Today we’d like to introduce you to Juli Accurso.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My husband and I bought what would become Mount Tom House in July of 2019. At the time, the house was a residential home and we purchased it with intentions of turning it into a bed and breakfast from which to host elevated adult running retreats in Tracktown, USA.
We both moved to Eugene from Ohio to pursue post-collegiate running opportunities. Craig, my husband, had a decade-long professional marathon running career. As non-native Oregonian runners, we fell in love with the community and history here and wanted to share everything this region has to offer with fellow runners across the country.
While neither of us had much – if any experience – in hospitality, and while we both had jobs at the University of Oregon at the time of pursuing this project, I did WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at a bed and breakfast in southern France in college. I didn’t know it at the time, but that experience become the blueprint for our vision of hospitality at Mount Tom House.
In addition to “my” story, there is also the story of the property, itself. I’ll copy+paste some of the details found on our website, but happy to share more as not only have we gotten to know our neighbors very well, but also that we have had the honor of getting to know Chuck & Tish (in fact, they booked Mount Tom last year to host their 55th wedding anniversary)!
Before the Mount Tom House, all that existed on the hillside was a single cabin with electricity and running water, and a group of friends in their 20s. They had a whole lot of energy and big visions. Through the small community they created, Ahimsa, they built their houses and raised families. Camaraderie is at the heart of the Mount Tom spirit.
Mount Tom House was built in 1976 property, Chuck Shepard, a self-made millionaire by age 30, set out to build a house for his family. Beautiful craftsmanship, intricate stained-glass and thoughtful design gave the original 3-bedroom house its life. Four years later, with a growing family, Mr. Shepard added to the original home another 3-bedrooms and a one-of-a-kind-engineered in-ground lap pool, complete with a retractable roof.
Before the Shepards moved closer into town, they gifted land to their friends who had originally joined them on the hill. When we moved to Mount Tom in 2019, those original neighbors still resided in their homes and have shared with us some great stories and anecdotes of Mount Tom’s history.
The Mount Tom property got another makeover when Pauli Polumbo acquired the house in the 1990s. She turned her attention toward the property’s landscaping and added elaborate rock terraces and two spring-fed ponds. Additionally, she established the Flying Wyrm conservation easement in partnership with the McKenzie River Trust. This 140-acre nature conservancy protects the trees and wildlife behind the house and maintains hiking trails that were once logging roads.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of our primary obstacles, and ultimately defining moment in the story of Mount Tom House, was the timing of our projected opening date. After purchasing it in the summer of 2019, we went to work getting the proper approval to operate a bed and breakfast and starting a slew of renovation projects, all occurring before going to, or after coming home from, our 9-5 jobs!
We planned to open Mount Tom House and welcome runners from across the country the weekend of the Eugene Marathon in April of 2020. In March, we stress tested the house, our ability to cook breakfast, etc. for our group of running friends in Eugene who wholeheartedly championed what we embarking on. That weekend that we hosted our friends at Mount Tom House was the weekend that the West Coast began COVID lockdowns.
Like everyone at the time, we had *a plan* and *a schedule* that was met with daily uncertainty. There were a few things that were certain, though: we would not be opening up our bed and breakfast in April 2020, and it was going to be a long time before folks would feel comfortable traveling again and sharing space with new people. We knew that our vision of running retreats was going to be put on hold for a while.
Like everyone else, we navigated the ups and downs of our jobs in a COVID-impacted era and we navigated the ups and downs of keeping a soon-to-be business afloat. We had purchased this 7,000sqft home and 200-acre property with one vision in mind. How were we going to adapt and pivot and survive?
The silver lining of it all was that Mount Tom House was never meant to be just the launch pad for elevated running retreats. It was meant and built to be much more than that – and to be shared with so many people. We eventually opened in September 2020. At the time, we made only 2 of our 6 rooms available (they were farthest away from each other on opposite ends of the house). We became a peaceful and safe stopping point for folks that were traveling outside their bubble for the first time since COVID started. We met first-time parents driving with their baby to meet the grandparents for the first time. We were a space for couples looking to have a safe, nearby getaway and escape from daily life. We became a stopping point for film-industry folks traveling between LA and Canada before people felt safe to fly again. We met parents sending their kids off to the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.
Bit by bit, life became “normal” again and more and more reservations came in. We welcomed more folks through the door and in the summer of 2021 began hosting groups again. The first family reunions since COVID, chef dinners in partnership with Eugene-based chefs, business retreats, and yes, even a few weddings. Pre-COVID, we had a very narrow vision of what we planned to build Mount Tom House into, and we just were plain lucky that the property we moved forward with was one that was never meant to be exclusively for running retreats. The land, the house, and the spirit – just like it captured us – captures and is meant to be enjoyed by everyone.
Over the last 6 years, Mount Tom House has grown and adapted to the folks who have found us. While we still operate as a bed-and-breakfast, we primarily book exclusively groups instead of single-rooms.
We host weddings and elopements, we welcome groups & families simply looking for a getaway or who are coming in for an Oregon/OSU event, we host leadership & corporate retreats, we offer folks to book Mount Tom House as an Airbnb/VRBO, and yes, occasionally we host a running retreat. 😉
Other obstacles and challenges:
– navigating opening & running a business while also starting a family (we had a daughter in the summer of 2022 and a second daughter in the summer of 2023).
– balancing and navigating the financial puzzle pieces of owning a business
– finding work/life balance!
– the responsibility of maintaining a 7000sqft home built in the 70s + 200 acres!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Bed & Breakfast / Events Venue
Hospitality
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Where to start?
If you are opening your own business, find folks who have also started their own business both in your industry and outside of your industry. Ask them questions, ask for suggestions, ask them about their story.
Listen to the How I Built This Podcast!
I have lots of little random pieces of advice but not a great, simple, wise answer
Pricing:
- Nightly Bed and Breakfast rate (6 rooms, 12 adults) $1,500/night
- Nightly Airbnb/VRBO rate (6 rooms, 12 adults) ~$1,350/night
- Weddings & Elopement Weekends starting at $5,750
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mounttomhouse.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mounttomhouse/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountTomHouse/
- Other: https://airbnb.com/h/mounttomhouse
