“Very friendly hosts, excellent room, great conversation, decadent breakfast—what else is there?!?”
— D.J.

“Thank you for a lovely escape from the city, with just the right measure of hospitality, including delicious food.”
— L.R. & W.G.

Ann and Ron Brown are delighted to welcome you to Newboro House, a beautiful 19th century home originally restored and initially operated as a bed and breakfast by Charlene and Bob King. In the autumn of 2004, Ann and Ron purchased Newboro House from the Kings. In January 2005, Newboro House was reopened to visitors.

Ann looks after the day-to-day running of the bed and breakfast, and cooks all guest meals. Running a B&B has been her main ambition since she discovered bed-and-breakfast travel during trips to Europe and Great Britain in the 1970s. The work fits with Ann’s deep interest in what have been called the “domestic arts”: she has sewed and knitted since the age of five, helped with the family cooking since the age of ten, and made her own pickles and preserves since the age of fifteen.

More recently, Ann organized and catered a charity contract bridge tournament twice annually for almost six years. Her from-scratch breads and rolls were the chief draw at the bridge tournaments. Some people claimed that they attended those events solely to eat their yearly quota of her cinnamon buns. In addition to her duties in the B&B, Ann works as a medical copyeditor.

Ron acts as the Newboro House webmaster, property manager, and concierge. Ron spent several years as a high-school teacher and even more years as a high-tech guru. He is used to dealing with 03h00 emergencies — though usually those of the computer-related kind.

Two Burmese ladies of the feline variety — Cassiopeia (Cass) and Andromeda (Andi) — are an integral part of the household. In deference to guests with allergies, Ann and Ron keep the girls out of guest areas. However, maintaining that restriction can be a challenge, given the curiosity that Burmese cats exhibit in spades!

Ann and Ron share an openness to and acceptance of diversity in the human family and sincerely hope that every visitor will feel comfortable while staying at Newboro House.

About the House

Newboro House is a one and one half storey stretcher bond brick home with a mansard (dual-pitch hipped) roof and rubblestone foundation. The roof, with its deep dormer windows, is a signature element of Second Empire architecture, a style that was popular during the reign of Napoleon III of France (1852–1870). This roof type was a revival of a 1600s Renaissance design by Francois Mansart.

The history of Newboro House can be traced to an early local landowner, Benjamin Tett, who subdivided his holdings into lots in about 1842. He sold a large section to John Kilborn, and John later sold to his son Horace Kilborn. Horace (after whom the Kilborn Room is named) evidently errected the first building on the land — likely a wood-frame structure. That building first appears on an 1861 map of the county.

In 1879, William Mitchell purchased the property from Kilborn. William must have built the brick home at some point in the early 1880s, because when he sold the land to John Gallagher in 1886, a brick and stone house was included in the transaction. (Rooms in the B&B are also named after these latter two men.)

The house passed through the hands of one other family before being rescued from dereliction in 1984 by Bob and Charlene King. The Kings restored the brick house and replaced the original frame building, long since deteriorated, with the modern wing in which the current innkeepers now live.

The main floor of the 19th century home contained a living room, dining room, and library (now the Gallagher Room). A graceful, curving staircase still leads from the large front-entry foyer to a spacious landing on the second floor. The three original bedrooms (one now converted to a bathroom) open off this landing. Beautiful hardwood floors grace the main level, but the floors on the second floor are simple painted pine boards. One remarkable feature of the house is the excellent condition of the wide baseboards and door frames, many of which still show their imitation wood graining — having been painted to resemble coveted mahogany.

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