NAVASOTA, Texas — RavenWolf Manor is a carefully curated, Victorian themed Bed 'n Breakfast in Navasota and it's unlike anything you might expect, including the "breakfast" part.
- The new homeowner, Lawyer Douglas, has always wanted to be an innkeeper but says he is not a morning person, so he says his guests will get a Bed and Brunch experience.
- RavenWolf Manor as a whole has a Gothic Victorian theme but each room has its own theme: the Edgar Allen Poe Room, Bram Stoker's Dracula Room, and Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.
- Douglas says they plan to officially open in the summer to guests as well as host murder mystery dinner parties.
BROADCAST SCRIPT:
“I like the idea of floors creaking — it almost feels to me like it’s the music that the house has composed over the years.”
RavenWolf Manor isn't your typical Bed and Breakfast. But then, Lawyer Douglas isn't your typical host.
“I didn't like backpacks, I wanted a briefcase, so my mom bought me a briefcase," Douglas said.
"I walked in with a three-piece suit and a briefcase as a, you know, a little seven year old boy and then my name being Lawyer, I always imagined the teachers were like 'What is happening here?'."
Fast forward a few decades, Douglas is still wearing three-piece suits, giving tours of his grand Victorian home-turned-Bed-and-Breakfast, or BNB.
“How nice it would be that people are not having to wake up so early in the morning, at seven or eight in the morning, to eat breakfast and be gone and they could luxuriate in the bedrooms, so it'll really be a bed and brunch.”
Before moving to Navasota almost a year and a half ago, Douglas and his husband owned a store in Houston, with his home attached to it — ano arsonist burned it all down.
“This little guy right here is Percy and he didn’t always look like this. When I came to assess the damage, I immediately looked for Percy because I just had such a connection with him — and so, this is now how he looks and when people see him they think that he’s really scary, but I have a connection with him because the way that he looks is the way that I felt when I first found out about the tragedy.”
RavenWolf Manor is Navasota is filled with items like Percy. Each with their own story, each deliberately chosen and displayed.
With the transformation of the house, he hopes to help transform Navasota into a tourist destination.
“I want it to be a tourist destination here and that was something that was very important to me, that I bring to Navasota something that is nowhere, not only here in Texas, but anywhere in the US and so being a tourist spot is wonderful.”
Lawyer says they plan to open the Bed and Brunch this summer and will also host murder mystery dinner parties and other community gatherings.
