Historic Victorian Rose Bed and Breakfast Blooms in Ventura
Richard and Nona Bogatch bought their Victorian dream house a couple of years ago. Now they’re ready to share it with the public.
In 1996, the Bogatches purchased the former church and wedding chapel at 896 E. Main St. in downtown Ventura. After some extensive renovation they plan to welcome their first guests this week at the new Victorian Rose Bed and Breakfast.
“We went ahead and thought if it didn’t work as a bed-and-breakfast we would just like to live here,” Richard Bogatch said of the 111-year-old building. “We always wanted a Victorian home. What we’ve created here is an escape and a place to get away that’s unusual inside, tranquil and peaceful.”
The historical structure, which served as St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church for 70 years and then as a wedding chapel, will now offer five guest rooms--four with fireplaces, one with a waterfall--gourmet breakfast service and other upscale, but homey, services.
“We want people to feel at home, take their shoes off,” Richard Bogatch said. “We’ve been in bed-and-breakfasts where we were afraid to touch anything. The idea of it is to get away.”
The Victorian Rose Bed and Breakfast is a 5,000-square-foot building sitting on a lot about twice the size. The Bogatches purchased the building for $220,000 and estimate they have spent at least $100,000 on repairs and touch-ups.
“We had to redo everything--we repaired the ceilings and roofs; there was no plumbing to speak of,” he said. “We’ve probably redone every inch of the building. If we didn’t have to patch or repair or replaster it, it got painted or primed and so on.”
The exterior paint was retouched and the molding redone, Bogatch said. Inside, the all-white walls were given a variety of faux finishes, including wood grain and marble. Old fireplaces, which weren’t up to code, also were replaced.
Each of the Victorian Rose’s five bedrooms has a different theme. Rooms will run $99 a night through July and $99 to $175 thereafter.
The Fleur de Lis room features a French four-poster bed, a 100-year-old English armoire and a 150-year-old clock. The Wisteria Garden room has a springtime motif, the Emperor’s Bedroom has a Chinese scheme, and the Victorian Rose room has a Victorian design.
The fifth bedroom, Timeless Treasures, is decorated with nine clocks, none of which gives the correct time. The intent, Bogatch said, is to allow guests to forget the pressures and time constraints of the fast-paced world.
And that’s something he’s counting on people to look forward to. Bogatch said the bed-and-breakfast is opening at a good stage during the development of Ventura’s downtown area as a getaway destination.
“I think we’re in the right place at the right time,” he said.
“With all of the redevelopment of downtown Ventura, it’s a great time for us and anyone else considering a business in the downtown area. To a certain extent, Ventura is still undiscovered by a lot of people, but in the last couple of years they’re starting to realize this is a wonderful place to visit.”
Gisela Baid, owner of La Mer bed-and-breakfast on Poli Street, said rather than feeling encroached upon by the newcomer down the block, she’s glad to see the Victorian Rose come on the scene. Baid said there are more than enough visitors to go around.
“Definitely, definitely,” she said. “I only have five rooms and on holidays--New Year’s, Fourth of July, I could book 30 rooms. I have to send them away to hotels, to Ojai, to Summerland.”
Baid and her husband, Michael, have operated La Mer for 14 years in a home built in 1890. Like the Victorian Rose, the rooms at La Mer each have a different theme. In La Mer’s case it’s a European flavor, with French, German, Austrian, Norwegian and English rooms. Rooms run $85 to $185 a night.
Since opening La Mer, Baid said, she has seen many entrepreneurs make attempts but with little success.
“I’ve been looking for the last 14 years for someone else to come here, so I don’t have to tell people I’m the only one,” she said. “Ventura is really growing--Santa Barbara must have up to 30 bed-and-breakfasts, and they are not that much larger.”
Kathy Janega-Dykes, executive director of the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau, said the bureau often fields requests for tourists interested in bed-and-breakfasts in the city. The Victorian Rose will fit nicely into the downtown tourism scheme, she said.
“Very often people are looking for very unusual lodging sites, and this presents a great option--in a historic downtown, a bed-and-breakfast offers a lot of benefits for people looking for something small and intimate,” she said.
Janega-Dykes said she hopes the addition of the Victorian Rose will increase the overall tourist draw of the area.
“Demand for bed-and-breakfasts continues to grow,” she said. “This presents more options to heighten awareness of Ventura as a charming, quaint destination that has numerous lodging options available to visitors--from intimate bed-and-breakfasts to mid-priced motels, to beach-side, full-service hotels.”
Ventura has 26 visitor lodges with a total of 2,000 rooms. The more rooms available, the more chance travelers will stay in Ventura, rather than spend the night somewhere else.
“What we are trying to do is encourage more hotels to refer business to other hotels when they are unable to take a guest in a sold-out situation,” Janega-Dykes said. “A bed-and-breakfast adds a whole different dimension to the lodging available in a community, a whole different perspective.”
