"The grand lady of a mansion overlooking the French Broad River looked more like a disheveled hag when Marge Michel first met her.

With boarded up windows, a sagging roof and cobwebs galore, Michel didn’t share her husband Jake’s instant attraction to the property. But the Michels went forward with the 1987 purchase of the historic mansion that was once home to former congressman and ambassador Richmond Pearson.

Two years later, the couple opened the Richmond Hill mansion as a luxury bed and breakfast. It had been painstakingly restored by the Preservation Society, which moved in a few years earlier to save the Queen Anne-style structure that was one of the most elegant structures in Asheville when it was built on a hillside overlooking the French Broad River in 1889.

The decrepit building had been transformed into a warm retreat that hosted untold weddings, anniversary parties and travelers seeking a quiet get-away. It glowed with life as tourists, and celebrities such as Robert Redford, slept in rooms named after historic figures, warmed themselves by its fireplace and dined in the elegant Gabrielle’s restaurant. A few friendly ghosts were known to pace its halls.

A March 2009 arson and financial troubles ended that, but it was all recalled Saturday in an afternoon ceremony marking the property’s glorious past and its new future as a wellness retreat."

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The Asheville Citizen-Times (1/28/2012)