Shaw House B&B getting new owner

LAKELAND — Tom Shaw, 93, is finally hanging up his shingle. He has sold insurance, served on the Lakeland City Commission for 20 years — including as mayor in 1985 — and then, in his 70s, opened up a bed and breakfast on East Orange Street.

On Friday, Shaw House Bed & Breakfast will sell off the rest of its furnishings and the property will be sold Monday.

“I’ve had a few people tell me they’re going to miss it,” Shaw said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve had a few repeat customers. It gave me a chance to sell Lakeland and we had a few people say they were going to move here.”

Chris Graznow, owner of Buttercup Rentals and the buyer of the property, said Shaw House’s second floor will continue to serve as an ideal spot for wedding parties to get dressed and walk across the street to Hollis Gardens. It will also serve as an Airbnb, a short-term rental leased through the Airbnb internet marketplace.

“Obviously, it would make a beautiful bridal suite and they could rent it out for several days,” Graznow said. “I’d love to help it keep going on and provide something that’s not really available anywhere else in Lakeland. We really do want to preserve the history in that building. We want to show off how beautiful that spot is.”

Graznow said he also plans to keep the Shaw House name, as long as Tom Shaw is willing. He plans to have a re-grand opening soon. It is one of the last bed & breakfasts in Lakeland. Lakeland Guesthouse, at 65 Lake Morton Drive, has rooms available, but does not serve breakfast although guests are invited to utilize the home's kitchen. Cory Skeates, president of the Chamber of Commerce, said there are no other B&Bs listed as members with it.

For Shaw it was a labor of love with his late wife, Inez. They began renovations on the property before she passed away in 2005. He said they stripped everything down to the studs — and could see its dirt floor from the attic rafters. Inez Shaw also selected a lot of the antiques that filled the house.

Back when Lakeland held a Sister Cities Parade, it marched right past the house and the two wide porches had the best view in town of the then-annual event. The upstairs porch has a fantastic view of the gardens and Lake Mirror.

The estate sale last weekend saw most of the furniture sell, but there are still a few items left, which will be sold Friday for half price:

• A set of china.

• Small Wedgwood plates and candlesticks.

• An Edwardian settee and matching chairs.

• A leather-inset ladies desk.

• A Stickley dining room table, chairs and buffet from the 1950s, which is expected to fetch several thousand dollars.

He said he chose to sell the business, rather than leave it to one of his three remaining sons or four daughters. His son, Dick, died at 49 after suffering heart failure.

“I can’t be sitting up all night and figure out who gets what,” Shaw said, smiling.

As a boy, he spent some of the first few months of his life in Lakeland, but his family moved back to Columbus, Ohio, where he was born, when Florida’s land boom went bust. They spent time in Atlanta and Detroit before the family settled back in Columbus, where he grew up. After he trained for World War II — but was never shipped out because the war ended — he married Inez Flynn in 1948. The couple lived in Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky, before finally moving to Lakeland in 1974.

“I asked to be transferred here,” Shaw said. “At that point my car door was frozen shut and I said, ‘I’m ready.’”

In 1980, the Shaws and their daughter, Martha, started another family business, The Flower Cart, on Lakeland Hills Boulevard. It is now run by his daughter-in-law, Maureen Grogan Shaw.

Daughter Martha Garvin said selling the property is simply necessary.

“This is it — this is a happy day,” Garvin said. “A happy day and a sad day.”

But Shaw isn’t going very far — he owns the house next door and will continue to live there with Garvin, who teaches theater and fashion at Lakeland High School.

Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at kmoore@theledger.com or 863-802-7514. Follow her on twitter at KimberlyMooreTheLedger@KMooreTheLedger.