Although the town ofOxford and its historic inn came vividly into the public eye around the time of the American bicentennial celebration, the Robert Morris has managed to avoid being spoiled by success. Built by Robert Morris, Sr., as a residence in 1710 and run as an inn since the 1940s, it was bought by Ken and Wendy Gibson in 1975 and is just what a country inn should be.
The 18th-century section of the inn is on Oxford’s Morris Street, facing the ferry dock, where there’s always a line of tourists waiting to board the tiny Tred Avon Ferry, which tools between Ox-ford and Bellevue. You might also find a line at the Robert Morris restaurant, which occupies most of the inn’s first floor. Its Hitchcock chairs and murals (actually 140-year-old hand-printed wallpaper samples) make it an attractive place to eat; crab cakes and Oxford coolers head the rather predictable menu. The slate-floor tavern beyond the dining room has a working fireplace and is reputedly where James Michener wrote the outline for Chesapeake.
Staying at the Robert Morris may prove more difficult than simply supping here. The Gibsons begin taking reservations on January 10 of each year and won’t book a room more than a year in advance. Historic-minded souls should be adamant about claiming rooms in the 1710 section, where there’s a rare, en-closed Elizabethan staircase and white-pine floors fastened with hand-hewn pegs. Top choices among the four guest rooms here are 2 and 15, the latter with a step-up poster bed and hand-stenciled borders on the walls. You might also request the room once occupied by Robert Morris, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, or that ofhis father (who met a lamentable fate when he was hit by a cannon fired in his honor).
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