Renaissance Woman

Reinette taught art lessons, dancing classes, and courses in poetry to local Tallahassee residents at The Grove. Like her grandmother, Reinette opened the home to travelers, operating The Grove as a hotel and boarding house from the early 1900s through the Great Depression.

Family members such as Mary Call Darby (later Collins) continued to visit The Grove and spend time at their ancestral home.

The Grove Hotel

Reinette marketed the Grove Hotel as an authentic southern antebellum estate. Reinette also promoted the connection of her family home with the popular novel, A Tallahassee Girl (1881), by Maurice Thompson, based on Eleanora "Nonie" Long Hollinger and set at The Grove. Eleanora, who went by the name Nonie, was Ellen's daughter and grew up at The Grove.

To convert The Grove into a hotel, Reinette built several partitions within the home, built a sleeping porch on the north facade, and constructed additional bathrooms on the eastern flank of the structure.

The Tomato Sauce Incident

In addition to operating a hotel, Reinette dabbled in producing soap and tomato sauce branded under The Grove name.

One night, Reinette awoke to popping sounds coming from the first floor. It appears that too much wine had been added to the tomato sauce mixture before canning. The resulting fermentation caused an eruption of red liquid. According to LeRoy Collins, Robert Aldridge, Reinette's handyman in residence, was responsible for the over-saturated mixture.

Other misfortunes befell Reinette during her ownership of The Grove. On New Year's Day 1934 a fire broke out on the second floor. The 1934 fire burned a large section of the roof and also destroyed many irreplaceable family heirlooms.

Despite her efforts to keep The Grove intact, Reinette planned to sub-divide the property as a final effort to save the house. Reinette Long Hunt died in 1940 at the age of 67 before she could put this plan into place.