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Accidental innkeepers’ success
A house with a history Gramercy Mansion has a long and storied past that appealed to the Pomykalas. In 1902, Alexander Cassatt bought the heavily wooded property as a present for his daughter, Eliza, at the time of her marriage to W. Plunkett Steward, founder of the still existing Greenspring Valley Hunt Club. Cassatt himself was well-known for his role as president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In later years, his fame became overshadowed by that of his sister, Mary Cas-
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNE POMYKALA
By Carol Sorgen For those who have harbored a secret fantasy of opening a quaint bed and breakfast (does the TV show “Newhart” ring a bell?), innkeeper Anne Pomykala gently offers these words of advice: “It’s a lot of work. It’s not as romantic as you think.” That being said, the 72-year-old owner of the Gramercy Mansion Bed & Breakfast in Greenspring Valley, as well as the 1840s Carrollton Inn in Baltimore City, has no regrets. It turned out to be an unexpected, yet ultimately rewarding, mid-life career opportunity. Pomykala and her husband Ronald, 76, are born and bred Washingtonians who knew little about Baltimore before purchasing the Gramercy 25 years ago. They were visiting a friend at Johns Hopkins Hospital and saw an ad for the sale of the mansion. At the time, it housed the Koinonia Foundation, a spiritual community. “We took one look and fell in love with it,” said Pomykala. “We decided to buy it and make it our home.” The manor house, built in the first years of the 20th century, was in a state of disrepair, as were the carriage house and various other outbuildings situated on the 45-acre property. As a result, neither developers nor individual homeowners were flocking to the auctioneer to purchase the estate. “Every roof leaked, the septic system leaked, only one of the three wells was working…there was a lot to do,” Pomykala recalled. Undaunted, they purchased it for what she called a “low” $670,000. “Of course, we put a lot more money into restoring it,” Pomykala said mildly. “We didn’t go in blindfolded. We knew we had a lot to do, but not quite how much or how expensive it was going to be.”
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LEISURE & TRAVEL
Visiting old and new Tokyo on a budget; plus, escape to the Caribbean for sun and rum in Barbados page 23
ARTS & STYLE Twenty-five years ago, Anne Pomykala and her husband Ronald bought a dilapidated mansion in Greenspring Valley, which they renovated and transformed into Gramercy Mansion Bed & Breakfast. More recently, they have renovated several early 19th century Baltimore rowhouses, turning them into the 1840s Carrollton Inn.
satt, an Impressionist painter who depicted the social and private lives of women, and whose work can be found in the National Gallery of Art. Cassatt designed Gramercy to resemble the family’s summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine. Built in the style of an Old English Tudor manor house, the mansion had 25 rooms, including an eight-room servant’s wing. In ensuing generations the mansion passed through several other well-known Baltimore families, including descendants of Benjamin Franklin and a senator. At the time of their purchase, Anne Pomykala was a full-time homemaker rais-
ing her six children. Her husband was, and still is, a practicing dentist. Neither had ever restored an historic property, but Anne came from a construction family so she had some knowledge of what needed to be done. She also was an active Girl Scout volunteer and credits much of her ability to see the project through to that experience. Girl Scouting teaches girls how to “organize, delegate and work together,” she explained. It didn’t take long before the Pomykalas realized that making Gramercy their full-time residence was not economically feasible. See BED & BREAKFAST, page 21
The long, colorful career of artist Joan Erbe; plus, classes that bring out your artsy side page 27
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