A Boutique Lodging Experience

Clay Corner Inn's main house is a Depression-era brick structure built in 1929. There is a porch light and exterior steps outside the back door, which implies there was either an entrance or the house ended here and was added on to later. Another porch light and exterior brick stairs can be seen outside the office, and we know in the early 1990s that this served as a private, 2-story apartment rental.

The twin cape-cod style houses facing Harrell Street, the creative deck system, and the swimming pool were all added in 1989. The late Vic Huggins, a cherished art professor at Virginia Tech, and his wife, Pat, had the houses built for her mother and aunt, sisters who did not get along but spoke by phone often. The aunt moved away after a year, and the mother passed away a couple of years later. After some wrangling with the Town of Blacksburg, the Huggins secured a permit for the first Bed & Breakfast business in Blacksburg. It opened as Per Diem Bed & Breakfast around 1991.

Joanne & John Anderson purchased the property in June of 1994, with explicit goals of building a profitable lodging business. The phrase "per diem," Latin for "by day," can refer to the government lodging rate, and the inn was often perceived as being owned by the government or Virginia Tech. The Andersons changed the name to Clay Corner Inn a year later. They acquired the property next door, totally renovating the Huckleberry House and opening four more guest rooms with private baths. The building is no longer part of the inn property, though the brick paver parking lot they installed remains as an access point at the end of the twin houses.

The Andersons brought Clay Corner Inn to the forefront of lodging in town before many of the in-town hotels were built. They closed in June of 2004 to care for her parents, then re-furnished, re-stocked, and re-opened with 8 guest rooms and suites in the original three buildings in March of 2008.

In 2011, the Andersons sold Clay Corner Inn to Rick and Nicky Alvaro, who had relocated to Blacksburg from California. As their grandchildren came along, they wished to move closer to family, and Katy and Pawel Nazarewicz purchased the property. Joshua, alongside his wife, Jenna, have managed Clay Corner since that time, and have recently purchased the business with all the hopes and enthusiasm of anyone who loves the Bed & Breakfast segment of the hospitality industry. The charm, appeal, and location drew us in like it draws so many of our guests from around the world.