We are so thrilled to welcome you to the Creekside Barn!

As travelers ourselves, we know that when staying in an intimate setting, it’s nice to have a sense of who’s running the place. So to that end, please allow us to introduce ourselves.

Our names are Kerstin and John Davis, and this Inn is the culmination of a lifetime filled with a shared love of old houses.

We met in Savannah, GA, 25 years ago. Kerstin was an artist with a painting degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design. John was a software developer and history nerd with a passion for woodworking. Our first project together was a grand three-story Victorian row house that had suffered a catastrophic fire.

This project lead to many other homes being restored in a previously undesirable neighborhood. Our work led to a renaissance in the area and we were even featured in the Savannah Morning News under the headline “Urban Pioneers.”

North Carolina Bound

Having decided that our next venture would be starting a family together, we set out to find an ideal place to raise children. That’s when we found the placid Pensacola valley nestled in the Black Mountain chain just below Mount Mitchell near Burnsville, NC.

Together we restored a 1910 farm house, which served us well as an ideal home to raise our three children. During our time there we also renovated the tobacco barn on the property, which functioned as a studio for Kerstin, then an office for John, then a space for our boys, and finally as our first nightly rental. Our “Contemporary Creekside Barn” was an instant hit, and we found we loved hosting visitors from all over the country.

The Marshall House Inn is Born

At this point, John had been developing software for 30+ years and was ready for a change. And Kerstin, an art teacher at Madison Middle School, was eager to find a home closer to work. It was she who first spotted the “For Sale” sign on the old mysterious house on the hill in downtown Marshall. We purchased the house in early 2016 with the vision of opening a desperately needed Inn in the small town of Marshall.

Using everything we learned from our past projects, we put our work gloves back on and renovated the entire house. John did much of the manual work and Kerstin designed spaces that are comfortable and modern, but still honor the building’s historic past. The Inn is infused both with Kerstin’s art and John’s furniture, as well as art from other local artists.

As avid travelers ourselves, we have always enjoyed staying in unique, local accommodations because they provide such a rich experience of the local area. We hope to provide that same sense of uniqueness in the Marshall House Inn by providing guests with comfortable, luxurious accommodations and sharing our knowledge of this incredible area.

We worked tirelessly for two years to bring this vision to reality, welcoming our first guests in August 2016. Today, Kerstin continues to teach while John is enjoying his new role as a full time innkeeper and woodworker.

Be sure to visit the Inn online at marshallhouseinn.com

We look forward to meeting you and sharing our love of old houses, barns and the western North Carolina area with you!

Sincerely,
Kerstin & John