Garden Gate 2008
Garden Gates Herbs and Flowers Retreat 2008
At the beginning of 2009, we added more gardens, more patios, and re-decorated rooms. The hotel has been featured on HGTV’s Restore America along with numerous local newspaper articles. Each December we host our annual Christmas Open House seeing as many as 400 visitors. Many of the old-timers look forward to this event every year - they see it as a reunion. Join us and step back in "thyme."We offer afternoon and one day classes. Early registration will save your place in class and, for overnight participants, your room preference. Garden Gate Herbs & Flowers Retreat "a place to get away from it all."
Jo Lewis - Owner
Marla Hargus - Coordinator
Jamie Bowerman - JOAT
At the beginning of 2009, we added more gardens, more patios, and re-decorated rooms. The hotel has been featured on HGTV’s Restore America along with numerous local newspaper articles. Each December we host our annual Christmas Open House seeing as many as 400 visitors. Many of the old-timers look forward to this event every year - they see it as a reunion. Join us and step back in "thyme."We offer afternoon and one day classes. Early registration will save your place in class and, for overnight participants, your room preference. Garden Gate Herbs & Flowers Retreat "a place to get away from it all."
Jo Lewis - Owner
Marla Hargus - Coordinator
Jamie Bowerman - JOAT
Drake's Creek Hotel and Burt Mitchell Store circa 1925
In the winter of 1986, while driving to Huntsville, Arkansas, in the beautiful Ozark Mountains, I noticed the corner of an old house and, after investigating, discovered that it was beautiful AND very much abandoned. The building had been built where Drakes Creek and Hock Creek meet, hidden by dense forest and a bluff. The moment I happened upon it, I knew it would be mine and that someday it would be a magical place where others could come to find peace. More inquiries were made and I discovered that the house was all that (barely) remained of the town of Drakes Creek, Arkansas. The house was originally a hotel in Drakes Creek, the third largest town in Madison County in the 1800's. With much persuasion, I talked the owner, Art Calico, into selling it to me, and thus began a 22 year labor of love. (Still laboring, still loving).
Drake's Creek Hotel 1970
Drakes Creek, a ghost town for years, is now being restored to its former glory. It started with a desire to restore the hotel which is my home as well as home to Garden Gate Herbs & Flowers Retreat. It also began a continuing journey. At the same time as the hotel restoration, the former store (Nail & Calico General Store) was re-purposed into a shop and a potting shed now sets where the doctor’s office once resided, and what self-respecting gardener wouldn't have a green house? That came next. What started as a simple herb garden has grown into an opportunity to do what I love. My dream is to share a knowledge of herbs, flowers, gardening and painting with others. Garden Gate Herbs & Flowers Retreat was created with this in mind. It is a place to relax, to rejuvenate and to reconnect while learning new skills through our creative workshops.
At the beginning of 2009, we added more gardens, more patios, and re-decorated rooms.
The hotel has been featured on HGTV’s Restore America along with numerous local newspaper articles. Each December we host our annual Christmas Open House seeing as many as 400 visitors. Many of the old-timers look forward to this event every year - they see it as a reunion. Join us and step back in "thyme."
At the beginning of 2009, we added more gardens, more patios, and re-decorated rooms.
The hotel has been featured on HGTV’s Restore America along with numerous local newspaper articles. Each December we host our annual Christmas Open House seeing as many as 400 visitors. Many of the old-timers look forward to this event every year - they see it as a reunion. Join us and step back in "thyme."
