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Hartman House, Delray's first bed and breakfast, opens

Jordan and Benita Goldstein open the Historic Hartman House bread and breakfast Wednesday with the help of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce and city officials. From left, contractor Gary Miller, Gregg Weiss of the Delray Beach Chamber, Mayor Woodie McDuffie, Jordan Goldstein, Commissioner Fred Fetzer, Benita Goldstein, commissioners Adam Frankel and Tom Carney, Mike Malone of the Delray Chamber and architect Roger Cope.

By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — It’s official. The Historic Hartman House, Delray Beach’s first bread-and-breakfast, is now open for business.

“Welcome to our community,” Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie told owners Benita and Jordan Goldstein during ribbon-cutting ceremonies held Wednesday in the side yard of the Hartman House. “God bless you for coming here. It’s a great idea for Delray, and one we hope to repeat.”

The idea of a bed-and-breakfast seems so natural for Delray Beach, given the city’s tourist industry, its small-town feel and its penchant for preservation. But the idea was so new that the city commission had to draft and adopt a set of rules for the operation of bread-and-breakfasts just to accommodate the Hartman House.

The house itself, situated at 302 NE 7th Avenue, was built in 1923, and was home to Delray’s assistant postmaster, Gustav Hartman. Members of the Hartman family were on hand for Wednesday’s ceremonies.

“My wife decided to do a bed-and-breakfast, and I went along,” Jordan Goldstein said.

A previous owner tried to convert the property into a bread-and-breakfast but went broke about $150,000 into the project. The Goldsteins bought the property for $400,000 two years ago; their total investment is more than twice that amount. “And we’re still not done,” Jordan Goldstein said.

The Goldsteins did much of the renovation work themselves. Jordan Goldstein, who owned a glass and mirror business in Manhattan, said he essentially acted as general contractor for the job. He did much of the carpentry, the mirror and glass work, naturally, and some of the electrical and plumbing. Benita Goldstein did much of the interior design work.

“We make a team together,” Jordan Goldstein said.

Roger Cope of Cope Architects was the architect on the project, and Gary Miller of GLM Construction, was the contractor.

The Hartman House has four rentable rooms, each named after a section of Delray Beach: Las Palmas, Blue Seas, Pineapple Grove and the Highland Park Suite. They rent from $225 a night to $350 for the suite, according the Hartman House website.

The side yard has an Olympic-size lap pool that the Goldsteins had built, an herb garden in the back and a small grove of fruit trees. The trees are small but it isn’t hard to imagine them a few years from now as an oasis from the hot South Florida sun, not to mention the rest of the world.

Benita and Jordan Goldstein and Mayor Woodie McDuffie with members of the Hartman family at Wednesday's ribbon-cutting.