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The Albemarle City Council has unanimously approved a conditional use permit for a new bed and breakfast in the city.

The new business, titled The Hall House and Gardens, is at 343 N. Second St. The hours of operation will be seven days a week with check-in at 3 p.m. and check-out at 11 a.m.

Albemarle native David Scarboro will reside in the house and operate the B&B. He and his wife Brenda purchased the property in 2017 and have been restoring it the past two and a half years. She died in 2019 before the house was fully renovated. The house was built in 1912 and owned by Dr. Julius Clegg Hall, a pharmacist who owned Hall’s Pharmacy in downtown Albemarle.

While not yet finalized, the tentative plan is for the B&B to open sometime before the holidays, said John  Williams, who has been working with Scarboro on marketing the property. He spoke to the council about the house and its history.

“We’re trying to be a really unique place,” said Williams, adding that Scarboro is planning to utilize the unique history found inside the home.

One of the rooms will be called the Apothecary Room, in honor of Dr. Hall, while another will be the Fitzgerald Room, a nod to Hall’s wife, Mae Edith Fitzgerald Hall. A third will be called the Evelyn Room, named after Hall’s daughter; letters and postcards from Evelyn’s travels around the world in the early 1930s will also be on display in the room.

The single family dwelling is a two-story, 3,769-square-foot Georgian home, comprised of three bedrooms, three and half baths, two sunrooms, living room, dining room, a large entry hall, laundry and a kitchen. All three bedrooms will be used for the B&B and one of the sunrooms, if needed, could be used as a fourth bedroom.

There is also a large garden in the back which will be used for weddings and concerts. It will be called Brenda’s Secret Garden, named after her favorite book and the fact that she loved irises, Williams said.

The Hall House is in the process of being registered on the National Register of Historic Places and will be also listed on rental sites Airbnb and Vrbo.

The Hall House will be the second B&B in the city. The 1891 Inn, located on Pee Dee Avenue and which Scarboro previously owned, opened last spring.

Scarboro owns several other properties in the area, including the old Sinclair gas station across the street, along with the building that houses the Stanly Arts Guild and Modern Beauty Shop.