America’s 250th anniversary (also called a semiquincentennial, but that’s quite the mouthful) is the perfect prompt for past-focused travel plans, including where to rest your head at night. The South has preserved many such hotels where history and hospitality meet, including these six prime options.
The Inn at Warner Hall
Gloucester, Virginia
Fully refurbished and reopened just last year, Warner Hall captures a long sweep of the Chesapeake’s past with its nineteenth-century, three-story Colonial Revival central structure flanked by eighteenth-century wings, all poised atop a foundation built in 1642 by George Washington’s great-great-grandfather. Eleven rooms that mix comfort and period detail gaze out on lush grounds, a boathouse, and a mile-long running path.
Past pursuits: Though the expansive estate’s location off Mobjack Bay feels invitingly secluded, short drives take guests to Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown, where a decisive American victory ended the Revolutionary War.
Anchorage 1770
Beaufort, South Carolina
Considering that it was built in the path of Sherman’s March to the Sea, a major hurricane, and redevelopment demolition plans, it’s remarkable that Anchorage 1770 still stands on its prime, palmetto-shaded lookout over Beaufort’s quaint waterfront. Its current blend of Lowcountry historic charm and boutique-hotel amenities make that survival even more fortunate.
Past pursuits: Constructed of “tabby” (concrete made of oyster shells) by a prominent planter, the handsome manse later became the home to a Navy admiral, hence the name. In between it hosted the Marquis de Lafayette on his 1825 return tour of America, a Civil War hospital, and even a young men’s social club known for boisterous, late-night soirees.
Menger Hotel
San Antonio
Starting in 1859 as rooms above a popular brewery, the oldest continuously operated hotel west of the Mississippi boasts an ornate, birthday cake–like atrium that makes you pause and say, “Whoa, they don’t make ’em like this anymore.” In contrast, the polished-wood Menger Bar, where Teddy Roosevelt recruited more than 1,200 men as Rough Riders in 1898, is a replica of a pub inside London’s House of Lords.
Past pursuits: Remembering the Alamo is easy given that it sits just across the street, and not much farther awaits the ever-popular San Antonio River Walk.
1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
When the railroad arrived in a picturesque Ozarks village that was already attracting affluent visitors to its hot springs, the mountaintop Crescent Inn fulfilled the need for a grand hotel. Various adaptations followed, including a women’s college and a Depression-era interlude as a cancer clinic run by a crackpot physician, until the inn was fully rehabbed to its former glory by new owners in 2005. Today, seventy-two rooms offer high ceilings and Victorian flourishes.
Past pursuits: A short trolley-bus ride deposits guests at the restaurants, shops, and quirky museums that line the historic downtown’s Main and Spring Streets. Or just remain on site for the daily ghost tour that reveals the inn’s touted paranormal activities.
The Marshall House
Savannah
Also spurred by the mid-century railroad boom, Savannah businesswoman Mary Marshall opened the Marshall House in 1851, though the signature iron veranda arrived in 1857. After occupying Union forces used it as a hospital during the Civil War, subsequent owners added the amenities of electric light and steam heat before the hotel closed in 1957. Fully restored, it reopened in 1999.
Past pursuits: Located in the heart of Savannah’s historic district, the Marshall House offers plenty of history on its own, including weekly talks by a local historian and an 1830 lobby portrait of Mary Marshall that was acquired from the estate of Jim Williams, the central figure of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Willard InterContinental
Washington, D.C.
Talk about a guest register: Since its 1850 founding and 1901 rebuilding in Beaux-Arts style, the grand, 335-room Willard has sheltered presidents Pierce, Lincoln, and Coolidge—not to mention Julia Ward Howe while she wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of the historic March on Washington. Today it remains a prime destination for foreign dignitaries and lovers of a classic hotel experience.
Past pursuits: Windows that overlook A Soldier’s Journey, a fifty-eight-foot-long bronze bas relief, include QR codes that offer more information on the new WWI memorial. Stroll outside and the White House and the center point of the National Mall are mere steps away.
Steve Russell is a Garden & Gun contributing editor who also has written for Men’s Journal, Life, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, he resided in New Orleans and New York City before settling down in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s far enough south that biscuits are an expected component of a good breakfast.
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