The couple turned the house into the area's first bed and breakfast.
By DENISE DICK
POLAND — A desire to preserve a piece of history led a village couple into a business venture that's continued for 20 years.
Steve and Ginny Meloy bought the historic Victorian house at 500 S. Main St. and turned it into The Inn at the Green, the area's first bed and breakfast.
"The house had been vacant for four years and we lived down the street in another historic house and walked by this house all the time and saw it deteriorating," Ginny Meloy said.
They decided to buy the house, which was built in 1881 by Walter Arrel, and convert it into a bed and breakfast. At the time of its 1986 opening, The Inn at the Green was only the 12th B&B in Ohio, according to Vindicator files.
Meloy said there are now 350 B&Bs and country inns in the state. The difference is that a country inn includes a restaurant.
He added that the average life for a small, B&B is about five years and both Meloys acknowledge they didn't expect their entree into innkeeping to be a 20-year enterprise.
"We didn't think about that," Steve Meloy said. "We just wanted to save the building."
Not everyone thought their plan was a good idea.
"I recall one person saying, 'You must be made of money,'" he said.
At the time of its opening, the inn, one of few lodging establishments in the area, boomed.
Visits by celebrities
The first years saw some high-profile guests, including G. Gordon Liddy, the chief organizer of the Watergate break-in; actress Loretta Young and the Prince of Luxembourg, who visited the area for speaking engagements or business trips. The couple keeps a scrapbook with photographs of guests.
Lately, guests are people in town visiting family or friends, couples who need a vacation from their children or people who just want to get away, Ginny Meloy said.
Many become regulars and sometimes almost like family, Steve Meloy said.
When the inn opened, Steve Meloy, who is semiretired, was working full time as an attorney and Ginny Meloy taught preschool at the nearby Poland Presbyterian Church. Ann Sebest, who retired two years ago, helped run the day-to-day operations of the business.
Initially, the Meloys lived in another house, but they moved into the back of the inn about 10 years ago.
It boasts four bedrooms, five fireplaces made of Italian marble, 12-foot ceilings, interior poplar floors and large windows framed in wood molding with interior shutters.
Rooms are furnished with antiques and artwork depicting historical people and places lines the walls.
"Buying the inn was a good excuse to get more antiques," Steve Meloy said.
Mornings for guests begin with a continental breakfast and evenings conclude with complimentary sherry.
Looking ahead
Although they have no plans to give it up, the couple expects the 20-year to be the last milestone anniversary they'll commemorate as inn proprietors.
"It will be a wonderful business opportunity for someone," Ginny Meloy said.
To commemorate the business's 10th anniversary, the couple installed a bench and erected a sign along the side of the inn, marking it as the bus and trolley stop that formerly stood at the site.
The trolley ran until 1932 and the bus stopped there until 1973.
"I took the bus for the first five years I was here to downtown Youngstown," Steve Meloy said.
The couple moved to Poland in 1965 from Perrysburg, Ohio, a small canal town they say also boasts many historic sites. Both have always had an interest in history and its preservation.
Twenty years after it opened, the couple say they have no regrets.
"It's been great," Ginny Meloy said.
"The guests can become like substitute family," Steve Meloy said.