About The Mariposa Hotel-Inn
Innkeeper Lyn Maccarone Welcomes You To The Historic Mariposa Hotel Inn!
Hi, I am Lyn Maccarone, owner and operator of this six-room historic hotel. I love this business, and I thoroughly enjoy my guests who arrive from California, all over the US, and from many foreign countries.
The Mariposa Hotel-Inn is located in downtown Mariposa only a short 32 miles from Yosemite National Park. Mariposa is a quaint old-fashioned town with a population of about 2,000 and sits in a picturesque valley at 2,000 feet elevation.
The site where the Hotel-Inn now sits was originally built as a hotel and bar in the 1850’s at the peak of the California Gold Rush. Mariposa is the beginning of the world famous "Mother Lode" where gold is still being found.
Around 1899, a fire destroyed much of downtown Mariposa. Our current 3-story building was built in 1901 by W.B. Stolder and has a colorful history. It was used as a hotel, bar, variety store, and various other businesses.
My father and mother (Maurice and Helen) bought the building in 1969 because of a dream that Maurie had. The Brown’s owned and operated a small country grocery store next to the hotel. We all worked in the store. I was a cashier, my brothers Gordy and Jim were box boys and stockers.
One morning my father came in and said, “I had the darndest dream last night. I was told to buy that old building (the hotel) next door”. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. The building was so decrepit, it hadn’t been maintained for years as the owners who inherited it lived in Europe. It was the worst eyesore on the block and people just ignored it.
But, my mother believed in dreams. She said, “I think we should go take a look, I have never been upstairs”. Well, that visit led to my parents selling the grocery store, purchasing the hotel and “retiring” to work on the 1901 building.
Maurie and Helen spent several years remodeling the building and converting the old hotel rooms to 7 small apartments for senior citizens. When he ran the grocery business, my father would drive the senior citizens to their homes, as most could not afford transportation. HUD didn’t exist in those days and seniors living on about $300 a month from social security would purchase their monthly supplies, pay any bills, and buy groceries with what was left.
My father would drive them to the country to old mining shacks, some without flooring, insulation, etc. My father would return and tell us “Oh, you should see what so and so is living in.” Put simply, that’s why he came up with the idea to prepare these small apartments for these seniors.
My mother never forgot their birthdays, my father drove them to the doctor and my mother scoured the church bazaars for used clothing or kitchen supplies for them. This went on until 1984 when my mother passed, and my father was not up to running the apartments.
My father agreed to let me convert the apartments into a Bed & Breakfast. So, with my late husband Mac’s substantial help we basically gutted the entire building creating 7 retail rentals on the first two floors and 6 Bed and Breakfast type rooms with an Innkeepers quarters.
Mac’s passion and hobby was woodworking, and the entire building is filled with his craftsmanship. I concentrated on painting, wallpapering, finding and buying antiques furniture and other decorating. What once was a derelict building is now the most popular building in the village of Mariposa.
We’re especially proud of our Photo collection. Guests and visitors really enjoy pictures of the oldest Courthouse west of the Mississippi River, The County Courthouse. Some of the hotel buildings are actually ones featured in magazines and historic articles. We even have personal photos taken by tourists and guests.
We completed the remodeling in 1991 and Mac and I settled in as Innkeepers where we really enjoyed socializing with our guests on the garden deck. We created a very warm, untypical Hotel-Inn. We were and are known for a charming lodging, each room has it’s own character and is quite unique.
Many of our guests come from Europe and have told us they felt very much at home here. B&B travelers enjoyed being in the center of our town to walk to shops and restaurants. In 2001 Triple AAA declared us a three-diamond lodging facility, the only one in the County except for the Grand Awhanee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.
Mac fell ill with cancer in 1996 and by mid 1997 he passed. Our family ran the hotel until 2001 when my health failed and I was forced to turn the B&B rooms into offices. But my health has returned and as of August 2007 we are back in the business I LOVE as an elegant and unique Hotel-Inn.
My goal is and always has been to make our guests feel like they are at home and at a place where they can rest, maybe meet new friends on the deck, and enjoy historic Mariposa and Yosemite.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Evelyn (Lyn) Brown Maccarone
Category: Odds & Ends
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
No comments yet.