Grinnell, Iowa

At the Carriage House Bed and Breakfast, a relaxing stay in the dollhouse-like home is served with a warm cup of Irish hospitality.

Victorian architecture epitomized by a sweeping veranda conjures images of the 1890s upper-crust of Grinnell, Iowa — mingling, waltzing house-guests in prim dresses and suits. Almost unnoticed on the side of the house, a small covered entryway evokes images of gussied-up Victorian women stepping out of their carriages and onto the shielded area so as not to muddy their fine footwear.

Dorothy Spriggs, manager and co-owner of the Carriage House with her husband Ray, said running a bed and breakfast was always in the back of her mind while growing up.

“I’m originally from the north of Ireland, and bed and breakfasts are very popular there,” she said.

Her subtle Irish accent was discernable as she compared the bed and breakfasts in Northern Ireland to those in America.

“In Northern Ireland, bed and breakfasts are typically a cheaper way to go, cheaper than staying in a hotel, whereas over here, bed and breakfasts are the fancy place in town,” Spriggs said. “Ours is sort of an in-between place. We have a very nice house and everything, but we try to encourage college parents to stay here, so our prices are medium.”

The Spriggs filled the house with some of their own furnishings and went antiquing to find more.

“I always feel like my house is typical of an Irish estate home … where the house has been in the family for generations and each generation might add a piece to the house,” Spriggs said.

She said the Carriage House feels so welcoming because it is both the bed and breakfast and her personal home, giving it a lived-in feel.

The entryway opens to a central parlor and two side parlors. Each side parlor has original stained glass windows looking out onto the veranda and front yard. The rooms are filled with antiques: porcelain and tea pot collections, ornate rugs and lavish furniture.

Spriggs said a wealthy lumberyard owner built the house in the 1890s for his family, who used the house for entertaining.

“Our house is unusual in that our stairway was built as an entertainment stage, to have like a string quartet perform or someone perform a vignette, which they liked to do in the Victorian times,” she said.

The stairway to the upstairs consists of two parts. Several broad steps lead to an open stage area, large enough to hold an old-time carriage. A door on stage right opens to the rest of the stairs.

The upstairs has six rooms, all with private baths. Each room is themed around a British Isle and is decorated according to theme.

The Cotswold room evokes an English garden in decoration, with flowered wall paper and a picket fence border.

Spriggs said the Irish room is called Innisfree and its theme is the color green.

“The Innisfree room is based on a poem by William Butler Yeats: ‘I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,’” she said. “It’s all in shades of green. If you go to Ireland, it’s all green, and it’s not just one green, it’s hundreds of shades of green.”

Spriggs said most guests are parents or students visiting Grinnell College. The bed and breakfast provides a nice place for visitors to stay, a nourishing breakfast and proximity to both downtown and campus. Spriggs said other guests stay as an escape from the mundane.

“We have a number of couples that come twice or three times a year just to get away,” Spriggs said.

Every morning, Spriggs cooks homemade breakfasts with many varieties of Irish recipes. The dining room table is filled with hearty dishes and a place setting for each guest.

“The bed and breakfasts in Northern Ireland, everybody serves the same breakfast,” she said. “No matter where you go, you get fried eggs, bacon and mushrooms.”

Spriggs said she cooks gourmet breakfasts because that is what is expected from bed and breakfasts in America.

Like the food served at the Carriage House, Spriggs said her personal hospitality has roots in her Irish background.

“The Irish are known for their hospitality, and I feel like that’s just kind of something that comes natural to me, to be warm and friendly to people,” she said. “A lot of guests have made the comment to me that they feel like they are coming home or that this is a little bit of Ireland.”

Maia Rodriguez was a first-time guest at the Carriage House, enjoying Spriggs’ warm welcome. Rodriguez said she and her mom came to Grinnell to visit her younger sister, a freshman at Grinnell College, and stayed at the bed and breakfast as a nice alternative to the local hotel.

“Grinnell is a pretty small town, and my mom had been here one other time and she had stayed in one of the bigger places,” Rodriguez said. “We wanted to stay in something a little homier and close to campus. … The building is very exceptional — all the woodwork is beautiful.”

Spriggs said the woodwork in the house contains many diverse woods because in the 1890s, it was popular to incorporate a variety into the home design as a status symbol.

“In the time period when it was built, it was typical to use lots of different types to show that you had access to all of them,” Spriggs said.

Spriggs said guests often make a three-block trek from the Carriage House to the downtown area and are met with more Victorian architecture. Every building around the square is on the National Historic Register, which preserves the historical architecture of the town.

On the northwest corner of the square, turn-of-the-century architect Louis Sullivan designed a square bank building with a doorway like a keyhole, embodying his theme of jewel box buildings. Designed with obvious hints of Gothic-style architecture, the bank entrance adds an ostentatious but eye-pleasing impression of downtown Grinnell.

Restaurants, coffee shops and art galleries pepper the downtown with points of interest for guests of the Carriage House. After exploring the town, guests can return with ease to the warmth of a little taste of Ireland.