About Beaufort's Historic Rhett House Inn

Among Beaufort’s live oaks coated with resurrection fern is a nearly 200-year-old in-town plantation house.

The Rhett House Inn is a 9,000-square-feet home with a two-story wrap-around piazza just one block from the Intracoastal Waterway. A short walk from the historic district shops and world class restaurants, this inn has been in operation since 1987, slowly expanding to surrounding property several years later. In all, the AAA-rated Four Diamond lodging has been in the top tier of AAA-rated properties since 1994.

As travelers begin the journey into Beaufort, one can’t help but begin to smile at the personality of the lowcountry, as the region is called. Small waterways meander through marsh, giant moss-covered oaks line the streets and palm trees sway in the breeze. Things are more relaxed here, and The Rhett House Inn staff makes sure that the feeling is spread throughout. Pulling into the gravel parking lot in the back, a “Back Door Friends” sign welcomes guests to enter up the five or six steps and through the door.

The inn with Charleston green shutters and high ceilings exudes Southern hospitality. Upon arrival, the staff welcomes you, and since food is available almost all day long, you’ll probably be able to unwind with some type of treat.

Gourmet Southern Breakfast is served in the dining room and on the piazza from 8 a.m.-10 a.m. with coffee, hot tea and coffee cake served in the parlor starting at 7 a.m. Then homemade sweets and tea are available in the parlor from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., followed by light hors d’oeuvres in the living room from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. and then dessert tops off the day in the kitchen from 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

Those back door guests enter through the kitchen, a place that is automatically homey with a farmhouse style dining table on the left and a professional grade kitchen to the right. During dessert, guests often chat with others while savoring a slice of chocolate cake or apple pie a la mode with a great cup of coffee, decaffeinated if you prefer, or hot tea. The atmosphere is like that of a midnight kitchen raid with a dear family member.

The kitchen is also one of the newer parts of the house. The home was built circa 1820 when the “kitchen house” was separate from the main house due to the possibility of a kitchen fire. So once guests walk through the kitchen, they enter a setting of original heart pine floors, tall ceilings and original glass windows, complete with charming imperfections.

The parlor, dining room and three guest rooms are on this main floor. Four rooms are up the stairs and another three are downstairs in what was a storage area during the first days of the home. In all, The Rhett House Inn offers 17 rooms to guests; the other seven found in the cottage just across the street from the back of the property. This building, while not quite as old as the Rhett House, was built in 1846 as a store for freed slaves to buy and sell goods. It later became a school and eventually dorm-type housing for seminary students. That’s when Rhett House owners Steve and Marianne Harrison bought the two-story building and renovated it into guest rooms, all with fireplaces, whirlpool baths and separate showers.

While many would assume the name of the inn comes from that quintessential Southern film “Gone with the Wind” and Scarlett’s beau Rhett Butler, the inn has its own interesting story to tell. Thomas Rhett raised his children under this roof. However, Thomas was originally a Smith. As his uncle with the last name of Rhett neared death, the uncle promised to bequeath his fortune to nephews who would carry on the last name. Thomas Smith was happy to oblige.

With his new-found inheritance, Thomas Rhett was able to create a fine home, with Adam-style decorative mantles and dentil moulding that remain today. The mantles top the four fireplaces in the main house. Two, one in the parlor and one in the dining room, are wood-burning fireplaces and are lit during the winter, inviting guests curl up with a good book next to a fire. The other two fireplaces are in upstairs guest rooms.

If you are looking for a way to unwind after the journey in, stop by the parlor to pick out a book, a movie or lounge around reading the day’s newspaper. White chairs and a white couch trimmed in dark wood offer an English Colonial feel to the room. Built-in shelves go almost all the way to the ceiling, and books are neatly arranged by color. Blue on one shelf, red on another.

The parlor is also where guests can find the cash bar. A collection of liquors, beers and wines, including the inn’s private label cabernets, merlots and chardonnays, are displays on a buffet. The inn serves its private label wine, produced by a California vineyard, during events it holds on the grounds. The inn can accommodate weddings of 50-250 guests and can fit a 40-foot-by-40-foot tent in the garden. Guests can take a look at a few Rhett House Inn weddings of note by browsing through photo albums on the coffee table in the parlor, including the Harrison’s daughter’s wedding in 1997. Photos show lavish weddings with stylish lounging rooms under illuminated tents. The garden is an ideal spot for weddings, as guests can sit under a giant pecan tree and encircle a running fountain. Steven Harrison, a notary public, can officiate if the couple prefers.

The gardener on site maintains an herb garden and a lime tree, perfect for picking a great-tasting lime for an evening gin and tonic, according to General Manager Stephanie Fairbanks, who has been with the Rhett House Inn for more than 10 years. The kitchen uses chives, rosemary and other fresh herbs for meals.

Overlooking the garden is Room 10, a large room that typically serves as the bride’s room, a honeymoon suite or a great spot for anniversaries. With its private entrance and private screened porch, this room is frequently requested and is booked several weeks, if not months, in advance. Back in the 80s, when the Harrisons were just starting the inn – after successful careers in the New York fashion industry – Room 10 was their bedroom while they operated the other five rooms. About a dozen years ago the couple built a home in the back of the inn that blends perfectly with the rest of the neighborhood with its red tin roof.

As for the rest of the rooms in the inn, each one is decorated individually. You might find blue gingham in one, light green floral print in another, but each is elegant yet comfortable.

Guests awaken to the smell of bacon and fresh coffee. A few visitors relax with a cup of coffee in the parlor prior to breakfast being served. Cottage guests have coffeemakers provided in each room, so they can relax on their private porches before breakfast. Making way into the dining room, just across the hallway from the parlor, tables are covered with crisp linens, black chairs and a simply, single red Gerber daisy in the center. Walls are decorated with simple black-and-white photos taken by Mrs. Harrison’s brother, Rodney Smith, a New York photographer.

In the corner, however, is a photo of the Rhett House, taken during the Civil War. Union soldiers and nurses stand on the piazza, as the home served as a hospital recovery building during the war. The massive live oaks that shade the home today were young in the photo. Interesting to note is the home’s piazza. In the 1860s, it didn’t wrap around as it does today. Guests who look closely will see that the columns on the left side of the house are slightly different from those in the front. Stepping into the hallway, guests can see another photo of the house taken circa 1920. The piazza is present, and it is almost breathtaking to think that the Rhett House was already 100 years old then.

On pleasant days, those who want to grab a table on the piazza for breakfast dining should arrive promptly at 8 a.m. Guests step on the piazza through Gibb doors. These doors, original to the home, are made from an 8-foot window that lifts above and a door bottom similar to a Dutch doorway. History has two stories for why these doors were built: some speculate it was because of a tax on doors and these appear to be windows; others say the doors open up the house for a better breeze, especially since all four face the waterway.

Guests can choose between the breakfast special – sometimes blueberry pancakes – or the Southern breakfast, complete with bacon, eggs any style, grits and your choice of bread – wheat toast, biscuit or English muffin. The grits are a must-have. True stone ground grits are a smooth, luscious taste of the South. Guests can buy a bag of them from the gift area in the kitchen, but be sure to ask for the recipe as well.

For guests who are ready to venture out during the day, the inn can prepare a picnic lunch. This might be an easy choice if heading to the beach, about 16 miles away. Once out there, the Shrimp Shack is just about the only restaurant around, and the line winds its way out the door there. If you are more interested in hearing the waves crash at Hunting Island State Park, but be sure to ask for the Rhett House Inn lunch to go.

Bikes are also available for guests who might want to explore the historic district surrounding the inn. Additionally, horse-drawn carriage tours frequently clomp by. Once you’ve had your fun for the day, the inn can arrange for an in-room massage if requested 24 hours in advance. Or guests can simply relax in the hammock on the second-floor piazza. With branches that stretch along the length of the house, guests have referred to this spot as like being in a tree house.

While photos of celebrities who have frequented The Rhett House Inn line the shelves in the parlor, celebrities aren’t the only ones who know a good thing when they’ve found it. Stars... eat your heart out. We Carolinians don’t have to fly across the country to find our slice of Southern heaven.