For the first time ever, we’re giving you a glimpse into the upstairs rooms—once full of stories, and now frozen in time.

As many of you have heard, our upstairs once hosted overnight guests. With three rooms and five individuals in each, we could welcome up to 15 travelers at a time. But it wasn’t exactly a hotel stay—guests were actually locked in at night to keep them from sneaking downstairs and helping themselves to the tavern’s food and drink.

Don’t worry, though—as you’ll see in the photos, each room had dormer windows they could squeeze out of in case of emergency. Ladders were placed at the dormers to help them down if they needed a midnight escape.

The rooms you’ll see in the pictures haven’t been redone, and that’s part of what makes them so special. What’s left is original hand-split lath, something rare to find today. Most lath became machine-made in the 19th century, so this detail shows just how old and unique this architecture really is.

Each room was separated by walls and a door, but to get to the next room, you had to walk through the one before it. Only one of the rooms had a fireplace, so guests had to bundle up and make do.

What we’ve done to preserve the space is add insulation and a false floor. The insulation helps immensely with the age of the building, and the false floor protects the original one, which isn’t structurally sound enough for regular use. Originally, the ceilings reached just 5’7” at their highest point. Today, with the added flooring, they’re even shorter—most folks have to duck to walk through.

We’ve had many of you ask if we’d ever restore these rooms and rent them out again. As charming as that would be, due to the low ceilings and the need to preserve the original architecture, we won’t be able to bring them back for overnight stays.

Still, as you look through these photos, we hope you’ll imagine the rooms as they once were—full of travelers, candlelight, and the quiet creak of floorboards after a long day on the road. Step back in time with us, and picture the tavern in all its early glory.