Owner and innkeeper Lynne McGarry, an antiques collector and needleworkkit manufacturer, presides over this rambling 1770 fieldstone manor house. It was originally built for the owner of Stewartsville’s gristmill, which ground flour to feed George Washington’s troops
during the Revolutionary War. Between 1800 and 1967, countless additions were made and it passed between many owners, among them Broadway producer Harry Bannister and his wife, actress Ann Harding, whose friends in the entertainment industry—among them Clark Gable—used the house as a retreat. Although the stars left nothing behind, the inn has retained a dramatic atmosphere.
About a 25-minute drive from the many fine restaurants of Lambertville, Stewart Inn has 16 acres of lawns, formal perennial gardens, a stocked trout stream, and a meandering pasture that leads to a working farm with ducks, sheep, goats, and peacocks. The eggs served at breakfast are provided by the farm’s chickens. Lynne has a wild-game license, and it’s not unusual for there to be a wounded animal in residence that she’s nursing back to health. More animals, in the form of knickknacks, make their home in the common areas downstairs.
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