A weekend stay last month at the Blackburn Inn in Staunton, Va., gave my wife Juli and me an appreciation for a freedom we usually take for granted — the ability to come and go as we please.
After checking in, we were free to leave the premises to stroll around Staunton’s bustling downtown and enjoy an hour of virtuoso performances at a Bach festival. Later, after dinner in the hotel’s bistro, we returned downtown to enjoy some local brews.
This freedom to leave the grounds was something that thousands of people who had once inhabited the historic hotel and neighboring buildings did not enjoy.
Jim, I enjoyed your article on the Blackburn Inn. I was also reminded that we met several years ago at a Charette in Lincoln, Virginia. I am also a Barnes of the Hezekiah sort and you said that you had some info that you might share with me (when you had time). My maternal grandfather was Raymond Whitney Barnes and his father was Fred. Not sure how close a connection this is, but his son, my uncle, Rev. R. Whitney Barnes traced us back to Hezekiah of Charlotte, Vt in an effort to establish that his wife could greet visitors at the door of an antebellum mansion in Natchez, MS. By the way, the Lincoln Preservation Foundation has begun clearing the inside of Grace Church and laying a floor.