new year's eve in historic Granbury Texas

We are looking forward to the New Year here at our historic Granbury bed and breakfast - we have lots to look forward to with the opening of our new artistic retreat center on January 12 and all of the talented artists who will be offering workshops in our new studio.

We have discovered that Granbury knows how to celebrate New Year's Eve! There are at least 5 celebrations taking place around the town on December 31st.

The Opera House, on the historic square will be holding a New Year's Eve Gospel Concert.

The Granbury Riverboat will be celebrating with a Filet Mignon dinner, a Murder Mystery and dancing.

The City of Granbury will be holding a New Year's Eve dinner and dance at the Resort Conference center

Harbor Lakes Golf Club will be hosting a New Year's Eve dinner and dance

The H6 Ranch, south of Granbury will be hosting it's 7th Waltz across the Pasture with Signature Kidz to celebrate New Year's Eve.

What better place to come and stay after you have enjoyed the many celebrations Granbury has to offer, than our own Granbury Texas bed and breakfast, the Iron Horse Inn. We will be welcoming our guests with complimentary glass of sparkling wine and hand made chocolate strawberries. Then on New Year's day we will be celebrating with a special brunch of black- eyed peas, corn bread, mimosas and all the trimmings.

What a great little town we are living in!

Architect of our B-and-B in Granbury, Texas

This wonderful old house, known as The Iron Horse Inn, here in Granbury Texas is the perfect spot for our artistic retreats. The house was built by master craftsmen who took two years to complete the beautiful intricate woodwork in all of the rooms. In fact the original owner, Daniel Cogdell prided himself on having chosen all of the wood himself in East Texas, without one single knot anywhere! The house is truly a work of art, designed by the architect Wyatt Hedrick, who also built one of the finest examples of Art Deco in fort Worth - The Texas and Pacific Railway Terminal.







While researching the work of Wyatt Hedrick I found that he also built the fabled Shamrock Hotel in Houston, which at the time was the largest hotel in America, with the largest swimming pool in the world!. Sadly the hotel was demolished in 1987. It was apparently built for a wealthy oil tycoon in 1949 for the sum of $21,000,000 (or the equivalent of $200,000,000 today)!



Being an Irish woman, I was fascinated to discover that the Shamrock Hotel was opened on St. Patrick's day, had a green roof and had it's rooms painted in 60 shades of green! The original owner was of Irish descent and was known as "Wildcatter McCarthy"

One more interesting tit-bit I found on my web surfing adventures - "Wildcatter McCarthy" was in fact the inspiration for the fictional character Jett Rink in the novel "Giant", who was played in the movie by James Dean.

You never know where internet searches will lead you!

Welcome to my new Granbury, Texas, artistic retreat center blog

Hi and Welcome to my new blog. I am so excited to be getting so close to realizing my dream of opening a Texas artistic retreat center!

Starting January 12th. we offer our first five day art retreat with a very gifted quilt artist, Lenore Crawford.
Lenore made this incredible quilt, which we are lucky enough to have on display at the Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast in Granbury Texas


Our art studio is almost completed, our builders have been working hard and are doing a great job. It will be a beautiful, bright and airy, two story space, ideal for all sorts of art work.

I have loved arts and crafts since I was a small child, in fact my mother used to say about me when I was very little - "give her a piece of paper and a scissors and she will be happy all day!" That joy of creativity has never left me, so I am delighted to be able to surround myself with many talented artists over this coming year.

Many years ago my mother brought me with her on a weekend to an artistic retreat center in Ireland, where I am from, to do a quilting workshop, and I loved everything about the experience. The fun of getting together with other women who loved creativity, the community and the beautiful old historic house and gardens. This special center in Ireland is called "An Grianain" and is run by a very interesting womens' organization called the "Irish Country Womens' Association". This experience was without doubt where I got my inspiration to open our artistic retreat center here in Granbury, Texas.

Check out our website for information about our artistic retreat center, including teacher bios, and a calendar of events for 2009. Check back regularly as we plan on adding more classed soon.