Column: Stanton Hospitality House property on Roxie Avenue for sale

A house is more than brick and mortar.

A house, for most of us, is a home filled with love and caring people in the best and worst of times as we make our way through life. The Stanton Hospitality House at 1617 Roxie Ave., those who are troubled with its closing will tell you, has, for more than 30 years, been a home-away-from home for financially-strapped families with loved ones who are patients at nearby Cape Fear Medical Center.

Today, by vote of its board of directors more than two months ago, the house, circa 1960, is shuttered.

“It would be kind of a concern or shock to her,” Sam Fort, 77, says about his late sister, Margaret Fort Stanton, for whom the house is named. “I know she would not have liked to see that happen. I’m sure she would like to know why.”

As do others, such as Doris Fort, Pat Howell and Liz Varnedoe, who came Thursday to hear from Bill Hedgepeth II, president of the Stanton Hospitality House LLC Board of Directors.

Hedgepeth issued an open invitation to anyone with concerns to hear the rhyme and reason of why board members voted in June “to cease operations, liquidate the assets and establish an endowment with the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation” that will provide motel and lodging accommodation vouchers for families who have loved ones as patients at the medical center.

The decision, Hedgepeth said, came down to financial operating costs, and the board’s realization that the home was in need of repairs — including a new roof and upgraded bathrooms — and that guests were not taking advantage of the home. Hedgepeth said security at the house also was a liability the board considered.

It had become a financial drain on the nonprofit benevolence program, Hedgepeth said, and an assessment of the 3,000-square-foot home, the board learned, could no longer sustain itself.

“This house needs a new roof,” Hedgepeth, 63, said, and bathrooms with larger showering stalls. “And we didn’t expect people to be staying.”

Cape Fear Valley Health for many years provided annual funding of $100,000 for the home, according to Mike Nagowski, chief executive officer for the health system. It later reduced the funding to $75,000.

“They never come close to covering expenses,” Nagowski, 58, told CityView last week.

Hedgepeth was saying as much Thursday, and not so much to a receptive ear from Liz Varnedoe.

“So what, if it wasn’t making money,” Varnedoe fired back at Hedgepeth. “There are people who need to stay here.”

Varnedoe reminded Hedgepeth of difficult births, where infants were cared for in the medical center neonatal intensive care unit, and parents who sought out the Stanton Hospitality House when they could not afford expensive long-term motels. She spoke to Hedgepeth of a New York family involved in an accident on I-95 that found refuge at the home.

“They stayed for months,” she said.

Families of newborns or other patients at the medical center were charged $20 to $30 per day, retired House Manager Kathy Tyndall told CityView last week, and if they could not afford the cost, she says, they never were charged for lodging.

“What bothers me is the decision was made before anybody reached out,” Pat Howell, who has volunteered in the medical center NICU, told Hedgepeth.

She said volunteers from Snyder Memorial Baptist Church could have been contacted for consideration about replacing the roof for less than what Hedgepeth described as about a $20,000 expense.

“Repairs were not the major reason,” longtime board member Louis Faraca said.

Joseph Dowless, another board member, joined with Hedgepeth and Faraca in defending the board decision.

“No one wants to see this house shut down,” he said.

But closing the Stanton Hospitality House is just what board members Bill Drewry, Libby Bean, Lilly Schmidt, Desmond Taylor, Steven Grimes, Dowless, Faraca and Hedgepeth did in June. Board members Kathya Gavazzi, R.N., and Dr. Kristen Coggins, according to Hedgepeth, abstained from the vote.

Howell also told Hedgepeth she was taken aback to learn the house has already been placed on the real estate market for sale.

The house, Hedgepeth acknowledged, is on the market for $299,000, including an adjacent home owned by the Stanton Hospitality House LLC, for $160,000. Both homes, Hedgepeth further acknowledged, are being offered by Coldwell Banker Advantage. Hedgepeth said he is the licensing agent for the business and that he will donate his commission fee to the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation coffers in the name of the Margaret F. Stanton Endowment.

“Why call a meeting if you already” have the property for sale? Varnedoe curtly asked.

“I wanted to hear your concerns,” Hedgepeth said.

“It’s a day late,” Varnedoe said, “and a dollar short.”

‘It would be disappointing’

Sam Fort and his wife, Doris, were quick to clarify that his sister never owned the Margaret Stanton Hospital House, first known as the Hospital Hospitality House when it began in 1990 at the urging of Carolyn Gaskins, Moselle Ward and some physicians at Cape Fear Valley Hospital.

“Margaret never owned that property,” Sam Fort, 77, said earlier this week. “We are not sure how the second house was acquired or titled. We do not know that Margaret was involved with its formation. She did donate money over the years and lots and lots of time. She was an incredibly generous, caring person.”

Margaret Stanton became intrigued by the prospects of a home to assist families, according to a Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation publication that said Moselle Ward, who worked at the hospital in the 1990s, mentioned the need for a benevolence akin to the Ronald McDonald at Duke University Medical Center.

Margaret Stanton donated money to create a building fund, according to the publication, and the Hospital Hospitality House became a reality.

Sam and Doris Fort say Margaret Stanton would have preferred the house be named for Ward.

“She certainly was proud of it being named for her,” Sam Fort, a former board member, said about his sister, who died at age 87 on July 19, 2019. “She took pride in it. She frequented the house off and on. She served on the board for a number of years.”

Shuttering the Stanton Hospitality House has been a point of contention for supporters who include Martha Boch, 65, the executive director of the benevolence for 11.5 years. Boch says she cannot comment because of signing a nondisclosure agreement.

Hedgepeth said Thursday he would not comment on the reason for a nondisclosure agreement, saying it was a “personnel” matter.

Epilogue

“I know it’s a business, and it cost money to run it,” Sam Fort said before Thursday’s meeting. “Vouchers would not be the route she [Margaret Stanton] would want, because she wanted to provide a home-like place for the families who needed to be near loved ones in the hospital. It would be disappointing, and disappointing for a lot of folks who worked there.”

Today, the point is moot.

What once was the Stanton Hospitality House along Roxie Avenue is for sale.

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

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