The historic home was named after Patrick Fitzgerald, a former
city councilman who bought it in 1887
Gilroy – Some people think Larry and J. Chris Mickartz are crazy.
Why would you want to open your home to total strangers, they ask? Think of the privacy you’ll lose, they say. But the Mickartz have brushed those worries aside and will be opening up The Gilroy Fitzgerald House Bed and Breakfast in their home at the end of the month.
“We’re very much looking forward to it. It’ll be something different for us,” Larry Mickartz said. “When we entertain, people always say we have such a neat house.”
The home, which sits on Rosanna Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, is what Larry Mickartz described as a “monster house.” According to the Mickartz’s, the original structure was built back in 1885 and was bought in 1887 by Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, whom the bed and breakfast is named after, was a City Councilman who reconfigured the home to how it looks today.
The home was later raised by four feet to fit a first floor/basement. In 1989, according to Larry Mickartz, J. Chris and her late husband, Jim Dowell bought the home. The name Dowell rests in stained glass above the front door.
The house is three-stories and sits on 8,400 square feet of land. The Mickartz have been using part of the house as a home office for their marketing business, InfoPower Communications, and have been renting the bottom flat while the rest of the 5,246 square foot home has remained empty.
J. Chris and her late husband Jim Dowell, raised four daughters in the house. When Dowell died and J. Chris married Larry Mickartz, he moved his two boys into the house. After all the children grew up and moved out, Mickartz said they asked themselves, “what do we do with this big old monster house? We thought maybe it’s time to do this.”
The June 30 opening will not mark the first bed and breakfast in the city. But since the Chesbro House closed last August there has been an absence of a bed and breakfast. The Mickartz believe that opening this bed and breakfast compliments the city’s efforts to revitalize the downtown area. Larry Mickartz said the bed and breakfast will bring in tourists and create foot traffic for the surrounding area.
“Obviously we are so excited to be able to offer a bed and breakfast in the city,” said Jane Howard, executive director of Gilroy’s Visitor’s Bureau. “The history, in terms that a former council member owned it and that they doubled (its size) gave it a unique character.”
Two rooms will be ready by the end of June. They were named after J. Chris’s daughters, Stephanie Rose and Kristine Lorene. A third room will eventually open. The rooms will be priced differently depending on if it is a weekday or weekend. The price of a room could go up to about $200 a night at such times as during the Garlic Festival.
When the bed and breakfast opens the Mickartz will move into the first-floor flat and run the place as the proprietors. They will cook the meals for the guests, which will include a full breakfast on weekends.
The house is full of memories and stories, and Larry Mickartz said he not only hopes to share those memories, but to also make new ones with his guests.
