Coming Back Home to Invest

Joel and Donna Bennett live in Las Vegas where Joel sells Caterpillar equipment. They return often to Ripley, MS and on one of their visits Joel couldn’t sleep so he drove around the town. When he stopped in front of the old Ripley Feed and Seed Store, it brought back many memories, “I remember coming into this building as a young boy and looking up into the circle in the ceiling and up into the second floor where they stored all of the seed.”

Joel & Donna bought the building, hoping to renovate the 1903 building into a place for Joel’s mother, Mona Griffin, to live in. Over the 13 months of construction the project moved from a single residence into a wonderfully quaint inn on the square. And, that is the name of their creation The Inn on the Square.

We stayed there prior to the ribbon cutting and were completely blown away by the creativity and detail that went on in the renovation. This was not just an investment in their hometown, it was a labor of love to take an old dilapidated building and turn it into a crown jewel for the town.

The interior doors used to grace the historic Peabody Hotel in Memphis where the Mallard ducks make a daily trek to and from their penthouse housing. The doorknobs came from Rod Stewart’s home after a renovation.

If your travels every take you to northern MS, be sure to stay at the Inn on the Square in Ripley.