INSIGHTS WITH VICKIE MITCHELL
A HERITAGE OF HOSPITALITY History never gets old at these hotels
KING AND PRINCE RESORT
Courtesy HHA/King & Prince
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ach year, Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recognizes a handful of its roughly 300 members. Carefully preserved, these hotels and resorts are a colorful lot: Some are large; some are small. Some inhabit urban street corners; others sit in forests or by the sea. What they have in common are lively personalities, pleasing accommodations and, almost always, interesting and inspiring meeting spaces. Here are a few of 2021’s HHA award winners and the awards they received.
Beachfront’s a Bonus
BLACKBURN INN
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Courtesy HHA/Blackburn Inn
Close to the Capital
Work weeks spent in the nation’s pressure cooker of a capital make two meetings properties in small-town Virginia extra enticing. Airlie (Sustainability Champion), in tiny Warrenton, 50 miles from Washington, was a rich man’s farm before it became a conference center in 1961. It maintains its rural feel but meets all the modern needs. Designed to feel like a village, Airlie’s 149 guest rooms and 17 meeting spaces are scattered and accompanied by lawns, trees, gardens, a lake and a stream. Personable meeting spaces have fireplaces, big windows, skylights, terraces, decks and balconies. The white-columned, red-brick 1828 colonial that houses Blackburn Inn and Conference Center (Best Historic Hotel Under 75 Guest Rooms) spent most of its history as a hospital and prison. Five years ago, it became a 49-room hotel, drawing meetings to Staunton, three hours from the Beltway. A recently added conference center has 10,000 square feet of meeting space; 80 surrounding acres and a 3,000-square-foot tent bring events outdoors. airlie.com blackburn-inn.com
Staking an early claim next to the seaside has paid off for the King and Prince Beach Resort (Best Historic Hotel, 76-200 Guest Rooms). The Spanish colonial-style property opened on Georgia’s St. Simons Island in 1935, and although most of what guests see today came after that, the oceanfront Delegal Room, considered the resort’s historic heart, is lovingly preserved. It’s a pleasant choice for meetings, with 11 stained-glass windows that tell the island’s history and views of the sea beyond them. The resort’s meeting spaces almost always include ocean views, from the massive bay windows of the Retreat Room to an oceanfront lawn and a new paved plaza. Pools gleam next to the sea, and many of the 146 guest rooms, suites and villas look out at the waves, too. kingandprince.com
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