Jeanie Greenaugh opens Lavinia House
Two short stone pillars topped with
imperfect spheres quietly announce the entrance to the organic driveway.
The house reveals itself slowly through spruce and pine trees, with the
entrance tucked away in the rear. I park my car out of sight on the far
end of the property and approach the house, tracing the boxwood path
back to the glass pane front door.
 This is the entrance to Lavinia House, a
Bed and Breakfast and Holistic Health and Arts Center emerging and
evolving in Milton, Delaware. Its mature gardens overlook a tiny dock on
Wagamons Pond. Jeanie Greenaugh, the gracious owner, stands just outside
the door watering her herbs and vegetables. The moist heat of the day
emphasizes the exotic scents of Thai basil and lemon grass.
Everywhere you look there are magnolia
and spruce, sycamore and cherry, apple and peach trees. The fig is about
to fruit and the hummingbirds suck nectar from the tumult of purple
crepe myrtle blooms.
Jeanie invites me into the light-filled
home and begins her story. It all started about two and a half years ago
when she first saw the neglected house and overgrown lawns.
Unfortunately, her life was too crowded with restoring a Civil- War-era
home in Lewes to add the purchase of another property just then.
A year later, Jeannie returned to Milton
and amazingly, the house was still available. Well, maybe it’s not all
that amazing since snakes inhabited the flooded basement and the roof
was in complete disrepair. Jeanie, however, saw the possibilities and
took the plunge.
As soon as she bought the place people
seemed to emerge from nowhere to help with restoring the nearly
80-year-old house—a project that took a year to complete. The basement
was drained and dried, the roof replaced, the walls spackled and
painted, and gentle lighting installed. Everyone who worked on it seemed
to fall in love with the space. In fact, one of the guys helping out did
not want to leave when the work was done. He still shows up once a week
to do odd jobs and retain his connection. In December of 2001, Lavinia
House was ready for anything. It was dressed up and placed on Milton’s
Christmas house tour, which is quite an honor in this town of beautiful
old Victorians.
Last May, Jeanie held an open house to
introduce the community to the types of services she would be providing.
There was music in the gardens, a Nassau Vineyards wine tasting, a
luscious buffet, and an exhibit of Jeanie’s photographs displayed in
the open spaces of the downstairs rooms. Since the opening, she has
offered sessions with an amazing Thai masseuse named Meow, a feng shui
workshop, and weekly yoga classes.
“Everyone asks what are my short and
long term plans for the house. Do I really need them?” she asks with
an impish smile. ”I have just completed getting approved by the Fire
Marshall for events with up to 50 to 75 people.”
That opens up the possibilities to larger
retreats, social events, and small conferences. For instance, Jeannie is
going to have a weekend writing workshop, a two-day yoga retreat, feng
shui classes, acupuncture workshops, and other wellness related
activities. She wants the community to participate and is willing to
partner with anyone who has an idea for creative use of the space.
In addition to being a proprietor of
Lavinia House and restorer of beautiful old homes, Jeanie is at heart
and by trade a photographer. A few years ago, she traveled up and down
the east coast photographing swamps. She was most attracted by the
quality of light in the morning, the silence of the insects, the trees
drawn against the early morning fog, the grasses, and the stillness of
the water. “I feel very connected to trees and love to photograph
them,” Jeanie says in her very quiet voice.
She recently ventured to Vietnam and
captured images of the people and the landscape. That work is currently
on display throughout the house. She worked with the images to heighten
the light or reverse it, increasing and decreasing the alien quality of
the places to which she has traveled.
“I want to have many art exhibits
here…and to help other artists. We can all help each other.” Art and
wellness, community, and some occasional Thai dinners are all shaping
the future of Lavinia House.
And finally she says, “I don’t know
why I was chosen to do this. I feel like I am the luckiest person on
earth….as if I were plucked from the skies to be the Land Keeper.”
It’s as if she were entrusted with the space to open and use and share
with the community rather than being a business owner.
And
she’s now another one of Milton’s Daughters.
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