Dear John

Dear John will turn the landmark 1841 Ellen Glasgow House in downtown Richmond into a 12-room boutique hotel, led by the owners of local dessert shop Shyndigz. Originally aimed at a late-2025 opening, the project is now targeting 2026.

The place

Dear John is set inside the Ellen Glasgow House at 1 W. Main Street in Richmond's Monroe Ward, a three-story Greek Revival mansion built in 1841 and designated a National Historic Landmark for its association with novelist Ellen Glasgow, who lived and wrote there from 1887 until 1945.

The concept

The project is the work of Bryon and Nicole Jessee, owners of the beloved Richmond dessert shop Shyndigz, together with Ed Bowman — the couple originally planned a ground-up 19-room hotel next to their Cary Street shop before pivoting to restore the landmark Glasgow House instead. After decades as offices for Preservation Virginia and later Richmond Public Schools, the mansion has never operated as a hotel, so its 12 rooms — each individually themed by the Shyndigz Creative Team — will be an entirely new use for the address rather than a reopening. As of early 2025, the owners were targeting a holiday-season debut, with the timeline since pushed to 2026 as approvals and renovation work (led by contractor W.E. Bowman) continue. Given the small scale and the Jessees' track record turning a dessert shop into a local institution, expect a heavily personal, whimsical take on a historic-house hotel rather than a conventional luxury product.

Dining & wellness

Details to be confirmed.