conolly, who also is a friend. He and Karl love the building as much as we do.”
During reconstruction, they transformed the 20 upstairs rooms into 11, six on the second floor, four on the third and one on the fourth. Each of their six standard rooms has a queen-size bed, bathroom, and a desk area with a data port and WiFi, while each of the five suites also has a sitting area with a pullout couch. The only king size bed is in the King Suite on the second floor. There are three Queen Suites and the Tower Suite. The last is a unique space that really sets the Washington House apart. It’s 650 square feet on two floors with three levels, one of which actually is in the attic. The sitting area even has a small refrigerator that looks like an end table.
Elayne said, “When we had the plaster removed in the tower room itself, all of the wood behind it was dry rotted. The plaster was holding it together. So we had guy-wires criss-crossing from wall to wall until we could stabilize it and then strengthen it structurally, leaving the brick exposed.” The observatory or tower room has windows all around. “It’s a great spot for hanging out. The windows are tall enough to see not only sunrises and sunsets, but the stars as well,” she said. The view is truly incredible.
Every guest room has a flat screen TV, a thermostat for comfort control, an ironing board and iron, terrycloth bathrobes, a hair dryer, an in-room safe, and also candy, snacks and bottled water. Each bathroom was built to fit the space available, which is why some are square, others rectangular. During this renovation, they made the building ADA accessible.
Elayne commented, “We had a great time decorating the rooms. We wanted to make them inviting, not only for history buffs, but also for those who couldn’t care less about history. It’s sort of a transitional style, understated and comfortable but not fussy. And all of the history is obvious.” In addition, each guest room sports framed pictures of historic hotels, which also adorn the walls in the common spaces. During the restoration, they added a small conference room on the first floor that’s available to guests for lunches, meetings or dinners.
“Any time we were able to save a part of the original building, we did so because we want its beauty to shine,” said Elayne. “For instance, the bookcase in the second floor lounge originally was a closet. Also, when we added a staircase from the second to the third floor, we exposed where the wall went from stone to brick. And, when we had to remove a few of the original beams, we had some made into bookends and use the others in our breakfast buffet.”
The Continental breakfast buffet consists of fresh berries, yogurt, granola, oatmeal with different toppings, homemade breakfast breads, toast and bagels with jams, butter and cream cheese, and coffee, tea and juice.
William is from this area, while Elayne grew up in Long Island, coming to Philadelphia to attend college. After earning her B.S. in Geology, she stayed and worked in a restaurant in Philly before starting graduate school. “I lasted in grad school for about a year but left because I missed the restaurant business too much.” She and William, who had met when both were working in the restaurant, married in 1989. They have two children, both now grown.
Because the hotel has been open for only a few months, it has not yet won any awards. However, she said, “We’ve won plenty of them for both the Washington House Restaurant and the Sellersville Theater. And all of our hotel TripAdvisor ratings are Five stars.”
Once they had the restaurant running smoothly, they turned their attention to the theater next door. Elayne commented, “William has great vision of how to transform what is into what could be.” She explained, “That building, constructed in 1894, originally was the stable for the Washington House and then was a movie theater. We thought about it for a year and decided we wanted to bring the two buildings back together. So we bought the theater, gutted the interior and restored it with a Victorian theme. There was carpet on the walls that we ripped down and replaced with padded fabric. Not only did that make the room warm and attractive, it also had the surprise benefit of really helping the acoustics. The padding absorbs sound so there isn’t a lot of echoing, which can be a problem with some theaters.” She added, “It now is a successful live music venue.”
Of course, the third piece of the puzzle was renovating the upstairs. She said simply, “My husband had the vision for all three projects.” Among the restaurant, theater and hotel, they employ 65 people, many part time. Full-time employee Allison Bruen is the new hotel general manager. Elayne said, “She’s been working in our organization for nine years and likes to develop protocol. In addition to her organizational skills and attention to detail, she has a warmth with guests that makes her perfect for this job.”
Amazingly, through the years during all of the renovations, reconstructions and restorations, the Washington House has been closed for exactly one day, when their electrical system was upgraded.
When asked what sets their establishment apart from all of the other B&Bs in Bucks County, Elayne responded, “The beauty of the building. And the hospitality of our staff that makes all of our guests comfortable, regardless of why they came here.” She continued, “Our mission statement is to provide true hospitality by treating our guests, our performers and each other with warmth, sincerity and respect.”
If you haven’t been to the Washington House in awhile, you simply haven’t been to the Washington House! Competitive rates and package deals that include dinner at their award-winning restaurant await you at this charming “boutique hotel.”
The Washington House is located at 136 North Main Street, Sellersville PA. For more information, call 215-257-3000 or visit www.washingtonhouse.net.
Patti Guthrie is a freelance writer and antiques dealer from Chalfont, PA.