Restored Victorian Inn with Antique Furnishings

In 1902, Dr. Mackall R. Bruin built a private hospital in the little town of Strasburg, Virginia, to treat his patients in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Though the building was turned into an inn in 1915, you can still find Dr. Bruin’s nameplate on a marble washstand at what is now known as the Hotel Strasburg. The inn is a bit like a living museum: the doors to all unoccupied rooms are left open so that curious guests can wander the hallways and admire the authentic Victorian furnishings.

Each of the guest rooms is decorated differently and accessorized with antiques from the Queen Anne, Eastlake, and Renaissance Revival periods. There are lacy curtains, ruffled chair covers, handmade quilts, flowered wallpapers, and Victorian lady ghosts swooning on fainting couches at every turn. In the morning, a continental breakfast buffet with coffee and pastries is included. Afterwards, you can head out to the hotel’s two expansive wooden decks to get some fresh air and imagine horses and buggies clopping past.

The hotel has two dining areas. There’s The Depot Lounge, where light lunches are served in a space decorated with railroad memorabilia, and the main dining room, where guests dig into classic southern dishes amid flickering candlelight and gilded mirrors. Local wines and microbrews complement hearty comfort fare such as pasta dishes and housemade crab cakes.

Strasburg, VA: Quaint Civil War Town in the Shenandoah Valley

Located in the Shenandoah Valley and shaded by the Massanutten and Allegheny Mountains, the little town of Strasburg was once a thriving center for pottery making. A building constructed in 1890 that once housed the Strasburg Stone and Earthenware Manufacturing Company has now been turned into The Strasburg Museum, where you can learn about the history of the town and see preserved pottery pieces. Strasburg is also well-known to Civil War buffs—the Battle of Cedar Creek took place just outside town. Today you can visit the battleground and tour a museum at the Hupp’s Hill Civil War Park.

Just around the corner from the hotel lies the historic Wayside Theatre, where you can catch performances of plays and musicals. For a day in the great outdoors, it’s a short drive to the 200,000-acre Shenandoah National Park, where you’ll find thundering waterfalls, forests, meadows, and flocks of sparrows chirping “America the Beautiful.” Keep an eye out for early spring flowers, including sprightly dwarf cinquefoil and not-at-all gruesome bloodroot.

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