Historic Inns in Connecticut

The regions

Where to stay, by region

Litchfield Hills

Four of the inns we list are here. In Salisbury, The White Hart fronts the green in the Salisbury Center Historic District; the inn says it was built as a farmhouse in 1806, and the National Register traces its origins to about 1800. In Woodbury, the 1754 House, a Historic Hotels of America member, stands on Main Street South in Woodbury Historic District No. 1. In Riverton, the Old Riverton Inn, individually listed on the National Register, is a tavern of about 1811 with 10 rooms overlooking the west branch of the Farmington River, and in New Milford the Homestead Inn, a house of about 1885, stands at the north end of the village green.

Mystic & the Southeastern Shore

Two of the three are in downtown Mystic, on its Stonington side, inside the Mystic Bridge Historic District. The Whaler’s Inn’s Main Inn is the 1900 Clinton Building by the Bascule Bridge, a hotel since 1969, and its 1865 House was the home of shipbuilder George W. Mallory; its other buildings date from the 1980s or later. The Mermaid Inn of Mystic is a four-room B&B in Cyrus Noyes’s 1843 Italianate house. In Ledyard, minutes from Mystic, Stonecroft Inn is sea captain Shubel Smith’s 1807 house, individually listed on the National Register, with six more suites in a barn rebuilt after the 1938 hurricane.

Lower Connecticut River Valley

In Essex, The Griswold Inn opened in 1776, according to Historic Hotels of America, which says British mariners commandeered it during the War of 1812; we could not confirm which buildings hold its 34 rooms, so ask where yours is. In Ivoryton, a village of Essex, the Copper Beech Inn is Archibald Comstock’s 1889 house in the Ivoryton historic district, with 13 of its 22 rooms in the house and Carriage House and 9 in the Comstock House of 2007. On the river’s east bank near its mouth, the Old Lyme Inn is a Champlain family house of about 1865 in the Old Lyme historic district, restored after a 1965 fire, with 13 rooms looking out on the Florence Griswold Museum and the Lyme Art Association.

New Haven & the Shoreline

Both are in New Haven. At Long Wharf, Hotel Marcel fills the Armstrong Rubber Company headquarters that Marcel Breuer and Robert F. Gatje designed, completed in 1970 and listed on the National Register in 2021; it opened as a hotel in 2022. On Chapel Street beside the Yale campus, Graduate New Haven is Foote & Townsend’s six-story Romanesque Hotel Majestic of 1894, later the Hotel Duncan, which the National Register nomination counts among the first private dormitories built for Yale students.

Fairfield County

The West Lane Inn, built in 1849 according to the inn, stands on West Lane just off Main Street in the Ridgefield Center historic district. All 17 rooms have private baths, some with working fireplaces or kitchenettes; parking is free and breakfast is included.

Hartford & Central

In Simsbury, the Simsbury 1820 House is the Amos Eno House, a brick Federal house built in 1822 and individually listed on the National Register; Eno’s daughter, Antoinette Eno Wood, remodeled it around 1900, and Olmsted Associates landscaped the grounds in 1903. In downtown Hartford, the Residence Inn Hartford Downtown, an all-suite Marriott, fills H. H. Richardson’s 1876 Cheney Building on Main Street, its seven-story front faced in Berea limestone and Portland brownstone.

Before you book

Planning your stay

Before you book

Several inns have newer buildings beside the old ones, so ask where your room is: 9 of the Copper Beech Inn’s 22 rooms are in the Comstock House, completed in 2007; at The Whaler’s Inn only the Main Inn and the 1865 House are historic; and 6 of Stonecroft Inn’s 10 rooms are in a barn rebuilt after the 1938 hurricane. We could not confirm which buildings hold The Griswold Inn’s 34 rooms. The Copper Beech Inn does not take children under 16 except in special circumstances, and Main House rooms at the Homestead Inn have a minimum age of 18; its Treadwell Annex rooms take children but do not include breakfast. The Old Riverton Inn has no elevator. Parking is free on site at the West Lane Inn, paid on site at the Residence Inn in Hartford, and in an off-site garage for Graduate New Haven.

Ways in

Themes in Connecticut

The lower Connecticut River

Historic Hotels of America says The Griswold Inn in Essex opened in 1776, that British mariners commandeered it during the War of 1812 and that rumrunners kept spirits flowing there during Prohibition. In Ivoryton, Archibald Comstock built the house that is now the Copper Beech Inn in 1889; his father, Samuel Comstock, had founded the ivory-importing and piano-key firm S.M. Comstock Co. in 1847, and the house became the Johnny Cake Inn restaurant in 1954. On the east bank, in Old Lyme, the Champlain family built the Old Lyme Inn about 1865; it was the Barbizon Oak, a boarding house, until a 1965 fire.

Litchfield Hills taverns and village greens

Historic Hotels of America says the 1754 House in Woodbury became an inn in the mid-18th century, and the inn says many consider it the oldest inn in Connecticut. The White Hart in Salisbury began as a small tavern with a few rooms, according to the inn, and grew into what the National Register calls a large rambling frame inn; John Harney started Harney & Sons tea in its basement, and it reopened in 2014 after a renovation begun in 2010. The National Register records the Old Riverton Inn under the names Ives Tavern, Old Ives Hotel, Riverton Hotel and Yale’s Hotel and says its five levels suggest it was built as a tavern rather than a home. In New Milford, the Homestead Inn has taken guests since 1928, per the inn, in a house of about 1885 and an annex built in 1938 as a restaurant.

Mystic’s shipbuilders and sea captains

The Whaler’s Inn’s 1865 House was the home of shipbuilder George W. Mallory, son of Charles Mallory, whose shipyard stood where Mystic Seaport Museum is today. Its Main Inn, the Clinton Building, is named for hotelier J. Clinton Fitch and long had rooms above shops that included a Ford Model-T showroom, and its Hoxie House stands on the site of the 1818 U.S. Hotel and the 1861 Hoxie Hotel. Also in the Mystic Bridge Historic District, the Mermaid Inn of Mystic is the 1843 Italianate house the National Register links to Cyrus Noyes. In Ledyard, Shubel Smith, a sea captain and livestock farmer born in 1775, built the house that is now Stonecroft Inn in 1807; a chimney brick bears the date.

City landmarks in New Haven and Hartford

In Hartford, H. H. Richardson was commissioned in September 1875 to design the Cheney Building, finished in 1876; after seeing William Burges’s use of the two stones at Trinity College, he switched from brick to rough-faced Berea limestone and Portland brownstone. In New Haven, Foote & Townsend’s 1894 Hotel Majestic, now Graduate New Haven, was among the first private dormitories built for Yale students, and the 1984 Chapel Street Historic District nomination called it almost entirely intact. At Long Wharf, Marcel Breuer and Robert F. Gatje designed the Armstrong Rubber Company’s headquarters, completed in 1970; Pirelli, which acquired Armstrong in 1988, moved out in 1999, and the building opened as Hotel Marcel in 2022.

Road trip

Mystic to Salisbury, inn to inn

Mystic

Start in the Mystic Bridge Historic District at The Whaler’s Inn, in the 1900 Clinton Building by the Bascule Bridge, or at the four-room Mermaid Inn of Mystic, in Cyrus Noyes’s 1843 Italianate house.

Essex

Stay at The Griswold Inn, which Historic Hotels of America says opened in 1776 and has had just six families as stewards.

Woodbury

Stop at the 1754 House on Main Street South, which Historic Hotels of America says first opened to visitors in 1754, with 10 rooms and the Flat Five blues tavern.

Salisbury

End at The White Hart on Salisbury’s green, a farmhouse of 1806 according to the inn, where John Harney started Harney & Sons tea in the basement.

Context

History and architecture

Connecticut’s oldest inn buildings are colonial and early-19th-century houses and taverns. Historic Hotels of America says the 1754 House in Woodbury was built as early as 1736 and first opened to visitors in 1754, and that The Griswold Inn in Essex opened in 1776. Then came The White Hart in Salisbury, a farmhouse of 1806 according to the inn; Shubel Smith’s 1807 house in Ledyard, now Stonecroft Inn; the Riverton tavern that the National Register dates to about 1811; and Amos Eno’s 1822 brick house in Simsbury. Later 19th-century houses now hold inns too: Cyrus Noyes’s 1843 Italianate house in Mystic, the West Lane Inn of 1849 in Ridgefield, a Champlain family house of about 1865 in Old Lyme, a Victorian house of about 1885 in New Milford and Archibald Comstock’s 1889 house in Ivoryton. Town and city buildings followed: H. H. Richardson’s 1876 Cheney Building in Hartford, New Haven’s 1894 Hotel Majestic and Mystic’s 1900 Clinton Building, and in 1970 Marcel Breuer’s Armstrong Rubber Company building in New Haven, which became a hotel in 2022.