An 1860 Italianate summer villa restored as the largest and most opulent bed and breakfast in Cape May, twenty-four rooms across the main house and Carriage House, set on an acre and a half of award-winning gardens four blocks from the beach.
"The room is large enough to waltz in, the garden is large enough to get lost in, and the cupola is large enough to propose from. If your idea of Cape May involves the word 'estate' rather than 'motel,' this is the only honest answer."
The Southern Mansion was built in 1860 by the Philadelphia merchant George Allen as a summer residence at the corner of Washington and Franklin Streets, four blocks back from the ocean and a short walk from Cape May's Victorian heart. The architecture is full Italianate, three storeys of clapboard under a low hipped roof, a glass-walled cupola, deep wrap-around verandas, the tall arched windows and bracketed cornices that the style codified, all unusual in scale for a private residence even by the standards of Cape May's gilded era. The house remained in private hands through the early twentieth century, was used variously thereafter, and was returned to single-property hotel use in the 1990s under a restoration that retained the original interior staircase, the parlors, the original ballroom, and the gardens.
There are twenty-four rooms distributed across the main mansion and the adjacent Carriage House, larger as a category than any other Cape May bed and breakfast and significantly larger than the city's beachfront hotel rooms. The Superior Kings in the mansion run sixteen to twenty feet on a side; the named suites in the Carriage House add sitting areas and, in several cases, private exterior entrances directly from the garden. Every room has a private bath (a Cape May rarity at this vintage), wireless internet, air conditioning, premium linens, and the gentle period-appropriate furniture that the Southern Mansion has restored rather than re-themed. There are no televisions in the parlor rooms by design; the cupola is open to guests through the day for the long view across town toward the ocean.
The gardens are the property's second proposition and the reason the wedding business is the strongest of any Cape May address. An acre and a half of formal beds, brick paths, a fountain, a wrought-iron arbor, period statuary, and the long lawn that runs to the rear of the Carriage House have been catalogued and restored over twenty years. The full breakfast is served in the dining room at a single seating each morning, the silver and china survive from the property's earlier private life, and afternoon refreshments are taken on the wrap-around veranda or in the garden depending on weather. Tea, coffee, soft drinks, and a constantly refreshed cookie stand are complimentary all day.
The atmosphere is intentionally quiet and adult; the Southern Mansion does not accept children under twelve as a matter of policy. The clientele divides between weekending couples from Philadelphia and New York, a steady year-round cohort of wedding-anniversary returners, and the full programme of weekend events from October through April that draws Cape May's serious B&B clientele. The location, four blocks back from Beach Avenue at the corner of Franklin Street, puts the Washington Street Mall, the Emlen Physick Estate, and the historic district restaurants within an easy walk; the beach is six to eight minutes on foot down Franklin. For couples who want the Cape May Victorian experience as it was actually meant to be lived, the Southern Mansion is the only choice that delivers the full programme at full scale.
The Southern Mansion is the Cape May anniversary hotel of record. The combination of the 1860 mansion, the garden, the formal breakfast, the no-children policy, and the long list of returners who have stayed in the same Superior King for a dozen consecutive autumns is unmatched in the Historic District. The wedding-anniversary returner programme tracks favourite rooms and dates and arranges for the cupola, the garden gazebo, or the front parlor to be reserved for the appropriate quiet moment.
The proposal brief is straightforward at the Southern Mansion because the property has three good answers ready: the cupola at sunset (the staff will arrange champagne and a private window), the garden gazebo at any hour (it disappears from view of the road and the verandas), and the Carriage House garden suites' private terraces. The front desk has handled hundreds of proposals; ask in advance and the property will arrange the rest without theatre.
For a quiet Mid-Atlantic honeymoon weekend (or a soft-launch first stop on a longer trip), the Southern Mansion is the rare property where the breakfast is part of the experience rather than a checkbox, the room is large enough to actually inhabit, and the garden is yours to walk before the rest of the house is awake. The Carriage House garden suites with private entrances are the honeymoon booking.
720 Washington Street
Cape May, NJ 08204
United States
Four blocks to the beach; one block to Washington Street Mall; ten-minute drive to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry
24 rooms (mansion + Carriage House)
Superior Kings from $269/night
Garden Suites from $419/night
Cupola Suite from $589/night
Full breakfast included
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Built 1860; restored as hotel 1990s
Adults-only (12 and over)
1.5 acres of restored gardens
Glass cupola open to guests
Wrap-around verandas
Original ballroom
Full daily breakfast
Wedding venue (largest in town)
Free WiFi throughout
From $269/night. The Carriage House garden suites and the Cupola Suite book three to four months ahead for summer weekends and for Cape May's Victorian Week (mid-October).
Book This Hotel →The 1816 grand hotel facing the ocean, the founding piece of Cape May, fully restored after the 1995 closure.
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