Raleigh, N.C. — A historic Raleigh mansion-turned hotel just made Travel & Leisure’s “It List 2022,” featuring the best hotels in the world.
The Heights House Hotel in Raleigh’s Boylan Heights neighborhood is an Italianate-style mansion. Originally named Montford Hall, the 10,000-square-foot home was commissioned in 1858 by William Montfort Boylan with the help of a British architect. Among its various incarnations, it once served the community as Boylan Heights Baptist Church.
Sarah and Jeff Shepherd noticed the home when they moved to the neighborhood about 10 years ago. Now its current owners, they worked with designers and builders to restore the mansion and give it new life.
Travel & Leisure’s description of Heights House Hotel reads, “It is an architectural wonder … the veranda looks out on old-growth trees; the foyer rises to a stained-glass cupola; arched windows meet 15-foot ceilings and flood breakfast with sunlight; and the five guestrooms are finished in lime-washed walls and earth-toned furnishings. Four rooms in an addition have an Art Deco vibe. Guests can now reserve seats in the parlor for evening cocktails. During the in-between hours, they can peruse the curios tucked into the library’s bookshelves.”
“For people like Jeff and I who really like to travel and stay at places like this, we felt like we need something in Raleigh that we would want to stay at,” Sarah Shepherd told WRAL News in a 2021 feature of the home.
The hotel offers nine large guest rooms that combined sleep up to 20 people. The home, which features a honeymoon suite, has become a popular venue for weddings.
