Before coming to this bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, FL, Bill Johnson was a general manager for a western wear manufacturer and his wife, Diane owned a bed, bath, and gourmet kitchen store in Woodward, Oklahoma. Diane and Bill had been looking for a bed and breakfast in and around Oklahoma since 1987. Diane had actually spent the first three years looking for an inn before she ever mentioned it to Bill, and then they spent the last two of those five years looking together. They both knew that they had to be able to make a living out of the business and that it could not be just a hobby.
In the early part of 1992, their son, John, came to St. Augustine, Florida for a business conference and stayed out on St. Augustine Beach. After the conference, John took a different route back to Bradenton, where he had been living since 1987. He drove over the Lions Bridge from Anastasia Island into the Downtown Historic District of St. Augustine and thought that this would be a place that his parents may want to consider for their bed and breakfast lodging business. After calling mom and telling her about the quaintness of St. Augustine, she thought it might be a good opportunity to "kill two birds with one stone" by traveling to Florida to visit John's family and to check out the area. Diane called Bill at the golf course and told him of her idea. By the time Bill had returned from golf, Diane had already called the travel agent and booked the flight.
They arrived in Jacksonville in the summer of 1992 on a Sunday, but first they checked out a couple of inns on Amelia Island before driving down to St. Augustine. Once Diane saw the Carriage Way Bed and Breakfast she knew that this was it, a beautiful Victorian inn in a beautiful city, perfect for a Florida romantic getaway and heritage tourism. St. Augustine was less seasonal than any of the other cities they had considered, and even though the inn was more than what they wanted to pay, Bill thought that they could make a Florida bed and breakfast work. Northeast Florida golf was not as seasonal as other parts of the country, so for Bill that was a pretty good idea. By that Tuesday they had made their decision and signed a contract to purchase the Carriage Way. That is how it all went down!
In 1998, Bill and Diane purchased "Our Cottage" three doors down from the main house. At the time of the purchase, the cottage was being used as Betty's Books and Bobbles, an antique store. Diane envisioned that it would be the perfect place for family getaways, girlfriend getaways, and for couples traveling together. Considering Diane's retail background, she knew what 50% off meant and stopped in for a visit with Betty. Betty explained that she would be relocating her business closer to her sister and with that news, Diane told her to take it off the market and that they wanted it. This was before the realtor was even able to put a sign in the ground. Diane and Bill thought that this Florida cottage would be a place for them to eventually move, and then the children could manage the inn. A year later and after a short illness, Diane passed away before that plan had come to fruition.
Larry, the oldest son, came to help Bill continue the family business for the next five years. In 2004, when John's daughter left for college, he moved up from Bradenton to join Bill and Larry. In 2009, Jeanie left her sales position to help John and Bill, so that Larry could travel and see the country. Bill passed away in January of 2011 after a three year battle with brain cancer. After 19 years of innkeeping, the Johnson family continues to welcome people in and provides that home-away-from-home experience in this romantic city, as Bill and Diane first envisioned.
About the Inn: A vernacular Georgian four-square structure with Victorian features was built between 1883 and 1885 by Edward Masters; a lead carpenter for Henry Flagler's first Florida resort hotel, the Hotel Ponce de Leon. Mr. Masters built the home for his wife, Rosalie, and his family, putting the attention into the bones of the house. Built from the very best structural woods; Mr. Masters chose cypress, cedar, and heart of pine. The original home was built before the presence of electricity and did not have any bathrooms or a kitchen inside the home. The tall windows on the front of the house with its southern exposure captured the warmth of the sun during the winter months. In the summer, when the sun was higher in the sky and over the roof line, the oversized windows provided filtered light, helping to keep the home cooler. The home stayed in the Master's family until the 1940s, when it was converted into an apartment building with four efficiency units. In 1984, the home was extensively restored to its original grandeur, and central heat and air were added, fulfilling a dream of creating what is now the Carriage Way Bed and Breakfast.
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