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The Inn Way to Travel
| Article
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16461 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1989 |
1,504 Words |
| Author
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Gail Greco
Gail Greco is the author of the just-released Bridal Shower
Handbook (Wallace-Homestead, 1988). |
When travelers covered dusty roads at a clip-clop pace in the early days of American independence, a crude sign reading "Guests" spelled rest and refreshment to weary sojourners. The roadside message signaled that a cool drink or a hot beverage, a restful bed, and a hearty breakfast were just ahead. All the comforts of home awaited in exchange for a few coins.
The custom of spending a night in someone's home or a small inn began in Europe and is still popular there. In America, however, this comfortable approach to overnight lodging was nearly forgotten as the country grew. Highways cut through virgin lands as the frontier moved westward. The larger, less personal, hotels that sprang up along these routes became the norm. Although small inns continued to exist, it was not until the 1980s that mainstream America rediscovered them.
During the Bicentennial in 1976, the time was ripe for blending aspects of America's past and contemporary cultures. Enterprising couples and individuals who wanted to save old homes from the wrecker's ball searched the countryside for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century houses to renovate. They found they could recoup restoration costs by running the refurbished homes as inns. Travelers responded with alacrity, fueling other entrepreneurs' desire to bring run-down edifices back to life. A new age of gracious lodging had begun in America.
Inns, fully decorated with antiques and period pieces, began opening in small towns and big cities across the United States. In every corner, guests found a pleasant surprise awaiting them: lace-trimmed sheets and fluffy comforters invitingly turned down in the bedroom, luxurious towels and fragrant soaps in the bath.
Imbued with early American or Victorian ambience and old-fashioned hospitality, inns offer travelers something they cannot get anywhere else. They are reminiscent of grandmother's house, complete with crisply ironed linens, hand-stitched quilts, and homemade bread.
Inns are so popular that Madison Avenue has taken notice. Procter & Gamble, for example, put the name Country Inn on a new line of prepackaged rice dishes and ran a television advertisement of a couple enjoying a romantic dinner at the Four Columns Country Inn in Newfane, Vermont. Avon, the door-to-door cosmetic sales company, added a new fragrance to its line of "aroma disks" called Country Inn. Advertising touted the product's virtues: "Brings the warm welcoming fragrance of a
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