Column: Stanton Hospitality House on Roxie Avenue closes after more than 30 years

Kathy Tyndall looks back on her years as manager of the Stanton Hospitality House along Roxie Avenue with fondness.

The house was a temporary home for families with loved ones who were patients at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. An infant, if you will, in the neonatal intensive care unit because of a difficult birth or out-of-town family members who found welcome refuge at the home because they could not financially afford the cost of commercial lodging.

“Because we cared,” said Tyndall, 68, who left the job more than a year ago to be with her husband in his struggles with Huntington’s disease. “I hated leaving. I loved my job. I really did. But I’m glad I was there. It was a warm and loving place. And honestly, I believe we made a difference.”

Today, the Stanton Hospitality House is shuttered, according to Martha Bock, by decision of the nonprofit’s board of directors. Bock has been executive director of the 7-bedroom home for the past 11 ½ years.

“I don’t know why,” Bock, 65, said. “I can’t say anything.”

Bock says she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that forbids her from saying anything further. 

It was time

Indeed, the home at 1617 Roxie Ave. gifted by the late Margaret Stanton in 1991 has ceased operations by a June vote of the board, the members of which include Bill Hedgepeth II, Louis Feraca, Bill Drewry, Libby Bean, Lilly Schmidt, Kathy Gavazzi, Dr. Kristen Coggins, Desmond Taylor, Joesph Downless and Steven Grimes. Gavazzi and Coggins, according to Hedgepeth, abstained from the vote.

Hedgepeth, the board president, says voting to close the benevolence was difficult for Feraca.

“Louis Feraca knew Mrs. Stanton,” he said. “It tore him out of the frame to do this.”

But the board decided it was time. 

“It was to cease operations, liquidate the assets and establish an endowment with the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation,” Hedgepeth said Friday.

Current board funds and assets liquidation, Hedgepeth says, will allow Cape Fear Valley Health System and the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation to offer families in need with vouchers to be used for lodging, i.e. motel and Airbnb, etc. 

Hedgepeth says the decision to close the home did not come easy for the board. 

“This decision was not made lightly,” Hedgepeth, 63, said. “We recently had an assessment done. We had hoped to build a new house — something like a Ronald MacDonald House. But then, that would be $3 million-plus.”

He says the assessment found that building a new hospitality house could not be done at this time. 

“We had to think about that,” Hedgepeth says. 

And, he says, the condition of the aging home, circa 1960.

“It’s a good, clean place to stay,” Hedgepeth says. “But we had not been filling that house up for years. It wasn’t full every night of the year. It probably needs a new roof. It needs to be updated. At some point, you’ve got to look at the dollars. It just didn’t make sense to move forward.”

‘You just don’t turn people away’

Mike Nagowski is the chief executive officer for Cape Fear Valley Health System. He attended the June board of directors meeting when the vote to cease operations of the Stanton Hospitality House came. Nagowski will tell you he knows what the house along Roxie Avenue has meant to struggling families.

“Margaret Stanton was a wonderful woman,” Nagowski, 58, said. “An incredible friend to the hospital and the foundation. She wanted to establish the Stanton Hospitality House. It was a part of Cape Fear Valley Health. About 10 or 12 years ago, it became its own LLC (Limited Liability Company). Currently, it’s separate from Cape Fear Valley Health, but Cape Fear Valley Health has always provided funding. But becoming its own LLC, it could stand on its own two feet. Margaret donated two homes; and the house next door is part of that LLC. The house next door is rented out. They used the rent to fund operations.”

CFVHS for a period of time provided the benevolence $100,000 annually, Nagowski acknowledges, and later $75,000. There was a time, Nagowski says, when CFVHS provided $125,000 annually. 

“They never come close to covering expenses,” he said of the house. 

Families who stayed at the house, according to Kathy Tyndall, were charged $20 per person, per day, or $30 per couple, per day. 

“If friends of children paid, we took that,” she said. 

But if a family could not pay for lodging at the house, the family never had to pay. 

“You just don’t turn somebody away,” Tyndall said about the Stanton Hospitality House that is dear to her heart, “because you can’t pay.”

‘A slightly different way’

While the Stanton Hospitality House is no longer available to struggling and financially strapped families with loved ones at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Nagowski offers assurance they will not be left to fend for themselves. 

“We have families who have babies in the NICU,” Nagowski said. “Sometimes, they have to stay for weeks, and it’s difficult enough. We get a lot of patients from out of town. We will provide lodging at low cost or no cost. We are working with the Stanton house. It’s their plan to sell those homes and use that money toward the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation. We will put up families at one of the hotels.”

The Extended Stay America, just blocks from the medical center, will be a motel under consideration, Nagowski says, among other nearby motels. 

“We have the funding in the foundation to continue to pay for that,” Nagowski said. “We will continue to fund lodging. It will just be done in a slightly different way.”

‘It just made me sad’

The house with the bow window at the bend on Roxie Avenue was silent Friday, surrounded by dogwood trees just off the walkway. Inside, it is filled with memories of grateful guests who found a place away from home.

“It’s closed up,” Kathy Tyndall said. “It’s sad.”

She says it was a place where guests could find staff members to talk with about their loved ones under care at the nearby medical center. 

She recalls family members sleeping overnight in waiting rooms at the medical center, and at least one person sleeping in his vehicle during cold weather before learning about the Stanton Hospitality House. Still, she receives correspondence of gratitude from those who once spent time at the house. 

“I went by there,” Tyndall said, “and it just made me sad.”

She is not alone.

Others in this community who have financially supported Stanton Hospitality House agree with Tyndall.

“It was a take-off of the Ronald McDonald House and served so many families while family members were sick in the hospital,” Pat Howell said. “I know as a volunteer at NICU how many times families stayed there from out of town while their infant was in NICU, as well as other families there with sick patients. So sad to see it no longer a support in the community.”

Epilogue

Martha Bock is upset, too. As executive director, Bock was passionate about this house, and the many guests who came the house’s way. 

“She worked hard at keeping the house going,” Nagowski said. “She was wonderful for the house. She put families first. She was not there for money. She was passionate about it. And she loved Margaret Stanton.”

And Bill Hedgepeth understands how Bock and Tyndall feel about the board’s decision. 

“I like Martha and know her husband,” he said. “I understand Martha’s position. She has a good heart.”

But monies from the sale of the house will carry on the name of Margaret Stanton, who died at age 87 on July 19, 2019.

“Margaret Stanton’s legacy,” Hedgepeth said about the endowment, “lives on.”

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

We’re in our third year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose — to deliver the news that matters to you.