The Country Inn: Berkeley Springs, WV
I first became acquainted with Berkeley Springs, WV, in my scumbaggiest twenties. I lived two hours away in Baltimore, where I worked as an editor at the local alt-weekly newspaper. I made $30,000 a year and didn’t have a credit card or car. But there was a place on Howard Street called NextCar that let you rent with a $200 deposit, and that’s how we started getting out of the city on weekend trips.
It’s apartments now, but Berkeley Springs used to have a reasonably cheap, fairly scuzzy motel. It wasn’t nice, but the rooms were notable for the absolutely mind-bending textiles. Just look at these patterns. Look at this scumbag.
It cost $30 or so a night in 2009. Fit for my budget. We stayed there on a Friday night and it was fine. The room had one of those huge springy beds that sag in the middle. The next day, the Country Inn, just down the Berkeley Springs main drag and behind a white scalloped picket fence, caught our eye. Surely we could never afford this stately hotel with its white columns and attached spa. It even had its own bar, which was of great interest to us at the time. $55 a night, a stretch.
But worth it, in the end. This was high luxury. The room had bright floral wallpaper, an ornate metal bedframe, a garden view. There was even a duvet, well before it became chain-hotel standard equipment. We drank on the patio. We drank in a cozy bar surrounded by bright cherrywood. It was a really good weekend.
Berkeley Springs doesn’t have a thousand full-time residents, but its surrounding hills are the vacation-rental center of the universe for the greater Washington, DC/Baltimore area. In terms of Airbnb metrics, it’s comparable to Charleston and Huntington, which are actual cities. There are a couple of pretty fancy restaurants here now, but the main attractions are warm springs. The Country Inn has tubs at its spa, and the state park next door has gender-segregated Roman bathhouses fed directly by the springs. The town hosts an annual water-tasting contest.
If you want to stay at a hotel in Berkeley Springs, the Country Inn is pretty much the only game in town. (There’s an unpleasant-looking chain hotel a ways down the highway, but that’s questionably “in town.”) It’s been that way for a long time.
Not much has changed at the Country Inn, probably because it doesn’t need to. The bar looks about the same. The room key is metal. Just off the lobby, there’s a large sitting area with plush couches and dark, ornate woodwork. Just sit here and imagine you’ve ridden the steam train in from Union Station to take the waters in George Washington’s Bathtub. Maybe you’re ill with consumption.
In 2009, we stayed in the Inn’s main building, which is the historic one. There’s also the West Inn. This is where the dog rooms are and where Luna and I found ourselves on a recent weekend. It’s fine. The West Inn feels like a Quality Inn with a bunch of old furniture in it. The building itself is pretty soulless—and getting a bit worn around the edges—but throw in some wood picture frames, wood bedposts, and a wood bench that I think is for putting your shoes on. Just a lot of wood in the sort of building where you wouldn’t expect it. Like wood accents in a doctor’s office. Dunno.
A final West Inn point: The beds are way too tall. Like three box springs stacked and then a (hard, springy) mattress. It’s really off-putting. My theory is that it’s to keep dogs off, but I can’t prove anything. As kids, my siblings and I used to love jumping from bed to bed in motel rooms, and that could potentially be lethal at the Country Inn. It also looks weird. It throws the room proportions off. Not very feng shui.
I ate at the bar and it was, again, fine. It’s the same menu as the restaurant. I’m not sure what the term for this kind of food is. Aggressively American? Think wings and steaks and a wedge salad. A few fancier things, like lamb chops and salmon. I got a burger cooked medium and there was at least enough pink in there to demonstrate some effort. I’ve had bad luck with road burgers lately.
The beer selection is bad, like worse than you’d expect. It’s mostly macrobrews with a token IPA. It’s funny because you can order a beer flight. You can compare and contrast your little glasses of Sam Adams and Coors Light. I saw someone do it.
The Country Inn just isn’t trying very hard. It’s clean and not too beat up. It definitely has soul, at least in the historic main building. And credit, of course, for taking dogs in the first place. (And cats? I swear I heard a cat in the hallway.) But it will probably be unchanged in another two decades.
-- michael byrne
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