For elegance and luxury, Prospect Hill is one of Virginia’s finest inns, lying just east ofCharlottesville in the 14-square-mile Green Springs National Historic District. Built circa 1732, it’s the oldest continuously occupied frame manor house in Virginia. But except forthe obligatory dependencies and impressive boxwood hedges, Prospect Hill doesn’t look like a plantation, because it was expanded in the Victorian era, when a columned facade and decorative cornices were added. The innkeepers have painted it lemony yellow.
Fresh flowers, a basket of fruit, and just-baked cookies welcome guests to their rooms. There are four nicely furnished rooms in the main house, but the big treat is the six refurbished dependencies. Sanco Pansy’s cottage, 100 feet from the manor, has a sittingroom and whirlpool tub for two. The carriage house, lit by four Palladian windows, offers views of ponies in the meadow nibbling the green Virginiaturf. Surrounded by such luxe, calme, et volupté, it’s strange to consider that in the last century, the dependencies were filled with hams, ice blocks, and livestock.
Dinner at the inn is a marvelous production, not so much for the cuisine (French-inspired and well above aver-age) as for the ceremony. This begins with complimentary wine and cider a half hour before supper—outdoors in good weather. When the dinner bell rings, guests file in to hear the menu and an earnest grace recited by second-generation innkeeper Michael Sheehan, who recently took over after he and his father, Bill, had run the place together for years. Michael is also the chef and serves up excellent five-course dinners (Tues.—Sat., $45).
A hot breakfast arrives on a tray for guests wishing to stay ensconced in the dependencies. Some, however, crawl from the soothing whirlpool tub into the dining room. As splendid as the inn is, it hasn’t become too smoothly professional. Even the most low-profile guest is liable to meet the gregarious innkeeper and appreciate the way his family has put its stamp on Prospect Hill.
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