City: Jacksonville, FL

Category: Accommodations

Address: 2114 Oak St.

Description: Tina Musico may well be the youngest innkeeper in Jacksonville. She says a little naïveté worked to her advantage several years ago when she and her husband, Robert Eagle, bought their 1902, 10,000-square-foot, wood-frame home in the heart of Riverside. When they first saw the three-story house, Tina says, it was stripped down to its studs inside, but she and Robert fell in love with it anyway. They liked the grand feel of the place and were eager to renovate. Little did they know it would take two years of their lives to put the house back together again. The inn has six bedrooms, each with a flat-screen TV and a DVD player hidden away in an antique armoire, a wine refrigerator, wireless Internet connection, hair dryer, telephone, and private bath. All the rooms are nonsmoking, and three of them on the second floor also have private balconies. The decor leans more toward minimalism than clutter, while still making use of antique furniture and rugs. Tina says she had great luck finding antiques on eBay and calls the 8-foot-wide, 1854 French Art Deco armoire in one of the bedrooms her most fabulous find. Guests enjoy a full gourmet breakfast in the formal dining room, which can include homemade sunrise frittatas and sausage roll, homemade bread and granola, and some sort of fresh fruit compote. Tina also offers a wine hour daily at 6 p.m., complete with munchies and something sweet. The formal dining room also serves as a meeting room for corporate clients, which Tina says the inn is seeing more and more of lately. The Inn at Oak Street is 10 minutes from Downtown and a stone’s throw away from Riverside Market Square shopping. Tina has managed to utilize her entire house, including the basement, where there’s a spa offering massage and nail services. Stop by the gift shop to take home one of the inn’s cozy monogrammed bathrobes. If you’re interested in renovating old homes, be sure to ask Tina where the 24 8-foot doors came from. It’s quite a tale! The Inn at Oak Street welcomes children ages 12 and older.