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Great news from Design Review Committee this morning: the historic Daniel-Hassinger mansion at 2028 Highland Avenue South, one of the few surviving original houses in Five Points South, will become a new bed-and-breakfast, the Daniel-Hassinger Bed and Breakfast. The owners, Sheila and Ira Chaffin, who also recently renovated another nearby historic house into a similar facility (Cobb Lane Bed and Breakfast), plan to open May 2011. It will have 10 guest bedrooms.
Birmingham has long had too few (if any) historic B&B’s, despite the wealth of historic housing stock here. Kudos to the new owners for not only bringing 2 of these to Five Points, but for rescuing this elegant, deteriorated mansion whose condition we worried about in a recent post.
Projects like this serve as hope that, despite its challenges, Five Points South can still attract entrepreneurs and great new businesses. Needless to say, the Design Review Committee was practically cheering when the unanimous vote was cast. There’s more to report from this morning, but this was the biggie.
[thanks once again to dystopos for the pic]
Bhamarchitect's Blog 
Jeremy, this is splendid news. I can’t wait to see this beautified again! The Hassingers were amond the folks that started Alabama Power. They later lived at “the Castle” on Carlisle Road. Good news on a gloomy morning.
Lovely news! I love these kinds of stories!
Thank goodness! Anybody who might have attempted to destroy this wonderful house would have had a tough time of it, but we’re not, through the grandness of the Chaffins, going to have to go through the fight. Things are lookin’ up.
Excellent. Sheila and Ira have done a fine job with their earlier B&B a few blocks away. When they did it, the city had no appropriate zoning so they had to go under Tourist Court! Wonder if that has changed.
I’m sure a bed and breakfast next to a Chik-Fil-A will be delightful.
And I’m also glad to see people investing in Five Points South IN SPITE OF its current problems, e.g., Chik-Fil-A.
It will certainly be a test of Chick-Fil-A’s “good intentions” to see how it coexists. My guess is if the drive-through had been allowed, the bed and breakfast would not have been an attractive investment for anyone.
It’s wonderful to see that new urbanism style of city planning is taking into account the existent history of established neighborhoods. There ways to accommodate everyone if we are all willing to compromise.
Speaking of Chick-Fil-A…when does construction start?
I have not heard about construction starting here, nor a schedule for Walgreen’s on Clairmont. Anyone with any info please let us know.
Jeremy C. Erdreich, AIA, LEED AP Erdreich Architecture, PC 2332 Second Avenue North Birmingham, AL 35203 tel 205.322.1914 fax 205.322.1925 http://www.erdreicharchitecture.com
Great news! I am so happy to hear that this historic gem is going to be preserved and not turned into the next “B’ham Parking Lot”. Congratulations to the Chaffin family!
It is Daniels-Hassinger.