The York County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a special-use permit to allow the Hornsby House Inn to conduct private weddings and receptions.
Supervisors praised the Yorktown bed and breakfast at their meeting Tuesday, commending them for the benefits the inn has brought to the tourism industry.
“I’m proud of everything you’ve done there,” Chairman Don Wiggins told Hornsby House Inn owner David Bowditch during the meeting. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the work you had done there. ”
The inn is limited to hosting one wedding per day and two weddings per seven-day period. The event must take place between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. and can have a maximum of 130 guests.
The owners are requiring one room in the bed and breakfast be rented by the host or a guest of the wedding, and those guests must stay for two nights if it is a weekend wedding.
Hornsby House Inn is the second bed and breakfast to apply and be granted a permit to host large-scale weddings after a policy change was enacted in July 2013. Previous to the change, only guests staying at the establishment could participate in a wedding ceremony or reception at the bed and breakfast.
Bay Tree Manor Bed and Breakfast in Seaford was granted permission in November to host weddings for up to 160 guests.
Before the policy was changed, only guests staying in bed and breakfasts could participate in wedding ceremonies.
Bowditch told the board running the inn has been a “wonderful experience in Yorktown,” and the neighborhood has “never been better.” No citizens spoke during the public hearing.
Bowditch and his brother Phillip began operating the Hornsby House Inn — passed down from their mother — in 2011. The house was built in 1934 by the brothers’ grandfather and sits on half an acre near the York River.
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