Heller House Inn Welcomes Guests

One of Kingstree's oldest homes has recently taken on a new role in the community as a bed and breakfast. Pam and Darren Tisdale bought what has long been known as the Heller House, located at 405 N. Academy Street, from Robert and Dottie Arnette in October 2010. Now that they're "empty-nesters," they've decided they can fill a need in the community by offering three of their bedrooms to overnight guests. The Heller House Inn officially opened for business on November 1, 2017.

The Heller House Inn at 405 N. Academy Street in Kingstree.

Innkeepers Pam and Darren Tisdale.

Photo provided by Pam Tisdale

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1995. According to the National Register application, the core of the house was a one-story cottage believed to have been built around 1845. From 1863 until 1881, it served as parsonage for the Kingstree Methodist Church. It changed hands a number of times before Caroline Simons Heller bought it in 1890 for $728. By 1895, she and her husband M.F. Heller had enlarged it into the two-story house we know today.

Caroline Simons Heller

One of Kingstree's early baseball teams. Mike Heller is on the far left of the top row.

Both photos taken from Remembering Kingstree.

Mike and Carrie Heller were an interesting couple. She grew up in Charleston and came to Kingstree to teach school in 1880. The census that year shows her boarding with Mary Lesesne Porter, whose garden was one that we looked at in last week's post. When Carrie Simons moved to Kingstree, she was the only Episcopalian in town. To provide a place for her to worship, she almost single-handedly founded St. Alban's Episcopal Church. Although her husband remained a ruling elder at Williamsburg Presbyterian, he, along with P.B. Thorn, built the church that we know today as St. Alban's. Carrie Heller was an accomplished musician and she often used her talents to put on musical events to raise money for the church.

St. Alban's Episcopal Church as it looks today,

Mike Heller's father Philip was a German, who, according to Conrad Constine, still had a heavy accent after many years of living in Kingstree. Philip Heller was one of two white Republicans in town in the 1870s and served as the Williamsburg County Treasurer during Reconstruction. Mike Heller owned and operated a very successful sales and livery stable on Academy Street in Kingstree for many years. He also owned a similar operation in Georgetown, managed by his nephew, Emile Arrowsmith. Mr. Heller had a bit of a reputation as a rogue. His livery stable was known locally as the "Loafers' Paradise." There are tales of 24-hour poker games taking place there, and a number of women in town would not walk down Academy Street because the men sitting in front of the stable ogled them. Mr. Heller took numerous trips to the west to buy unbroken horses and mules. The livestock would arrive on the train and would be led in a wild run down Academy Street to the livery stable.

The side yard of the Heller House Inn today.

According to a Bessie Britton column published in The County Record in 1970, Carrie Heller kept six parrots in an enclosure in the yard of the house. Local children took great pleasure in tormenting the parrots by making hissing noises in their presence. This drove the parrots crazy, and as the children giggled, the parrots would call out in unison for "Miss Carrie," who would come running with her broom in hand to chase away whatever was disturbing the birds. Bessie Britton remembered feeling somewhat ashamed for tormenting the birds because Mrs. Heller often gave the children lemonade and cookies. Carrie Heller also owned a large flock of geese which, along with several other flocks, had the run of the town.

The dining room of the Heller House Inn.

Tradition says that the Hellers added the dining room to the house when the Baptist Church across the street was about to build a new sanctuary. He moved the old sanctuary, or at least a part of it, and attached it to his existing house. The carbide gaselier hanging over the table was electrified later but the Hellers may have had the earliest inside gas lighting in town. Mike and Carrie Heller often entertained, and according to The County Record, their invitations encouraged their friends to "come early and stay late."

A residence which now faces Brooks Street was the original detached kitchen for the Heller House. After M.F. Heller's sister inherited the house at his death in 1939, she had the kitchen moved closer to Brooks Street where it was converted into a small house.

This small house facing Brooks Street was the original detached kitchen for the Heller House. 

You can see the chimneys of the Heller House on the right side of the photo.

Although both the Hellers' children died in infancy, the big house was never empty. The 1920 census shows a number of boarders, including Fitzhugh Lee, Blackwell McKenzie, Ebbie Gillis, Allan Sauls, and Melvin Rogers. By 1930, several nieces, nephews, and sisters-in-law filled the bedrooms of the home.

The River Room at the Heller House Inn.

The Palmetto Room.

The King's Room.

The Tisdales hope their guests at the Heller House Inn, located just two blocks north of Kingstree's downtown historic district–also on the National Register–will find Shabbat, or "rest" within the walls of their home, which is the oldest in the original city limits of Kingstree. Visit the Heller House Inn on Facebook or at its website at https://www.hellerhousebandb.com. 

A welcoming front porch greets visitors to the Heller House Inn.

The Historic Register application for the house notes that it is "reflective of different uses over time and the changing needs of its occupants." In turning it into a bed and breakfast, the Tisdales continue that trend. It just goes to show that neither houses nor people are ever too old to embark upon exciting new adventures.