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After Realtor Betty Tice did her last walkthrough at the house at 121 N. West Blvd., it was the first time in more than 30 years in the business she felt a pang of regret after closing a sale.

The 100-year-old cottage listed as a Columbia notable historic property is not just any old house.

“The first open house I had, I had over 300 people,” Tice said. “None of them were serious buyers, but everyone in Columbia had wanted to see the interior of that house.”

The house is known by different names to different people — the “gingerbread house,” the “Hansel and Gretel house” or the “three bears house.” Its new owners, business partners Kristin Bourgeois and Adam Kaiser, have dubbed it Creekstone Cottage and turned the well-known property into a fully furnished vacation rental.

“We’re getting booked up really fast this year,” Bourgeois said. “I get about five calls every day on it.”

Built in 1911 by Arch McCard, the house was originally a two-room log cabin that sat just outside Columbia’s western border. Now at the corner of Ash Street and West Boulevard, the existing exterior was built around the original log cabin in the 1930s. Another bedroom, electricity, rock gardens and a screened-in porch were eventually added.

Owners Herb and Betty Brown lived in the cottage for a half-century. When Herb Brown died in September 2010, the couple’s children, Jim Brown and Kathleen Brown Blain, opted to sell the house. Their original asking price was $175,000.

“The biggest negative I heard was Herb and Betty Brown had done such a marvelous job with their garden and their yard that people were afraid they couldn’t live up to that,” Tice said.

It sat on the market for more than a year until Bourgeois, who already owned one vacation rental property in Rocheport, saw the storied cottage’s potential. The cozy house might have been a bit small for a full-time homeowner, she said, but for temporary stays it seemed the “perfect property.”

Kaiser said the “quirky little house” was in good condition and needed little restoration work after he and Bourgeois bought it in November.

“It wasn’t what we were looking for. We just kind of stumbled on it,” he said. “Everybody likes it, but it’d be tough to live in it full time.”

Brent Gardner, a member of the Historic Preservation Commission and a Realtor who represented Bourgeois and Kaiser, said the house is unlike any other property in Columbia.

“It’s obviously a unique property, despite the historic elements of it,” he said. “It’s quaint and cozy, and people always comment on it.”

The home’s unique character meant pricing it was more difficult than usual. “You’ve got a subdivision of cookie-cutter houses; you can pretty much predict what those are going to go for,” Gardner said.

The two sides eventually worked out a deal, and the house is already being booked for many weekends and longer-term stays. The owners have some ideas for the property — it might also work for kids’ birthday parties or a meeting place because of the large yard and gardens — but for now, they’re just focusing on renting. Although it might seem ideal for a bed-and-breakfast, Kaiser said he’s not so sure that would work.

“It’s kind of too small,” he said. “We couldn’t sneak into the kitchen and make breakfast for them without waking everybody up in the house.”

Reach Jacob Barker at 573-815-1722 or e-mail jtbarker@columbiatribune.com.

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