L ong before luxury hotel chains, there were inns and boarding houses. First, coach stops in key spots along established routes provided overnight lodging for travelers and shelter for their horses, offering little more than a meal and a bed during journeys that could take weeks. Later, as transportation improved and travel increased, these accommodations became common in cities and towns.
Typically, they were set up in private residences, where homeowners made their livelihoods by offering inexpensive hospitality to those passing through β not just travelers but also cowboys, prospectors and other businessmen whose work took them from place to place. Here, Northwest Quarterly profiles several, right in our own backyard β from Victorian to prairie style, urban to rural β with luxury accommodations, legendary breakfasts, and professional, personal service from friendly, hospitable innkeepers.
This bright and roomy brick home was lovingly restored and renovated by its current owners in the early s. Features: Private outdoor courtyard, music room with piano, computer in common area for guest use, outdoor porch with furniture, writing desk in each room.
The [historic] Catlow Theatre is just down the street. Be sure to ask about: The music. Then we get guests who play piano. Music brings people together. We get quite a few musicians as guests, and Carla Luft, a well-known Canadian folk singer, actually paid part of her bill with her music CDs. We love her music and have it on the play list. In the s, Reynold Smith, Barrington chief of police, converted it to a single-family home and lived here. It was never really a nice house, but I could tell that it had good bones.
We get people in town for reunions, weddings or funerals, and we get a lot of business people. We like to serve people who are on their way somewhere or in town on business, and give them a welcoming, quiet place to stay. The original 1,square-foot limestone home from which the 9,square-foot Copperstone Inn sprang is indicative of many historic buildings in the area, and during renovation, its current owners removed decades of plaster and other coverings in order to reveal the inch-thick limestone walls.
