Pine Colony Inn
by Iris Foster
When rhythm and blues group Sly and the Family Stone sang, "It’s a family affair," they could have been talking about the operations of the Hughes family in East Texas. Marcille and Pershing Hughes first established Caddo Pass Hunting Resort about 18 miles from Center in the ‘60s. (The land on which it was built had been in Marcille’s family since Sam Houston signed the deed to the first Hardy Hancock back in the 1800’s. He pasted it on to his son, Hardy, and then to Elmer, then to Marcille). With plenty of white tail deer and wild hogs, the hunters soon overflowed the facilities. Some wanted to bring their wives and other family members. So in 1985 the Hughes’ purchased an old 1940’s style hotel, originally named The Haley Hotel. Located in downtown Center, it had been closed down for 17 years and was in ill repair. Almost 20 years later the refurbishing and improving is still going on with daughter, Regina Wright as owner and manager. The large 2 story brick hotel sat at the corner of Pine Street and Hwy. 87. Overlooking the tall pines growing on the land where John C. Rogers settled circa 1900, they gave the hotel the new name of Pine Colony Inn.
Several years later, another daughter, Marcia Nelson and her husband Scott, became innkeepers at their bed and breakfast next door, The John C. Rogers House and Gardens. Between the two places there are 2 tea rooms, one garden cottage, a big colonial home with 6 cozy guest rooms and an antique rose garden, complete with honey bee hives.
When someone said, Dynamite comes in small packages they could have been talking about Marcille and Regina, both only 5’ 2" tall, their middle name should be "hard work". Marcille, born in Shelby County during the great depression, spent her first 18 years in Waterman, Texas (a sawmill ghost town ). She learned to work hard chopping cotton in the river bottomland, washing clothes in a wash pot over a hot fire. With charcoal from this fire she would draw pictures of what she found interesting around her home. Those sparse beginnings led to an art gallery and frame shop as part of Pine Colony Inn today. Regina studied art in high school, and Marcille sent her for private painting lessons for many years. Later she studied at the College of Santa Fe. She owned a jewelry store in Houston, served as a clinic’s office manager, and helped her husband build their first house. Tackling a ramshackle building covered in kudzu was a privilege as she helped her parents realize their dream in the hospitality industry. Along the way, she learned to make custom frames, and even contributes her own oil paintings for sale. She has connections with Somerset House Publishing for limited edition prints, her personal favorites are westerns. Today, guests can get much more during their stay at Pine Colony Inn than at many bed and breakfasts. If they are art collectors, they might choose a print by local artist Woodrow Foster, or by cowboy artists Tom Ryan, G. Harvey, Martin Grelle, Robert Pummell, Lajos Markos, or Civil War prints by Bradley Schmehl or Harold Coats While they are in town, Regina can mat and frame their choices since both the gallery and frame shop are located inside the inn.
Their stay will be memorable in one of 13 guest rooms with private baths, cable TV, and High Speed Internet. The inn has central air conditioning and ceiling fans over each bed. Regina says her favorite is one of the suites, with queen-size four poster bed in one room and a separate sitting room. French doors open onto the side balcony, and most of the time they can be left open to catch the gentle breezes. The TV is mounted on the wall for viewing from the bed or bathtub, so guests can soak in bubbles while watching a movie. Another suite contains a king size bed as well as a double bed and some have two antique double beds as in the days when the establishment was a hotel. Furniture chosen for Pine Colony Inn includes a mixture of antique accents, 1940s styles and some office furnishings. Individual rooms contain various country collectibles like antique bottles, an old wooden coffee grinder and flat irons as door stops. Different paint and wallpaper colors from pastels to jewel tones were chosen to give Pine Colony Inn variety, although yellow pine floors are consistent throughout the upper floor while downstairs Saltillo tile gives the common rooms a Spanish flavor. Guest Rooms contain coffee pots and fixings. Regina and Marcille pride themselves on the special features of Pine Colony Inn saying, "We offer rooms with wood floors clean enough to eat on, beds with new firm mattresses, plenty of hot water, kitchenettes in most rooms with coffee, hot chocolate and microwave popcorn as well as two balconies & a large wooden deck."
Visitors seeking relief from the big cities , will find peace and comfort here. Regina once wrote,
"In the small East Texas town of Center there’s an old country inn where folks come to enjoy an overnight stay. But what so many go home with are some of Marcille’s old time stories. From the cool porch inn, she tells the colorful stories of her childhood growing up on the Attoyac River that divides Shelby and Nacogdoches counties. Her stories are of a time when the river bottoms were cultivated in cotton and the hills of East Texas were thick with virgin pines and huge oaks laden with long, lacy traces of Spanish moss. The history of East Texas, with its violent and bloodstained past, is told to anyone who will take the time to sit a spell." And Hughes family members will be there to tend to every need at Pine Colony Inn.
