Gainesville's Magnolia Plantation Bed & Breakfast Inn and Cottages

Gainesville's Magnolia Plantation Bed & Breakfast Inn and Cottages offer a variety of accommodations and packages — romantic weekend getaways, weekday business trips, family vacations, travel with pets, children and extended stays. In 1990 Cindy and Joe purchased the Baird Mansion, or at least what was the Baird Mansion. Hippies and college students had inhabited it for 30 years. It was more like Animal House than a Victorian mansion. It was love at first site when Joe first saw the house but Cindy was a little apprehensive. The house was filled with debris, 20 mattresses, 7 couches, 30 banana trees, dog poop in the central hallway and other outstanding features. Of course, all this was left in the house for Cindy and Joe to deal with after the closing. Cindy and Joe restored the 1885 French Second Empire Victorian Mansion to Magnolia Plantation and opened the Inn on May 3, 1991. Since then the inn has received many honors including: "Best Bed and Breakfast in Florida" by Florida Living Magazine and "Most Romantic Bed and Breakfast in Florida" by Most Romantic Escapes in Florida guidebook. The Inn and Cindy's recipes have been featured in a variety of guidebooks and cookbooks. Articles have appeared in such publications as Southern Living, Victorian Decorating Ideas, Florida Living and The Orlando Sentinel