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Two night getaway at the Inn on Putney Road in Brattleboro, VT.  You'll stay in this B&Bs luxury Ripley Suite and enjoy a multi-course gourmet breakfast with wine and chocolate covered strawberries upon arrival.  - Value: $600

The Ripley Suite is our most well appointed room & was the master suite of the house, originally built for Dr. and Mrs. Horace Ripley. The room has a large bedroom with a queen bed, French doors opening onto its own separate sitting room with a gas log fireplace, extra large TV and love seat that makes out into a comfy twin bed with a coil-spring air mattress to accommodate a third person. Also, there is a comfortable desk with a magnificent view. The Suite is on the backyard side of the house and overlooks the gardens, fountain, and water of the West River.

Overview of Inn on Putney Road
Inn on Putney Road Bed and Breakfast is a unique French Provincial manor located just a short walk from downtown Brattleboro Vermont. The expansive gardens are full of mature plantings including the largest Japanese Maple in North America. Their 6 luxury guest rooms each have private baths, flat panel TVs with DVD players and elegant touches including top quality linens and a clean and contemporary french decor. The Inn also features a wide variety of Vermont beers and wines as well as a billiard table. Recently a hot tub was added as well as a small gazebo, the perfect setting for a small wedding. Hosts John & Cindy Becker are always happy to discuss things to do in the area. Contact them at (800) 941-2413 or at www.innonputneyroad.com for reservations or more information.

A Brief History of the Inn
 
The Inn on Putney Road Bed and Breakfast is situated on land that once belonged to the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, later called the Brattleboro Retreat.

Dr. Horace G. Ripley and the Trustees began planning to build a superintendent’s residence in the fall of 1929. Up until that time, superintendents of the Retreat resided in a second story apartment in the main building of the Retreat.
The new residence, French Baronial in architecture, was built on Putney Road on land that the Retreat purchased earlier from Judge Chase. Dr. Ripley and his family first occupied the house in 1931. A private path was built starting in the lower garden and making its way through the woods to the Retreat. You can still walk that path today. The gardens were planted at the time the house was built and were originally maintained as part of the therapy program for patients at the Retreat.

The back yard boasts one of the largest (possibly the largest) Cut Leaf Japanese Maple trees in the United States and overlooks the “Retreat Meadows.” In a complex arrangement, the Retreat granted the local power company the right to raise their dam in 1918, thereby flooding the former meadows just north of the Retreat and creating the present scenic body of water visible from the second story of the home and the rear of the property. This home quickly became a community landmark and continued to be occupied by each of the Superintendents of the Retreat and their families until 1983 when it was sold to a private owner to help offset a budget shortfall.

Dr. Ripley had the residence designed to resemble a French chateaux with which his daughter, or wife, (depending on which version of the story you hear) fell in love. Each of the four bedrooms in the house has its own bathroom and all of the fixtures and tiles are original to the house. There are built in bookcases and cabinets in most of the rooms. No expense was spared in the construction of the home. The master bedroom suite contains a fireplace, French doors separating the bedroom from the original dressing room and a big, spacious, original bathroom. The most interesting room in the house is probably the tiny bathroom tucked in under the stairs in the main hallway.

The house remained privately owned until 1992 when it was converted to a bed and breakfast. It has been operating in that capacity ever since. In the late 1990’s 911 emergency service was introduced to the area and the address of the home was changed to 192 Putney Road. However, since the home was already an established bed and breakfast as “Forty Putney Road”, the owners decided to keep the name. And it remained the same until we changed it to the Inn on Putney Road in 2016.

There have been a few changes made to the interior over the years. The maid’s quarters, adjacent to the kitchen, have been converted to the innkeeper’s office and den.  The third-floor art studios were converted into the innkeeper’s living quarters and gas fireplaces have been added to several rooms. The most interesting change has been the conversion of the original carriage house into two luxury guest rooms.

The current innkeepers, John & Cindy Becker, took the reins of the inn June 17, 2016.

Contributed by the Inn on Putney Road and facilitated by Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame Celebrity Auction Gold Sponsors, the New England Inns and Resorts Association (NEIRA) and Yankee Magazine. Yankee Magazine is the co-producer with Boston’s WGBH of WEEKENDS WITH YANKEE, a 13-part travel and lifestyle television series, distributed by American Public Television.