Woodstock, Vermont Inns are Renovating

About $1.7 million is being spent to improve and renovate lodging -- including many bed and breakfasts -- in the Woodstock, Vermont, area in preparation for the warm-weather season that traditionally extends from mid-May to the end of October, according to the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce.

Dave Murison, executive director of the Woodstock Chamber, said, "The appeal of Woodstock and environs continues to be world-class scenery and our well-preserved village; but we're not resting on our laurels, we're planting, painting and buffing them."

According to a press release, the following improvements are being made by members of the Association of Woodstock Area Inns and Bed & Breakfasts:

• $20,000 amelioration of Applebutter Inn's gardens
• $25,000 family suite with kitchen, at Shepherd's Hill Farm
• Up to $450,000 interior restoration of the Village Inn including late Victorian custom carpeting, wallpaper, marble baths and a new suite
• New kitchen and general polishing for $75,000 at Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms
• $16,000 at Deerbrook Inn for an outdoor dining patio, linen upgrades and a hand-printed wall paper featured in May's Country Living magazine
• $6,000 commitment to two acres of landscaped perennial and natural gardens at The Fan House
• $3,000 focus on gardens and miscellany at the Ardmore Inn
• $1 million buffing of the Woodstock Inn's resort complex
• $5,000 polishing of decor and installation of in-room gas-powered fireplaces at Winslow House
• $100,000 program to add a state-of-the-art corporate meeting room to the Jackson House Inn & Restaurant where Chef Elliott Bowles is one of Food & Wine Magazine's "Best New Chefs in America" for 2004

Dowtown Woodstock remains an endangered species among small-town America as, to date, it discourages the presence of chain retail outlets and restaurants, preserving instead a community of family owned and operated businesses that engage the players in local schools, the arts and overall concern for Woodstock’s well being.

The town is bracketed by such concerns as internationally renowned furniture maker Charles Shackleton who, with his wife, the potter Miranda Thomas, are housed in the historic Bridgewater Mill, and by Simon Pearce in nearby Queeche, where glass blowing amuses visitors in another historic brick mill edifice. Up the hill in South Woodstock is Star Hill Dairy that produces the only buffalo mozzarella outside of Italy, and the Green Mountain Horse Association, which hosts world-class equine events in the summer months.

Woodstock is an ideal hub for exploring all of Vermont, as it is an enjoyable drive to, for example, Lake Champlain and the remarkable Shelburne Museum of early Americana. Woodstock, 10 miles off of I89 on Vermont Rt. 4, is designated one North America’s prettiest towns thanks, in part, to an aesthetic sensibility that years ago sent power and telephone lines underground and to a civic pride that cherishes its historic buildings and nearly 250-year history.