Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-09-10
BREAD LOAF INN.

An interesting article in the Burling-
ton Free Press of August 2S, signed
L. j. P. doubtless Or. l.. j. Paris,
President of the Green Mountain Club,
describes the visit of the Green Noun
tain Club to Bread Loaf at their annual
meeting July >. The author pays
special attention to the Inn, which was
evidently found quite to the taste of
the mountaineers.
Zone summer hotel is very like any
other summer hotel except in the set
ting. If summer hotel is fortunate
enough to have a distinction of its own
from some charm or quaintness in its
buildings, gardens, decorations or fur
nishings, that inn stands out in the
memory where others, less favored,
remain as a composite of conventional
details. Bread Loaf Inn stands out in
memory sharply. Holmes said that
New Engl md families in each genera
ton, where there was an accession of
fortune, built an addition to the home
stead always in the rear Bread Loaf
Inn began its existence in farm house
in 1865, and it would seem that yearly
addition has been made ever since, in
variably on the ground floor. A laby-
rinth of passages of unexpected twists
and turns, where the new and older
buildings join, have many exits and en-
frances and lead to unsupported parlors,
dens and libraries. The open fireplace
is found everywhere, and in the oldest
building radiators show that steam heat
is available when the frost begins to nip
as the inn is kept open late in the fall.
The business of this inn, with 200
guests, and the post Office, is carried on
in tiny Office which opens on front
entry by window. All it needs is an
outfit of copper, pewter, beer pulls and
bottles to transform it into a typical
Dickens bar.
Connected with the house in the
rear, is large auditorium which will
seat several hundred. This has stage
with all the fittings, curtain, footlights
and scenery. This hall is also used as a
music room. Back of this is a large
smoking-room with an inviting open fire.
place, And again, back of this are the
bowling alleys.
''Along the front to the east stretches
the large, airy, and inviting dining hall
Here good food is enhanced by dainty
service as the mattresses, all in white,
are, and always have been the students
of Middlebury College. Now that Bread
Loaf Inn is owned and carried on by the
college possibly credits will be given in
the course of household economics for
this charming summer service. Back of
the dining hall extends another range of
buildings which were not investigated;
these were the kitchen and its depend
encies, the college dormitory, and quar-
tiers for the other ministers to comfort.
"Outside of the entrance swings the
typical signboard of olden times, and or
it is painted the brownest and crustiest
of loaves. The inn is the center of 6
cluster of cottages. Some of these are
annexes of the inn, and just why they
escaped being added to the ground floor
plan is not quite clear. These cottage:
are three stories high and have piazzal
about three sides to the roof. 1t is no
uncommon for family to take an entir,
floor, and while enjoying the conven
fence and social life of the inn have al
independent home life about their owl
open fireplace. Eight cottages are pri
vately owned, and have been occupied
for many summers.
1.-THE inn stands on its own farm
which has a rather famous herd O.
Jersey cattle The gardens in front o
the inn are delight to the eye. Vege
tables are raised in abundance, and