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~Thorn Run Inn~ Inn History and Tour ~~~ "Nestled at the foot of Knobley Mountain is a place for people who hunger for country quiet." The Charleston Gazette ~~~ Home

For 130 years families have admired the sunrise from the porch of what is now Thorn Run Inn. We provide our guests with short narratives, inserted below, on these families and the house that they have built and shaped.  First is the house history, followed by a walking tour with a smattering of room photos.

We invite readers, especially those with firsthand knowledge of the house or its former occupants, to e-mail us at narope@aol.com and share your information. We would love to add your contribution to the following description.  Special thanks to the Librarians Betty and Barb of the Petersburg Public Library, Keith Innskeep, Babe Brodengeyer, Betty and Harvey Moses,  Buddy Wells, and Mary Deudall (Baker) for their input!

Thorn Run Inn History

Aaron Baker, builder of Thorn Run Inn, was born on March 8th 1824 to Abraham Baker and Mary Ann (Wise).  Local lore indicates that during the Civil War the childless Baker's lived in a log cabin on the east side of Knobley Road. They donated land for, and Aaron was an early teacher in the Baker School, probably built in the early 1860s. The 1870 census lists Aaron as a farmer owning 11,000 acres, know as Fairview Farm.  Aaron also served as Justice of the Peace. As this tombstone indicates, Aaron's first wife, Mary, died in 1864. The story goes she was became overly excited bringing butter and milk to a group of Civil War soldiers passing through and she collapsed.

In 1871 the Bakers had the house that is now Thorn Run Inn built with bricks hand fired on-site--like the rest of the house, this is a long way from commercialized mass production and gives the house extraordinary character.  The house was originally L-shaped with a traditional side porch extending around the inside portion of the "L." You can still see where a William Baker signed his name to the right of the front door in 1896. It is up to us to guess what this date might mean.

The Bakers lived in the house for forty years and in 1911 they sold the farm to Isaac Van Meter Innskeep, a nephew of Aaron's second wife, Mary Ellen Lyons. Isaac bargained with the Board of Education and The Baker School changed locations. The school got a better playground and I.V. got the lumber from the old school. He used this lumber to build an addition onto the end of the house. On a Sunday morning in 1949, after 83 years of life and despondent over the state of his turkey farm, Isaac hung himself in the barn across the street. The family auctioned the house, equipment, and adjacent land eleven years later in 1960.

As a side note, Isaac's wife, Emma Virginia Strother, came from an old Virginia planter family which owned land along the Rappahanock River near Fredricksburg. One family farm, Ferry Farm, was sold to Augustine Washington, George Washington's father, in 1738. It was there that George Washington spent his boyhood and learned the art of surveying.

Bob and Babe Brodengeyer were the first to recognize the beauty of the house and its surroundings as valuable in their own right. Bob was an entrepreneur and Babe was a nurse. They started what we now refer to as a "dude ranch" where city people could enjoy a ranch-type lifestyle. During this period of extensive renovation they added bathrooms, septic systems, the commons room, and a large swimming pool. A roadside billboard advertising the "Bald Mountain Ranch" is now hanging in the Commons Room hallway. We also have a copy of a feature article from Outdoor Life," April 1966, that describes a hunting visit at the Brodengeyer farm.  We were told that the Brodengeyers were never able to fill the swimming pool with water prompting the locals to joke that, "Bullfrogs lived there for 5 years and never learned how to swim."  However, we have since learned that the pool was in fact the scene of enjoyment for a number of years.

After generating fond memories on the part of many people, Bob and Babe sold the house in 1975 to Harvey and Betty Moses. Harvey ran a productive organic garden, was recognized as a model farmer, and planted the fruit trees that now provide Thorn Run Inn with a bounty of fresh cherries, apples, peaches, and pears. He also tried raising "beefalo" (3/4 cow, 1/4 buffalo). Betty's touch is still evident through the house--it was Betty that acquired the small corner cupboard at the foot of the middle stairway. She also painted one of our guest rooms, The Sunrise Room, her favorite color, lavender, and this room has become a favorite of our guests. In addition Betty and Harvey renovated the guest bathrooms. Now the Moses' live in nearby Petersburg and maintain ownership of the land on either side of Thorn Run Inn.

Yvonne and Ken Ashton bought the farmhouse and its 20 acres from the Moses 1989. The Ashtons worked to establish the Maplewood Manor B&B, named after the sugar maples surrounding the house. They renovated the pool and hot tub and some of Yvonne's decorating remains. The Ashton's also added the side porch where guests have spent many hours talking and looking out over the fields. Yvonne ran a gift shop called Maplewood Manor Gifts. She unfortunately ran into health problems, and they had to give up the business.

We bought the house July 4th weekend 1997 and opened Thorn Run Inn three months later. The house built by the Baker family continues to inspire, this time as the area's first eco-friendly family friendly B&B, a fact  recognized by the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere.

A Self-Guided Walk around the Inn

Starting in the central staircase just inside the front door... Like many grand houses of the day it features a beautiful banister to the second floor landing. We decided to remove the character-laden but deteriorating wallpaper shown in the photo.  We were reluctant to do this but had no feasible choice.  As of this writing we are looking into the possibility of doing a mural, along the German tradition of the valley's original (and current) residents, to honor the people and landscape surrounding Thorn Run Inn.  As you go from the front of the house to the back it is also interesting to pay attention to the trim around fireplaces, windows and doors. As you move through the rooms towards the rear of the house the trim becomes less ornate. Also, the rearmost room, the dining room, has unfinished floors under the current flooring. This is in stark contrast to the beautifully done floors you see in the front rooms. This is also the case upstairs and reflects the "pecking order" of the folks in the various rooms, from politicking men-folk to women cooking. ...but on with the tour.

To the left of the staircase is the parlor. With its large oil paintings, mirror above the fireplace, and armchairs, people find this a nice place to go through the brochures describing local attractions. Most of the six fireplaces were disabled when hot water baseboard heaters were installed in the '60s. The fireplace in the parlor operates with gas so let us know if you would like us to light it. So far, during our tenure in the house one engagement announcement was made in this room.

Going through the parlor you come to the library. With its two over-sized armchairs and floor to ceiling bookshelves it is a comfortable place to relax and to gather information. It tends to stay cool and dim in the summer and we can light the fireplace to add warmth in the winter. The bookshelves were added in the 1990's along with the paneling that extends part way across the outside wall. We still haven't decided if we should remove the panels, complete the job, or leave it as is--What do you think?

Browsing materials in the library include:

• an extensive paperback and hard cover novels collection;
• many natural resource management books;
• books on local activities, local flora and fauna;
• a "books we've read and can recommend" shelf;
• a good collection of National Geographic magazines, and
• The Book Nook one-shelf bookstore.

The dining room is the next room past the library. It has a stairway leading to the two middle bedrooms and its shelves display a collection of teapots and covered tins. There is almost always a fruit bowl on the table and a covered dish of fresh baked goods for between meal snacks--help yourself! Beyond the dining room is the kitchen. This room was added onto the back of the house, perhaps during the renovations of the thirties. Our kitchen is open so come in and look around. It is large and often a bit chaotic. Feel free to use the refrigerator.

The canning kitchen is the small window encased room beyond the kitchen.  Lumber salvaged from the second Baker School was salvaged for its construction in the 1930s. The rear stairway from here leads up to our quarters. Here you can see the green-black "milk paint" finish of the old schoolhouse wood. Under the wooden hatch in the floor is a cistern about eight feet deep and six feet in diameter. "TM Rotruck 1899" is carved in the wall of the cistern. Lawrence Rotruck, TM's relation still lives about one mile down the road, and in fact it was him and his backhoe that dug the trench for the pipe that now brings water from our well. Just above and behind the cistern, on the wall, you can see where an outside gutter came through the wall and fed the cistern.

Coming back through the kitchen and dining room you enter the commons room. First a puzzle--notice that right next to this door, at the foot of the stairway, is another door that has been boarded over. Why have two doors right next to each other?

Being an addition, the back wall of this room is the former exterior of the house. The landscape photograph, for which Robin won an award, is of central Senegal.  The baby grand piano is in very good shape for its age and we try to keep it tuned for guests (we'll make a special effort if you let us know in advance that you would like to play.). The beam going across the ceiling has old lap joints and marks from wasp nests showing that it was recycled from an older house or barn. This addition dates to the 60's and makes a good place to display crafts and artifacts from overseas.  A small sampling includes:

• an African blanket collection that includes two Malian mud cloth blankets, a Nigerian wedding blanket, "lepe" cloth from the Guinean highlands, and a wool blanket also from Niger featuring a mosque pattern;
• a bowl full of money from around the world;
• a hand-made doily bought on the street in Budapest; and
• a fossilized egg fragment found in Madagascar of the now extinct elephant bird.

Stepping onto the side porch from the Commons Room you can see two old chicken coops. The more distant chicken coop has been converted into a two-bedroom cabin complete with kitchen and bath. We are now renting this cabin although work continues. The closer chicken coop served as a gift shop from 1990 to 1997 and is now our nature center. Our hope is that children will be able to use what is in the nature center to enhance their learning at, and interest in, Thorn Run Inn. We also use the center to show some of the simple things we do to minimize our environmental impact.

From the end of the side porch you can see the courtyard. This space features a small cookhouse with a hand dug well in front. The cement at the base of the well is dated 1904. The utility shed on the far side of the courtyard sits in the foundation of another old outbuilding, perhaps a living quarters for the hired help. We added most of the brick walkways, however, they tie together two much older segments of walkway Robin unearthed while cleaning.

The courtyard is home to a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Moreover, we think that the tree to your right may be an American Chestnut. This tree figured prominently in local forests. Unfortunately, chestnut blight took hold in the early 1900s and quickly spread throughout the US. This disease causes the swelling that you see on the trunks of the tree. This swelling opens the door for other pests and the above ground portion of the tree dies. Fortunately the roots continue to put forth stems. These stems are what you see. By current standards this chestnut tree is quite large and provides an abundant crop of chestnuts in the fall.

Spring and summer bird life in the courtyard includes a dull looking pair of wrens. However, what these birds lack in appearance they more that make up for in song. We have also seen a beautiful yellow and black American Goldfinch. Humming birds are very regular passers-by and sometimes engage in incredible maneuvering to gain sole rights to the feeder.
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