Joe and Marina Coneeny are the fifth owners of the property, which includes an 1824 house and a barn built a decade later. Owning the inn was for them a dream and running it is clearly a passion. This is evident in everything from the design and upkeep of the facilities to the preparation of meals and the thoughful, friendly care they take of their visitors.
The original farmstead was the summer home for the Lawrence family of Brookline, says Joe Coneeny. Today, the main house has some guest rooms and an airy dining room with a long row of windows. The renovated barn, rebuilt with old lumber, holds a conference room in the bottom floor for corporate retreats. On the way to our room, Marina Coneeny tells us that it once held animal stalls. "Hmmm," my husband comments later, "corporation heads in a room that once held manure."
Our room, which faces a mountain, has a sitting area with overstuffed chairs and a gas stove and a little deck - and no TV. The Jacuzzi tub sits under a grand weeping willow that's about three stories high. While the large room hasn't exactly had an attack of country inn syndrome, there are plenty of floral prints here. Later, leaning back on an Adirondack chair on the deck, the arm almost falls off, which also seems unlikely at this meticulous spot.
The swimming pool was built so it wouldn't disturb the landscape. It has no bright aqua sheen and around the edges are bricks laid in a chevron pattern. Next to it, green clay tennis courts seem to blend in, and feel so old-fashioned they could form the backdrop for a film scene in which Katharine Hepburn is giving what-for to a suitor.
In the splendor, you might expect a certain snootiness, but the Coneenys are as friendly as any innkeepers we've met. Joe Coneeny describes the inn as "a place to disappear from the world, rekindle or remember. This is what we should be doing every day, but life is in the way."
