A narrow, sea-green Victorian built about 1840, Cantwell House is the only bed-and-breakfast in Odessa, a little-known historic village on the Appoquinimink River. Surrounded by fertile fields, the town fared well as a Colonial cosmopolitan center, but the railroad passed it by, and today it is charmingly frozen in time. The houses are lovingly maintained, and there’s a branch of the Winterthur Museum here. The Corbit Sharp House, built by a Quaker tanner in 1774; the Brick Hotel, displaying American crafts; and the Wilson-Warner House are just three of Odessa’s architectural gems.
Many faithful patrons of this small, immaculately kept establishment are par-ents of prep-school students attending nearby St. Andrew’s (where Dead Poets Society was filmed). The rooms, furnished with country antiques, are some-what small, but one has a canopy bed and another has a fireplace. At press time, a new barn-style house was under construction on the property. Scheduled to open in spring of 1998, it will accommodate up to five people.
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