- Fea
It started as kind of a crazy dream ,
and honestly, it still is one. As far back as 20 years ago, Robert Patton-Spruill was into the idea of tiny houses. He even bought the prototype for an early one called the Tumbleweed House. He parked it in his Boston driveway, and it provided a place to stay for relatives, area veterans, and locals who were without homes. But this was way before tiny homes were in vogue, and in terms of creating a rental business, “there was just no way to market it and get it happening,” Patton-Spruill says. However, in 2007, something amazing happened. “We got really lucky,” he says. Patton-Spruill and his wife Patti Moreno are the owners of New England Sweetwater Farm & Distillery in Winchester. At their home, Patton-Spruill, who is also a film producer, director, and a now-retired film professor, started creating footage of Moreno while she was gardening. “We were able to parlay that into a pretty big gig working for HGTV,” he explains. The couple’s first job was shooting the major TV network’s giveaway homes that they create each year. “We would see what some of the best designers in the country would do, and we would photograph it in detail,” Patton-Spruill decribes. Not only was it incredible to get the inside scoop, but the job was also quite lucrative. That’s when they decided to open the distillery, which produces handcrafted spirits that capture the flavor of the region. “In the process of doing that, I just started to have a lot of fun building stuff,” Patton-Spruill says. He and Moreno put up tourist cabins at their farm and just kept going. They bought a building in Keene where they tried spinning it into a rental and experienced success. Not long, the property two doors down, a 700 squarefoot home, went up for sale, and they grabbed it. They also acquired a waterfront property with two 400 square-foot cottages in Orange, Massachusetts. So what suddenly enabled them to launch these tiny rentals? Airbnb. The company’s niche has been a perfect match for Patton-Spruill’s original dream. “Airbnb’s real place in the world isn’t replacing the hotel experience,” he says. “Airbnb at its best is really about providing experiences.” So that’s what he and Moreno, a professional designer, aim to create with each of their tiny rentals. “We look at each project and think: What experience can we deliver that might be unexpected?” he says. For example, take one of their first projects, the Writer’s Retreat, a 400 square-footer. The duo transformed the inside with salvaged barnboard and attached an upcycled metal roof on the ceiling. Patton-Spruill says they focused on using materials that would “harken to another age.” They also searched for an exceptional desk and created a little deck so guests would be able to write outdoors. “We filled the place with as many books as we could reasonably get in there,” he says with a laugh. And it worked. “We keep exploring new and cool themes, and that’s really fun,” he says. There’s also the Handerson House in Keene, a historic property that he and Moreno approached with care because
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Tiny Spaces
Big Experien it was one of their earliest attempts. “We didn’t want to change a lot off the bat,” he says. The house was originally built by a man named Phineas Handerson, one of Keene’s first lawyers. “He was known as the happiest man in town,” Patton-Spruill says. The Handerson family intermarried with the Faulkner family, and both “did amazing things throughout Keene and all around the world really,” Patton-Spruill notes. For instance, Barry Faulkner, born in Keene in 1881, was one of the foremost mural artists of his generation. His murals can still be seen locally at Keene State College, the Historical Society of Cheshire County, and Bank of America at Central Square in Keene. A downtown mural depicting Faulkner was also painted in tribute to the talented artist during the Walldogs festival in 2019. With so much history, Patton-Spruill and his wife decided to go for a classic New England feel in the house, though they did branch out a bit in the carriage house above the garage. “Patti’s from New York City, so we said. ‘Let’s build a New York-style loft in here,’” Patton-Spruill says. Decorated with art by Banksy and other statement styles, it became quite a fun stay that guests really enjoy. Around the corner, the Airbnb adventures continue at a unique property with four single-family cottages in the back. Patton-Spruill had his eye on the place for nearly two years, repeatedly approaching the owner before he agreed to sell. After much thoughtful renovation and inspiration, it is now home to several individual Airbnb stays. “They look like really small, vinyl-clad, old New Englander cottages. But on the inside, we turn them into this whole new thing, and that’s what’s fun about it,” Patton-Spruill says. One is The Art Gallery, which comfortably sleeps six people amidst a plethora of art books and gallery walls.
