The Blenman Inn

The Caylors bought the mansion during the COVID-19 pandemic after they noticed it was for sale; as it turned out, Rob knew the previous owner through his building company. He and Margo decided to operate it as an inn, with a heavy emphasis on historic preservation. “We had a previous innkeeper who would say, ‘You’ve just walked into a time machine; you’ve stepped back hundreds of years,’ ” Margo says.

That history dates to the later years of the Indian Wars in Territorial Arizona, when U.S. Army hospital steward Charles Rivers Drake was treating injured military personnel at nearby Fort Lowell. Drake, who’d been in the mercantile business in San Francisco before his enlistment, purchased a lot on Scott Avenue and began construction. He had two 200-pound leaded skylights shipped from San Francisco via horse-drawn wagon; they’re still in place today, along with the house’s original pillars and flagpole.

Drake sold the home in the 1890s, and the Blenman family owned and lived in it for most of the 20th century. The Blenmans, like Drake, were significant contributors to Tucson’s development and worked to bring art and culture to the pioneer town. After the last family member left, the house sat vacant for years before being bought and turned into a bed and breakfast in the late 1990s; that process required an extensive remodel that included restoring the house’s woodwork, doors and trim.

Today, the inn offers modern amenities such as an outdoor pool, Wi-Fi and a continental breakfast, but its seven guest rooms, a mix of single rooms and suites, reflect the property’s nearly 150 years of history. And its new owners are excited to celebrate that history — starting with, in Margo’s words, “the awe of the building and the grandeur of how unique it is.”