WHILE Benedict House in Queanbeyan was passed in at auction in mid-March, the grand building has new custodians after a Texan and a Canberra lawyer signed a three-year lease with the first option to buy.
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Jessica and Rory Markham are looking forward to taking over the reins of the house and cafe business on May 20 and have already started event planning for their son Austin, who celebrates his third birthday in July.
“My son is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine so we will have to incorporate that somehow, but it will be a beautiful space to do that in,” Mrs Markham said.
The 29-year-old Texan met her 30-year-old Canberra-born husband while he was on academic exchange in the United States.
She said they would both get their hands dirty running the cafe business, but were looking forward to learning how it was done from owner Kate Shelton in the lead-up to the changeover.
“Over the next month I am hoping to get a good handle on what she does and how she does it well and then we will go from there,” she said.
“Eventually we will put our own spin on things.”
Bringing her own sense of southern hospitality was something Mrs Markham said was important to her.
“There are things that are going to change a little bit,” she said.
“I am from the States and in the south we have strong traditions around food and hospitality and I hope eventually those elements will come out in the menu and be reflected in the cafe.”
With connections to the ACT music community after living more than five years together in Canberra, the couple are committed to preserving the vibrant cultural hub that has become such a well-loved feature of Benedict House.
