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Show A brief history of Under The Eaves Inn Herbert Knight Christensen (August 25, 1906 - January 21, 1950) was born and raised in the first house just passed the gas station, now known as the Lazy Lizard. The "storybook" architecture house Herbert designed started construction sometime around 1931. He was married to Lillian Anderson (September 24, 1912) - who ran the Town post office, a timber frame building, which was located in our current parking area. Herbert constructed the house with some help on the more technical aspects, but mostly it was built pretty much on his own with one horse that he used to get sandstone blocks cut from the walls of the canyon mountainside. He would drag them back one by one, dressing the stone with a spelling hammer as needed and then dragging them into their final place. At one point, Lillian went to school to learn how to become a teacher. Upon graduation, she went to Provo Utah and began work at the teachers college. Supported by Lillian, Herbert also went to college to become a teacher. Eventually they both became teachers and worked at Brigham Young University. In 1960, the house was purchased by Carl Devon Hardy. In the mid sixties, it was sold to the Excell family. Around 1980, it was sold to Wanda Mathews. She used a portion of the home as an antique shop. She set up her living area in what is now known as the Eaves Suite. The 130 year old church window was added to the rear of the home, as well as old railings from the same church that can be seen in the Suite and outside of Garden Cottage room #5. The fifth of May 1981, Marcus Thompson founded the Bit and Spur restaurant and became good friends with Wanda Mathews. Together they had been working toward converting Wanda's home in to a Bed and Breakfast shortly before she died. Marcus purchased the home after Wanda passed and finished the conversion. June 1st 1985 Under The Eaves opened its doors to the public. Around 1988, the Bed and Breakfast was sold to Catherine Brown. Around 1994, it was sold to Rick O'Toole who renamed it O'Tooles Bed and Breakfast When the Park decided to build new cabins for guests, various people in town wanted to own a part of park history and purchased the 1920's structures. Rick purchased one of the cabins that now sits behind the Inn and two more rooms to be rented on the property. In 2002, Steve and Deb Masefield bought it from the O'Toole's and renamed it Under The Eaves. Deb converted the wood shop/shed in the upper garden in to her art studio. In 2008 Joe Pitti and Mark Chambers stayed at the B&B while visiting Zion. As Joe was gathering his luggage, he expressed to Steve how much he loved the historic home and the grounds. Steve replied with, "make me an offer". It took about a year to put the deal together. They purchased the Inn in October of 2009. In 2010 they added a bathroom to the art studiO and converted it in to a seventh room. They have thoroughly enjoyed living in Springdale and operating the longest running historic Inn in the shadow of Zion NaUoft-alPark and meeting the thousands of people that cross their threshold. |