For the week of May 1 - 7, 2002

Hailey bed and breakfast to be featured on HGTV

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Sam and Terrie Davis turned their charming family home in Hailey into a bed and breakfast nearly 10 years ago. It was built in about 1890 by English carpenter and lumber yard owner, John Povey, and his wife, Elizabeth, who raised five children in the four-bedroom, one-bathroom home.

Express photo by David Seelig

Eventually, as the Davises tore down walls and removed old wallpaper, they found newspapers from the late 1880s, Collier’s magazines, New Yorker Mysteries and a huge amount of old personal papers, including receipts, bills and letters—all used as insulation. It was these finds that attracted the House and Garden Television show, "If Walls Could Talk" to the Povey Pensione.

Last week, producer Michelle Bills and cameraman Steven Brown, of High Noon Productions in Littleton, Colo., came to Hailey to spend the day filming at Povey Pensione. The show appears each Sunday night and features homes from different regions of the country.

Bills and Brown also shot in Boise and Eagle over the five days preceding their visit to Hailey. In Boise, they spent a day at the C.W. Moore home, and former Governor Haines’ home, where the owners had found a Certificate of Election buried in the walls. In Eagle, they spent a day at the Aiken’s home, whose family founded the town.

The Povey Pensione, though entirely rebuilt by Sam Davis, still retains several of its original aspects, including the wood trim work around the windows and doors, stained-glass windows in the front hall and kitchen, and a faux marble fireplace. Terrie Davis said she feels the hand of Elizabeth Povey has guided their changes and restorations. In fact, when they moved one of the stained-glass windows to another location, a grandson, Bud Povey, remarked, "You moved the window back where it used to be."

Express photo by David Seelig

The Pensione has three spacious guest bedrooms, each with a private bath. They have a sitting room and spacious kitchen, and serve a full breakfast daily. Their guests, who’ve come from as far away as Paris, have found them in a couple of guide books and on the Internet. At least three nationally known publications have done stories about their bed and breakfast, including Sunset magazine, Country and the Los Angeles Times.

"We’ve had to reinvent ourselves over the years," said Terrie Davis. They have added gardens, a wrap-around porch and finally hung a sign out front as the neighborhood on Bullion Street began to change. In Povey’s day, his lumber yard was next door to the home, and he supplied the lumber for many of the homes and buildings in what was the mining town of Bullion. He brought his widowed sister-in-law, Fanny, and her three children, to the country to help him raise his five children after his wife died. He built her a house nearby, which stills stands as well, and eventually they married.

All of the Povey children went on to college, though none came back to Hailey to live.

The "If Walls Could Talk" series, hosted by actor Grant Goodeve, profiles homeowners who make surprising discoveries about their homes as they researched and restored them.

The 26 episodes currently being shot will begin airing this fall.

 

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