The Brampton Inn
25227 Chestertown Rd.
Chestertown, Md.
410-778-1860, http://www.bramptoninn.com
The brampton inn specializes in seclusion.
In fact, a couple of time I missed the driveway, hidden by a thick row of holly trees. I followed the narrow lane (Humvees beware!) around a teardrop-shaped garden and eventually glimpsed the inn behind a wall of elephant’s eye-high boxwoods. The message came through loud and clear: What happens at the Brampton Inn stays at the Brampton Inn.
The three-story Greek Italianate Revival brick house, first known as Fairy Hill, was built in 1860 as a love nest for Henry Ward Carville, the area’s biggest peach grower and slave owner, and his three-decades-younger wife. After the eradication of the local peach industry by a fungus in 1870 caused the Carvilles to decamp, the house passed through many hands. A doctor who owned it during the 1940s renamed it “Brampton” after an English estate held by his mother’s family.
Amid twenty acres of woods and meadows located about a mile outside Chestertown, the Brampton Inn combines Eastern Shore plantation gentility —wide porches, a book-lined parlor, unusually large guestrooms furnished with custom-made antique reproductions—with twenty-first-century amenities. It’s not exactly a place to get away from it all; it’s a place to get away from all the bad stuff.
The Innkeepers Danielle and Michael Hanscom were living in San Francisco when they decided to buy Brampton in 1987. “We moved East because his parents were living outside of Washington, D.C.,” says Danielle. “And I’m Swiss, so I needed to be closer to Europe.”
Although their combined hospitality experience consisted of Danielle’s five-year stint as a Swissair flight attendant, they decided to turn Brampton into a B&B. In contrast to most B&Bs, the Brampton first thrived on corporate business; today’s guests are “largely people from Northern Virginia to New York looking for a few days of relaxation,” says Michael. “Mostly couples, some people visiting children or looking at Washington College in Chestertown.”
The Rooms Brampton Inn has ten guestrooms, seven upstairs in the main house and three in the outlying cottages. All have queen or king beds, many with canopies. Bathrooms are sumptuous, with whirlpool tubs or shower stalls equipped with body jets. Wi-Fi permeates the premises, and all rooms have TVs, DVDs, or VCRs—but no cable. “In this business, it’s a fine line,” says Michael. “Some people want TV, and some people don’t want their partner to watch TV all weekend.”
I stayed in the Blue Room, named for its navy walls and matching comfy wingback chairs, and used a stepstool to scale what one former guest called a “mile-high” mahogany queen canopy bed. The two-story Fairy Hill Suite has a ground-floor sitting room, a bedroom up a colonial staircase, and small private lawn, while the Green Room rates exclusive access to a rooftop glassed-in belvedere. The two units in the Garden Cottage also have private patios, but the most private is Russell’s Cottage, a converted smokehouse with wood beams spanning an eleven-foot cathedral -like ceiling, king bed, and enclosed garden.
In February, a pair of new cottages is scheduled to open. Sequestered behind an eight-foot wall, each 1,050-square-foot cottage will have a wet bar, a free-standing fireplace in eyeshot of both the king-size bed and whirlpool tub, outdoor shower, and a screened-in porch with a Japanese-style soaking tub.
Special Touches Fireplaces—make that wood-burning fireplaces—are a big deal at Brampton Inn; every guestroom and public space has one. In each room, during the October 15 through April 15 fireplace season, Michael masterfully lays fires.
Tea, served daily from 4 to 5 p.m., features something savory and something sweet to nibble on. Danielle served white pizza and raspberry cream pie on my visit. Jars of homemade cookies and biscotti, plus complimentary coffee, beer, wine, and sherry, are available at all times in the knotty-pine, ’50s-style den, which also has a microwave, bocce and croquet sets, and a selection of DVDs and videotapes.
What’s for Breakfast Served in the bright Colonial-style front room, breakfast begins with a choice of four juices, a fresh fruit cocktail, homemade muffins, and a carafe of strong, dark coffee: Mukilteo Coffee Roasters Happy Hippie blend from Washington State, to be exact. I went with ham and fluffy oatmeal pancakes with raspberry butter—an asparagus and cheese omelet was another option. So that you can make Brampton breakfasts at home, Danielle has posted some recipes on the website.
Diversions Most local attractions, restaurants, and shops appear on the concierge page of the inn’s comprehensive website. The site also details a pair of three-day Danielle-designed tours, one focusing on Chestertown and nearby Rock Hall and the other ranging down the Eastern Shore and over to Annapolis.
A book in each guestroom has a section enumerating “More Than Fifty Things To Do While Staying at the Brampton Inn,” from A ("Admire eighteenth-century architecture in Chestertown…") to W ("Watch a classic film at the Prince Theatre.")
The Hanscoms will also arrange cruises with Blue Crab Chesapeake Charters out of Rock Hall, and guests can access its fleet of kayaks docked at the Rock Hall Yacht Club.
Romance Factor “We consider ourselves—and I think our guests consider us—a romantic getaway, a place to reconnect,” says Danielle. In fact, I met one couple that had honeymooned at the Brampton eighteen years ago and reconnected back there every year since. The inn will also enhance the romance with everything from roses—a single stem, a dozen, or petals strewn across the bed—to an in-room massage.
What It’s Going to Cost Accommodations range from $195 to $295 per night during weekends or weekdays, with a two-night minimum for Saturday-night stays and a three-night minimum for holiday weekends.
Theodore Fischer writes from Silver Spring.
