Ellerbe Springs Inn goes up for sale; owners to retire

ELLERBE — Mark and Donna Buckeridge, the Maryland natives who moved to Richmond County in 2014 with dreams of running a campground and took over the Ellerbe Springs Inn, have put the historic Inn up for sale and plan to retire when it is sold.

The couple had planned to operate the facility for another 10 years, but Donna became ill in early 2020 and had to step away from the day-to-day operations. COVID-19 forced the closure of the Inn last year, but Mark continued to run the restaurant and campgrounds, both of which he said saw a great deal of support from the community despite the pandemic. The restaurant will stay open as long as the Buckeridges are the owners, according to Mark.

“With COVID and our health situation we would just like to retire and enjoy ourselves,” Mark said. “We do appreciate the help and support we’ve received from everybody in this community. It’s been absolutely amazing. They’ve kept us afloat through the COVID — through the worst part of the pandemic.

“They support us in so many ways,” he continued. “It’s just an amazing town.”

Closing the Inn changed their clientele dramatically. Suddenly, they were being supported almost entirely by local customers, including those who would travel just a few miles to camp there.

“The financial burden the pandemic put on us … it was buffered quite a bit by the community that knew that the businesses in this town and in this county needed as much support as they could possibly afford,” Mark said. “I believe [the new customers came] just to help us financially, to help us as a neighbor and as friends.”

Mark informed the Ellerbe Town Council, where he is a regular fixture — sharing his thoughts on local happenings and keeping up with the town’s operations — of he and his wife’s plans on Monday. The couple has been heavily involved in the town since they moved down, taking a key role in the planning of the first two Strawberry Festival’s and being active in the Ellerbe Area Neighbors Association. Mark said he will continue to be active within the town despite retirement.

“We hope to continue our involvement in the town and the Strawberry Festival,” he said in a text.

Mayor Fred Cloninger said the first two Strawberry Festival’s, which have since become a major draw for the town — which was cancelled last year due to COVID-19 — likely wouldn’t have happened without the Buckeridges.

“Mark and Donna, they have brought a new meeting place to Ellerbe for people to come together,” Cloninger said. “It’s always good friendship, good food, good service, they’re well respected, well involved in the community. The first two Strawberry Festivals we had they were a major part of the planning and the putting it on — I don’t know that we could’ve done it without them.

“I hate that they’re selling because they’ve done a good job down there but I understand their reason and I just hope they can find a buyer that can do as good a job as they’ve done with it,” he continued. “They’ve represented Ellerbe very well.”

Former Mayor Lee Berry noted the importance of the Inn to the town and the close relationship he has had with the Buckeridges since they bought it.

“Ellerbe Springs is a landmark for Ellerbe and the current owners have become a great friend of Amy and myself,” Berry said. “We understand why they are selling completely and they will so be missed. But hopefully whoever purchases the Springs can take off from where Mark and Donna have gotten the business to now and finish the restoration and grow the business.”

The Buckeridges are in the process of showing the property to prospective buyers.

“We have always felt that the property belongs to the town and to the county — we were just the caretakers — and we really hope that any future owner feels the same,” Mark said. “It’s too much history involved in this place for it to not remain a focal point of the town.”

Recent history of a historic Inn

In 2013, Mark and Donna were looking to change their career and run a campground. The Ellerbe Springs Inn was being marketed in various publications as a 200-space campground. They bought it by the end of the year, but Mark said there was “no real infrastructure” for a campground, despite being owned by the Boy Scouts many years ago. They had to “start from scratch” to get to the point where they could host campers.

To do so, they abandoned the previous septic system and got tapped onto city water and sewer, which Mark said was “quite an achievement.” Mark and Donna moved down to Ellerbe full-time in 2014, and opened the Inn as a bed-and-breakfast on Valentine’s Day 2015.

Mark said the Inn was “very successful” both as an event venue and a B&B. They hosted weddings, class reunions and parties. During the 2020 presidential campaign, they hosted Eric Trump on their grounds as he stumped for his father, President Donald Trump.

One of the most famous stories of the Inn’s history was when Eleanor Roosevelt visited when it was a school for girls to speak to the students. The room she rested in during her stay because known as the “Eleanor Roosevelt Room.”

The building has also been examined by paranormal investigators for signs of ghosts, spirits, or any other ethereal entities. Mark said many guests described getting goosebumps upon entering, and they were convinced that the Buckeridges weren’t telling them everything about the Inn, but Mark said in all the time they’ve spent there they haven’t had any paranormal experiences — except for the times he heard Donna speak to him, but she had been outside the whole time.

“A lot of people think that us moving down here from Maryland is our retirement, it’s pretty funny,” Mark said. “We’ve never worked so much in our lives, but we’ve never enjoyed it as much either.”