From The Archives

The Alta Vista Gallery & B&B

With wonderful views of the Lower Valley, this classic brick Craftsman home (c. 1922) was strategically built across the street from the "Farthing Store" (originally known as the "Valley Crucis Company", and now known as the Mast Store Annex and Candy Barrel) by (Richard) Aubyn Farthing and his wife (Mary) Hazel Glenn Farthing. Dapper and gentlemanly, Mr. Farthing managed the general store from 1914 until his retirement in 1952, with the active participation of his wife and his brother Ben W. Farthing. From 1928 until 1963, Aubyn Farthing was also the local postmaster. The Farthing family had high regard for education. Hazel worked for years as a teacher in the three-room school across the street from the store. Mr. Farthing was famous as an excellent Sunday school teacher at the local Methodist Church, and his lessons were well-attended, although he professed to be a life-long Baptist.

The property was sold by the Farthing heirs to Marie Hicks in 1978, and remained in the Hicks family (another very old Valle Crucis family) until it was sold to the present owners, Lee and Maria Hyde, in 1994. The Hydes then began a sensitive renovation of the home and guest cottage, completed in 1996, when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property has been used since then as an active art gallery and a charming three-room bed and breakfast inn, with the separate cottage for the owners' residence.

Wiring, plumbing, and heating systems were all redone during that renovation. The main house now features propane gas forced-air heating on the lower level, with electric baseboard and individual window air-conditioning units upstairs, so that bed-and-breakfast guests can have individual control of these systems. Each of the three guest bedrooms has a private bath. A fourth room, now used as a sitting room, has a large closet that has been preliminarily plumbed for another bathroom.

The delightful 700-square-foot one-bedroom cottage was converted from a c.1920s barn structure and features handsome exposed beams and timbers. It has a small second kitchen, a full bath, and a bedroom with vaulted ceilings. Between the Main House and the Cottage, a private deck shelters a large (and inviting!) hot tub.
The rocking chairs on the large front porch of the Main House beckon visitors to enjoy the scenery of the beautiful Lower Valley of Valle Crucis. The porch swing is where H.W. Mast, Jr. (known as "H" locally) courted the Farthings' daughter, also named Mary Hazel. "H" came from the family that owned the other general store in Valle Crucis, known as the Mast General Store (then and now). Their marriage joined two of Valle Crucis' most revered families. They and some of their children still live in the immediate neighborhood.