In the very heart of the Amish country, in Strasburg’s historic district, is the Limestone Inn. This elegant bed-and-breakfast, listed on the National Regis-ter of Historic Places, was built about 1786 as a merchant’s residence. From
1839 to 1860 the principal of the noted Strasburg Academy boarded about 50 boys here. After the Civil War, the house served as an orphanage.
The 16-room house, based on a symmetrical five-bay Georgian plan, has a central hallway and some Germanic overtones. Details like the pent roof and decorative stonework (called tumbling) between the second-floor windows give the inn a distinctive architectural sense.
Innkeepers Jan and Dick Kennell are both natives of New Hampshire. Friends who ran a B&B gave them the idea of establishing their own, and they opened the Limestone in May 1985. Dick was with the Department ofAgriculture and Forestry in Washington, D.C. , for 30 years; and Jan, who is versed in Colonial history, was a tour guide in Annapolis.
|
