White Swan Tavern
 

This is just the beginning of a very mini TR. I'll post more upon return to a large keyboard. In the meantime, take a look (I'm in the Sterling Suite):
https://whiteswantavern.com

As one might expect, growing up in an area would preclude staying at its hotels. If you like historical towns, Chestertown could be for you: https://townofchestertown.com/

You can get there by car or boat. There used to be an airport for small planes, but I don't know if that still exists. From the south/east you cross the Chester River bridge and your first view is of pretty colonial homes on the water. Watch one-way streets signs for driving along aptly-named Water Street.

Chestertown celebrated its 250th anniversary when I was in elementary school. It was an early thriving port and Washington really did sleep there. Some of his possessions can be found at Washington College (10th oldest in the nation).

I spent one night at the White Swan Inn and was delighted. I passed Water Street and turned left on Queen which also has some pretty homes. Took a right at High Street (the main street in the historical district). White Swan is on the right:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...86a6dec322.jpg

There is a parking lot in the back and a nice patio. The gate in the white picket fence above leads to a walking path to the patio:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...15598c14ef.jpg

OK, first to the Sterling Suite. It had been Sterling Drug Store but was added to the tavern in the 1980s. I didn't look at the other suites as they were either occupied or up stairs. There are a couple of single steps about the tavern so it is not wheel-chair accessible. If a step here or there is OK for you, it's do-able.

My rooms include a bathroom with a tub, a bedroom and a sitting room:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...bc12574067.jpg

The fabrics look new and are exquisitely matched on the canopied bed, and
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...af65e8fb77.jpg
a nice chair in the bedroom. The red door is to the hotel.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e9695ad1e2.jpg

The sitting room faces the sidewalk. There is a large picture window with one-way glass. Except for a more modern couch and carpeting, the Colonial look is spot-on. I brought my strip and needed it to plug in chargers and set it up in this room:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6834d72828.jpg
Sorry it's so dark--was better IRL:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...3600e35014.jpg
Tomorrow, I'll take shots of the public rooms when the light is better!

oh, nice choice. I love these colonial style inns, taverns, B&Bs of which IME there are surprisingly few in the UK compared with the east coast of the US. [not to mention the lovely one I stayed in in Tacoma WA].

And great photos too - love the diagonal aspect.

looking forward to more.

I already had this inn on my radar as a place to stay on a possible trip to the Eastern Shore, and I am glad to see more detail about it. It looks like a wonderful place.

Thanks ann and Vt! Ann, is it a fair statement to say that the true Colonial decor is really English? Imports were for the wealthy only. It would take a few decades for American-made furniture to be made in factories.

White Swan Tavern is on the left not the right when approaching from the direction I described above! Sorry.

Saturday I awoke well before my 9 a.m. breakfast time (I reserved upon checking in) so walked around a bit and took photos.
Upon entering through the front door, this room is on the left. A ghost occupies the area around the clock:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a58fecfe4f.jpg

The clock faces this side of the room. Overflow for dining room?
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a302cbab0a.jpg

Main dining room is on the right upon entering. Server Sybil said she'd make a fire if I wanted one:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f78bc0b28c.jpg

Second room to the left of entry is a very inviting lounge that overlooks the patio:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...817082f10e.jpg

Second room to the right has a bar, a museum area, and leads to the sign-in table and the back door. The tavern's signature pottery has been remade (or they still have a lot left):
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2dac0f2595.jpg

With the bar behind me, the sign-in table and the lounge:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ab2d413989.jpg

Breakfast included OJ, Warmed, 1 large pecan muffin and 2 excellent wheat croissants. There was a table covered with dry cereals and yogurts:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7e0c9eca8d.jpg

I left early to attend a service at this lovely old church:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e74dd507aa.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pa...lee,_Maryland)

Forgot to mention that tea is served at the tavern during the week. Also spotted was as sign for Chester River cruise.

<<Ann, is it a fair statement to say that the true Colonial decor is really English? Imports were for the wealthy only. It would take a few decades for American-made furniture to be made in factories.>>

Definitely, TD. Very much english country house style with flowery chintz furnishings, slightly mismatched furniture, and the Grandfather [long case] clock. As you say they would soon have been making their own but the rich were still importing what they couldn't get in their new home - the B&B in which I stayed in Tacoma had a large window in which the glass had been imported all the way from Waterford by the house's Irish owners. What an extraordinary journey that glass must have had,

Looks like a comfortable and lovely place to stay but do they serve breakfast before 9am? It must be even prettier during other times of the year.

Please get to that TR, annhig! The Waterford window sounds amazing. I want to say breakfast was from 7 to 9:30, d​​frosty, but don't quote me. They asked for a time so they could put the breads in the oven.

My husband and I like staying in small inns and B and Bs but breakfast timing can be problematic. Many places don't serve until 8 which is late for me. I am ok if they also offer coffee earlier.
In late November we stayed at a very nice B and B in my husband's home town in PA. The night we were there the only other guests were our BIL and SIL who had arranged to eat at 8. We said that would be ok with us, too. The owner said she had been under the impression we wanted to eat that early so we could get going early and seemed surprised that we lingered over breakfast/coffee. It did not seem to occur to her that we might be getting very hungry if we ate later.

<<It did not seem to occur to her that we might be getting very hungry if we ate later.>>

perhaps only slugabeds patronise her establishment, VT.

As for your need for early morning coffee it really did surprise me to see that the British custom of supplying in room tea and coffee making facilities as been so slow to grow on your side of the pond. It's even taking off in parts of Europe but very rarely in the US.

Vt, innkeeper probably used to folks getting on the road rather than being hungry!

Now that you mention it, Ann, I think there were more coffee/tea stations in the past than now in the USA places I've visited. Theft? Breakage? Economy? Sanitary? Don't know.

At inns or hotels?
I can't remember a hotel without a coffee maker and tea/coffee options. Not a kettle, but a way to heat water to make tea or coffee. Most of the hotels I stay at (mid range chains) have free coffee in the lobby in early mornings.

Most of the hotels and motels we stay at have in room coffee machines. The quality of the coffee is usually terrible, unfortunately. I usually go to the lobby or breakfast room (or in a city outside to a place that sells better coffee). Most but not all inns and b and bs have some coffee in the lobby or a kuerig coffee maker in the hall or near a breakfast room. We stayed at a nice b and b in Cambridge MA that had excellent breakfasts with good coffee but no pre- 8 a.m.coffee options. There was a Whole Foods store right across the street so I went there when it opened at 7.

<<At inns or hotels?
I can't remember a hotel without a coffee maker and tea/coffee options. Not a kettle, but a way to heat water to make tea or coffee. Most of the hotels I stay at (mid range chains) have free coffee in the lobby in early mornings.

There is invariably a kettle with tea bags, instant coffee and milk in every hotel, inn or B&B room in the UK Starrs, and I was amazed to see one in the hotel we stayed in in HK as well as in Switzerland, but they have a lot of UK guests. In Italy I've rarely seen them [Italians rarely have a kettle] but in Spain the trend now seems to be for Nespresso or similar machines - I hate them as I don't have one at home and I always end up flooding the table it's on. I don't remember seeing any water heating options in any room I stayed in in the US, though I agree that they are often available in the lobby. Not much use if you want a nice cup of tea in bed in the morning.

No idea why that posted and it won't let me edit or remove it.

This is what I intended to post:

<<At inns or hotels?
I can't remember a hotel without a coffee maker and tea/coffee options. Not a kettle, but a way to heat water to make tea or coffee. Most of the hotels I stay at (mid range chains) have free coffee in the lobby in early mornings.

There is invariably a kettle with tea bags, instant coffee and milk in every hotel, inn or B&B room in the UK Starrs, and I was amazed to see one in the hotel we stayed in in HK as well as in Switzerland, but they have a lot of UK guests. In Italy I've rarely seen them [Italians rarely have a kettle] but in Spain the trend now seems to be for Nespresso or similar machines - I hate them as I don't have one at home and I always end up flooding the table it's on. I don't remember seeing any water heating options in any room I stayed in in the US, though I agree that they are often available in the lobby. Not much use if you want a nice cup of tea in bed in the morning.

no, no good. let's try again:

There is invariably a kettle with tea bags, instant coffee and milk in every hotel, inn or B&B room in the UK Starrs, and I was amazed to see one in the hotel we stayed in in HK as well as in Switzerland, but they have a lot of UK guests. In Italy I've rarely seen them [Italians rarely have a kettle] but in Spain the trend now seems to be for Nespresso or similar machines - I hate them as I don't have one at home and I always end up flooding the table it's on. I don't remember seeing any water heating options in any room I stayed in in the US, though I agree that they are often available in the lobby. Not much use if you want a nice cup of tea in bed in the morning.

hooray!

Did you walk through the graveyard at the church? Tallulah Bankhead is buried there. I have a lot of relatives in that graveyard but they moved all records so only found a few of them. My Great Grandmother was a Maslin and my Mom had me take her there looking one time. My Dad's side of the family is there also. I do love that church.

The same is true of every hotel room I've been in during the last 20 years in the US. Just a coffee maker and not a kettle, but still a way to heat the water to make coffee and/or tea along with instant creamer and a variety of sweeteners (sugar and artificial). I can't remember there not being one in any hotel room I've stayed in - and I'm in them weekly.

I usually stay in Hilton or IHG properties. I don't remember every NOT seeing them in the room.

I'm not a coffee drinker but travel with co-workers and friends who are. On the last trip, my friend made tea to put in her insulated mug - in the room. Some like the "real" brewed coffee served in the lobby of most of the hotels, but every room has the capability to heat water for tea/coffee.

Edited to add - I have seen some kettles in rooms recently in the US, in addition to the coffee maker. I thought that was pretty cool. Hilton properties (I think they were Doubletrees).

A coffee maker is no use to me, Starrs, I need my early morning tea!

plus I have never yet found one that i can get to work without creating a flood as I said.

but mostly the places I have stayed have nothing at all. :(

I truly don't understand, but okay. My friend uses the coffee maker to heat the water to make her tea.

We also had a microwave in the room so she used that to heat up the Christkindl Gluhwein.

My parents traveled with the little immersible heater for mugs of coffee/tea.

In any case, good luck to you! I'm an apple juice or Coke in the morning gal, so never use the coffeemaker either.

<<I truly don't understand, but okay. My friend uses the coffee maker to heat the water to make her tea.>>

The only coffee makers I've seen are of the nespresso capsule type.

Never come across an in room microwave.

I'm not carrying an immersible heater across the Atlantic in my luggage for the US Customs to use as an excuse to tear my luggage to bits.

That's a mind picture, annhig. What was in your NYC hotel? I'm going to guess that the larger chains have coffee/tea stations.

They aren't a problem -

I read some of the comments and a lot of folks use them to make tea.

<<That's a mind picture, annhig. What was in your NYC hotel? I'm going to guess that the larger chains have coffee/tea stations.>>

All the rooms at the Beacon have kitchenettes so though there was no kettle there was an electric ring [actually 2] on which I could boil water to make my tea. Job done. That may of course be one reason why it's so popular with WFD folk. [both Nikki and VT have stayed there, though I didn't know that when I booked it]

I was surprised that there was no kettle in the Palmer House in Chicago [a Hilton] nor in the historical tavern in Hood River or the B&B in Tacoma, though TBF they both had tea and coffee freely available in the lobby [limited to the mornings in Hood River]. Nothing free at the Palmer House.

I suppose that part of the trouble is that at home I'm spoilt. I have a Goblin teasmaid by my bedside [an anniversary present to ourselves many years ago] so all I have to do is to press the button [or set it to auto the night before] and 5 minutes later I have a nice hot pot of tea and I have only to jump out of bed and pour it out [I take a tray up with me the night before with milk etc] and voila!

​​​​​​​https://www.shpock.com/en-gb/i/XTRdF...asmade-machine

​​​​​​​I'm sorry to have hijacked your thread with my kettle moans, TD!

That sounds like quite the setup! I actually ordered a kettle a few years ago, because I'd read so much about them here. Never used it. Ever. I saw it again recently and was surprised I still had it. I use the Keurig or microwave if I need to heat water.

Years ago (1980) I lived in a house with the on demand hot water lever at the sink. That was nice. It was new to me but the owners were German and he had updated a beautiful older home with everything the husband hoped would appeal to his wife. She hated the US and refused to live here, so I reaped the benefits. That hot water dispenser was nice though. ((l))

No worries, annhig! What a nifty tea machine. Are there 2 kettles in it?

We had sinks in our dorm rooms and the water was hot enough for tea and/or instant coffee. I got hooked on instant coffee in the 1960s!

<<No worries, annhig! What a nifty tea machine. Are there 2 kettles in it?>>

The metal pot on the left is the kettle, the china one on right is the tea pot. To use the teas maid you fill the kettle with water [I take up the pot every night filled with cold water and use that to fill the kettle] and then when you turn it on, the element in the kettle heats the water and when it boils it passes through a tube into the teapot which already has the teabags in it. To make tea properly the water needs to be boiling; water from a tap should not be that hot!

Starrs - I think it's a matter of habit. If you drank a lot of tea you would want to make a pot of it and therefore a kettle would be very useful. I also use it to boil water for pasta or to boil vegetables, to make coffee, for lots of things.

Pretty cool, annhig. And, since you mentioned tea bags, do folks use loose tea anymore? ☕ Sorry, no tea emoji. 😁

<<Pretty cool, annhig. And, since you mentioned tea bags, do folks use loose tea anymore? ☕ Sorry, no tea emoji. 😁>>

I don't know, TD. How about this one? :hotbev:

To judge by the supermarket shelves where it's almost impossible to get loose tea, I'd guess that there are very few people still using it. Bill liked it, indeed though he conceded that it wasn't practical for the teasmaid, he insisted on it during the day and it was a good 6 months after he died that I realised, not without a pang of guilt, that I didn't need to do it any more! He liked fancy teas like lapsang suchong and orange pekoe whereas I'm happy with Twinings or similar.

Leggets, haven't thought of them in ages. We had a Dorthy Maslin but will have to investigate more. You know Jackie O had Maslins in her line. Caroline was named for Caroline county they say. My Aunt would have known but she is gone now.

That looks like soup, ann! LOL

"My" Dorothy lived in Betterton, Macross.