The Federal style c. 1904 Satsuma Hotel was a popular local honeymoon destination. With ten bedrooms (originally), eight fireplaces, two center chimneys, it now has four blocked fireplaces and one center chimney (for looks only these days). The brick from the fireplaces (that were removed) is used in the garden as a fire pit and various garden accents. There was a winter kitchen with an outdoor screened-in porch on the second floor with a wood cooking stove and a potbelly stove for warmth and the kettle (that has been closed-in and converted into a master bedroom and en-suite full bath with one of the original cast iron tubs). The summer kitchen was on the first floor with a wood cooking stove, they served guests biscuits with cane syrup for breakfast at five a.m. It was said, “He (R.J) was a stingy old man! You better get there on time if you wanted to eat! He'd only give you enough syrup to top the biscuit!” and “The Hotel was built for sturdiness and service, not prettiness!” These quotes came from his grandson who lived in Oxnard, CA. He visited us in the nineteen-nineties when he was in his eighties! Giving us this gift of past accounts and oral-history. Lovely, lovely man.

The Satsuma Hotel formerly addressed at 115 Georgia St. (also called Highway 231), Sumatra, Florida is listed commercial/residential. The town of Sumatra was renamed when modern zip codes were introduced and another town was named Sumatra (in the Aplachicola National Forest and still exists) had incorporated predating Alford’s claim. The Alford brothers owned a significant amount of land, at the time in and around Sumatra, so the town decided to rename it after them. Alford was a busy train depot, loading lumber and turpentine, with a popular local swimming-hole and Wells’ grocery when shopping was a necessary and much loved day trip. Alford had the first female mayor and its own post office built in the 1880’s.

Satsuma Hotel was built by R.J. Foxworth and he named it for the Satsuma tangerine orchard it was built on. Foxworth gained his wealth while sharecropping in Coffee County Alabama.  He was plowing a field and upturned a mason jar of gold buried during the civil war!  Hidden from the Yankees and common marauders of the times, then forgotten until to his great good fortune, he retrieved it. What did he do with his money? Well he owned a place in South Port on the Gulf of Mexico, and a larger estate/house near the old Cherokee schoolhouse with his wife, thirteen children, and farm hands (just five miles east of here, where he and his first wife are buried) that boasted a lumber mill (where all the heart pine lumber was harvested and milled to build the hotel), blueberry fields, pecan orchard, horses, cattle, and 400 acre farm. (When renovating it, it was struck by lightning and burned down. It has a new home there now and is called Beefmasters.)

His wife died before finishing the build of the hotel and Foxworth married his hired-girl. (Neighboring farm family girls 11-13 were hired as maids to help their families financially.) He died in 1945 leaving the place to his second wife. Her cousin inherited the business after her death (his wife refused to leave her home on Panama City Beach) so he sold it to his cousin who just retired from the Army Dental Corp, with his wife and five kids, they had a produce stand and locals only craft consignment store on the property, thus the reason for the necessary state law customer facilities being added to the grounds with running water.  He became the town’s mayor, they owned the property for twenty years. We’ve owned it since 1989.

It was a hotel first, then became a boarding house for the brides of WWII soldiers, Army aviators, sailors and Marines.

CW3 James Turnage-is a helicopter maintenance test pilot and KathyLynn-commercial/fine artist and author. James’s father was a carpenter in the army air corp during WWII and later in the Air Force when they became separate services. KathyLynn’s father was a Major in the ASA department of the US Army. We’re a proud military family and military brats to boot! James retired after fifty years service in rescue and first assault units, as a decorated Army war veteran and government contractor for the Army and Air Force. We’ve lived all around the world and our backgrounds show in the hours we spent updating the house and its history being preserved.

Present day you’ll find-
*Satsuma Hotel is grandfathered in as a commercial/residential multi use building
* 5,076 square foot
* lot size of .64 acres
*The asphalt roof was changed to a tin roof in 2018.
*A federal grant awarded to the city is being upgraded so that our septic system is being converted to a commercial sewage system. Currently in progress and will be completed in September 2025.
*A federal grant awarded to the city built a much appreciated water tower (we have awesome water pressure) and another grant created a no hassle upgraded modern commercial city water system, completed December 2024.
*A federal grant has given us freshly paved roads and attractive street signage.
* Electrical service upgraded with 35 solar panels and Tesla battery backup, installed in 2020
*Separate units for each floor central HVAC. (It was a costly propane that was inefficient when we moved in, it’s very comfortable on any floor today.
*Wall to wall period looking commercial Berber beige sculptured carpet in all the rooms except the hallways and stairs where there are carpets for traction (we have a Chow-Chow dog and she’s not a fan of slippery floors).
*Insulated bead board on the walls in many of the rooms and hallways to give sound proofing, insulation, and in some cases to bring its original appearance back. The previous owners put up trailer paneling and ceilitex. It was a traditional go-to product in the sixties and seventies for less sophisticated home owners to repair and decorate homes and offices with, along with rubber cemented low-grade variegated-colorful, ok let’s just say it ugly carpet (that our grown children still complain about scrapping off all the floors, your eyes should want to do a hard roll here. They were so annoyed. Truthfully it was a lot of work though ;).
*Kitchen has modern stainless steel appliances (can negotiate available working 1924 Hotpoint stove and oven with Queen Anne legs large working electric commercial oak ice box with glass doors and brass hinges and handles).
*Heart pine floors.
*Heart pine original built-in cabinets, have been restored (after removing six layers of paint) with a light maple stain and varnish.
*Commercial stainless steel double sink with garbage disposal.
*Large pantry with heart pine floors, (storage is in four Hoosier like cabinets) one Dutch kitchen cabinet, one Art nouveau cabinet, one large and one smaller German cabinets, all prewar) can be negotiated for purchase.
*Laundry room with modern appliances on first floor (can negotiate working commercial electric Ironrite)
*Shotgun hallways on first and second floors.
*11’ ceilings on the first floor.
*Eight bedrooms.  
*15’x33’ square foot entertainment hall with an attached  15’x13’ dining room separated easily with antique wooden storefront sliding doors (entry doors from a shop in Birmingham, Alabama but bought in Enterprise, Alabama). Thus extending it to 15’x46’ square feet entertainment hall.
*Third floor is a art studio/office currently and has large separate storage area
 *Two updated modern tiled bathrooms, the first floor bathroom boasts a shower tower and elongated smart toilet bidet.
*Double vanity sink, rain shower and elongated smart toilet bidet on second floor.
*Half bath is subtly hidden under the stairs on the first floor.
*18 rooms total, 5,076 square feet (can be 19 rooms if you want more square footage in the roof pitch attic space above the third floor)
*Outdoor guest half bath is attached to the outdoor equipment shed.
*Fenced in yard with 2 electronic gates
*64 Acres
*Abundant guest parking.
*2 Car garage
*3 Porches
*Outside staircase or fire escape to the second and third floors with a winch on the third floor to assist with heavy lifting of awkward or heavy items to the upper floors.
*Well water available (not potable must be boiled) pump is there if you want to use it.
*Yamaha piano in entertainment hall (great for hiring a pianist for holiday parties, bridal showers, teas, cocktail parties, luncheons, business get-togethers, family reunions, birthday and anniversary celebrations, awards ceremonies, school events, art gallery showings, any festivity or function, it’s been a real crowd pleaser).
*Antiques throughout are negotiable.

What we love about our location  . . . Highway 231 is a main route to Panama City Beach and Centrally located between Tallahassee, Panama City, Dothan, Marianna, Chipley, just 3.7 miles to I-10 and easy access to all other points of interest. Saltwater, freshwater, outdoor and indoor sports, entertainment, are available nearby. You and customers/guests will enjoy having the security of an emergency 911 fire and rescue station only one door over. There is a traffic count of over 50,000 vehicles annually on Georgia Street (Highway 231) automatically giving you your clientele, and the locals support will be overwhelming for a viable business of your choice to succeed.  You need only ask for ideas and assistance. Our neighbors and local business owners are very nice, and our town hall staff are very approachable and kind.

Maybe you have a dream and our (more than a century old) commercial multi use Hotel/house is the key to creating that art gallery, chef restaurant, artisan venue of just about any kind, or just the right place to call home.