In my last post I mentioned that we had been on a trip to Granville, Ohio.  Years ago when my husband was taking some college classes we had a music studio in an old Victorian farmhouse in Lancaster, Ohio.  We took over the studio from a teacher who was moving to California and were fortunate to be able to rent the same house he had lived in and taught from.  The house is no longer standing, which makes me sad. On our trip, we drove through Lancaster and took a picture of the spot where the house used to sit. It was raining while I was taking them, which was somehow appropriate.  It was as if heaven was crying with me over the loss of a house.  Am I the only one who is sentimental over old houses?  I just think it is wrong to tear them down if at all possible to keep them.

Granville, is situated about an hour Northeast of Lancaster.  One Sunday afternoon, when we lived in Lancaster, we set off on an adventure to Granville.  We found it to be a charming picturesque little town, much like a New England town, full of older homes beautifully restored and well maintained.  We were hard pressed to find any part of town that looked dumpy.

You could smell the history, a little bit of preppy and money in the air.  We instinctively knew that it simultaneously was, and was not, our kind of town. The was, captured my heart and made me want to move immediately.  The was not, of course, would mainly be the money part as in we didn’t have much back then, and still don’t.  We knew if we ever had the chance we wanted to go back for a longer visit.

This summer we felt the need to have a few days hiatus away from all that was familiar, but we wanted it to be no more than 2-4 hours away and it had to be a quiet non-touristy place where there were shops if we wanted and other things to do such as gardens or museums.  And of course, lots of homes to drive by and some beautiful countryside nearby.  It also needed to have a charming place to stay that was not too pricey.

I remembered Granville and how I had always been fascinated by the town, so we decided that it met all our requirements and booked a room for three nights at the Buxton Inn, which comes complete with a few resident ghosts, including a ghost cat, named Major Buxton.  Or, so the story goes. Thus began our quiet adventure. You can google ghosts of Buxton Inn, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

We arrived in Granville on a quiet Sunday evening, checked into the Inn, unpacked and proceeded to find sustenance.  We drove around town to see what was available and finally settled on Brews Cafe.  It was a quiet family type of evening and we both had fish and chips.   We went back to our room, The Rose Room, and settled in early for the evening.  I did not see any ghosts.

The Buxton is a charming Bed and Breakfast type of Inn.  I would describe it as slightly dated with a shabby air, but very clean and lots of character.  The staff were wonderful and the host was quite the charming older gentlemen.  He and his wife acquired the Inn in the seventies and over the years have added other houses on the block to their little compound.   I think they have a total of 5-7 houses, surrounding a garden courtyard that is full of lights in the evening. We were in one of the annex buildings, Founders Hall. Rumor has it that the entire complex is for sale to the right buyer.  If only.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Buxton and would go again.  The following pictures are of the Buxton grounds and houses.

 

Traveling in Grace,

Teresa

I took lots of pictures on this trip and a few themes stood out:  Houses, Churches, Barns, Cemeteries and lots of pictures at Dawes Arboretum (met our gardens requirement) and the Avery Downer House (met the museum requirement).  I also took a few pictures on the Denison campus and of some of the places we ate, including the greenhouse room at the Buxton.  I could bore you to tears with too many pictures.  However, if you are interested, over the next few posts, I will organize the pictures into categories and share some of them with you.  We also made another little day trip last week with my parents that I will tell you about soon.