The site of the former Red Maple Inn restaurant at 202 Harpersville Road in Newport News is for sale, the owner and his family said.
The 3,162-square-foot two-story building, owned by David Bankes, is currently assessed at $250,800, according the Newport News online property records. Bankes confirmed the property is for sale.
Bankes’ daughter, Gina Mingee, said the upkeep on the property got to be too much for her dad, who originally bought the property in June 2002 for $210,000 so that former wife Charlene Fowler could reopen the fine-dining Red Maple Inn restaurant there with son Ben Bankes as chef.
The building has been vacant since the restaurant shut down in 2008 as the recession took hold, Fowler said. Bankes, a retired Christopher Newport University professor, said in 2002 that he bought the property for its gardens, as he taught horticulture and botany.
Fowler put a for-sale sign out in front of the property this week after Mingee announced on Facebook that the landmark property was taking offers. The family also is selling the restaurant equipment, dishes and furniture along with the property.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Fowler said, adding weddings were held in the backyard gazebo and the square footage doesn’t include the enclosed, air-conditioned porch.
Both Fowler and Mingee said the property needs repairs.
“Whoever would want it would have a big project on their hands,” Fowler said.
Before Fowler revamped and reopened the restaurant in 2002, Jane E. Castle had owned the property and ran the Red Maple from 1999 to 2000. Former owner Lydia Johnson, who renovated the home with husband Ron, opened the original Red Maple Inn restaurant in 1997, according to a previous Daily Press report. A red maple tree in the front yard inspired the name.
Online property records show that the Johnsons bought the home from the family of Walter Gibbons. His son, Newport News dentist Walter Gibbons Jr., said he grew up in the four-bedroom house that his grandfather, M.B. “Mr. B” Brooks, originally built. Online city records state the home was built in 1932, though Gibbons and Daily Press archive stories say the home was built earlier.
“Whatever it turns into, I’d like to see it kept up,” Gibbons said. “It’s a very comfortable house.”
For folks interested in buying the property, call Fowler at 757-715-2042 or Mingee at 757-715-0715.
Daily Press archives contributed to this report. Bozick can be reached by phone at 757-247-4741. Sign up for a free weekday business news email at TidewaterBiz.com.
Dining and Cooking