Crenshaw Guest House

Crenshaw Guest House has been taking in overnight guests for the better part of forty years, in a house that has stood far longer than that. The building dates to 1890 and sits in Auburn’s Historic District at 371 North College Street, close enough to Toomer’s Corner and Auburn University’s campus that guests can cover the distance on foot in about five minutes. That combination, a genuinely old building in a walkable location, is part of what separates the Crenshaw from the newer hotel construction that has gone up around Auburn in recent years.

The property offers several distinct types of accommodations rather than a single uniform room layout. Guests can book suites inside the main historic house, Carriage House Suites in a separate structure on the property, or the Pat Dye Cottage, which comes with its own kitchenette and a private entrance, useful for guests who want more independence from the main house or who are staying longer than a couple of nights. Every room type mixes antique furnishings with modern comforts: 100 percent cotton linens, plush robes, and bathrooms updated well past what the original 1890 construction would have included.

Breakfast is included and made fresh each morning, with a Southern menu that guests consistently mention as a highlight of the stay. Outside the main house, the grounds include a fire pit, a hammock grove, an outdoor patio, and front porch seating, all set up as places for guests to sit outside rather than retreat to their rooms after breakfast. A Tesla EV charger on site is a newer addition that speaks to the mix of guests the Crenshaw now draws, alongside the traditional wedding parties, football weekend visitors, and Auburn University families the property has hosted for decades.

Small touches carry through the guest experience: Dyson hair dryers in the bathrooms, a staff that includes longtime host Mary Jo, and pet-friendly options for travelers who would otherwise have to leave a dog behind or book a chain hotel with a more permissive pet policy. The Historic District setting means guests are steps from downtown Auburn’s restaurants and shops as well as from campus, so a stay at the Crenshaw doubles as a stay in walking distance of most of what visitors come to Auburn to see.

The Crenshaw’s age is part of what makes it a fixture rather than a newcomer among Auburn’s lodging options. Nearly four decades of hosting guests in the same 1890 house means the property has weathered the town’s growth from a small college town into a much larger university city, and it has kept its Historic District character intact through that change rather than being replaced by newer development the way some of Auburn’s older buildings have been. That continuity shows up in returning guests, families who come back for graduation after graduation, and wedding parties who choose the property specifically for its historic character rather than a generic hotel ballroom.

Because the Carriage House Suites and the Pat Dye Cottage sit apart from the main house, the Crenshaw can accommodate groups with different privacy needs under one roof, whether that is a couple wanting the intimacy of the main house or a family wanting the separate entrance and kitchenette of the cottage. That flexibility, combined with the walk to Toomer’s Corner and the included Southern breakfast, is what keeps the Crenshaw in regular rotation for Auburn football weekends, when downtown hotel rooms fill up fastest and a historic guest house within walking distance of the stadium becomes one of the more sought-after alternatives to the newer hotel chains along the highway.

Rates are not published as a fixed number on the property’s own site, where each room is listed as “starting at” a price, and the property recommends contacting them directly or checking their booking system for current pricing, which shifts with the calendar the way most Auburn lodging does around football season. Standard check-in and check-out times are similarly handled case by case, with the property noting that early or late arrangements can often be made depending on occupancy, a level of flexibility that a locally run, independently owned guest house can offer more easily than a large hotel working from a fixed franchise policy. For anyone who wants a historic Auburn stay within walking distance of Toomer’s Corner, rather than a room off the interstate, Crenshaw Guest House is one of the longest-running options in town.