Spread Eagle Tavern and Inn

Built in 1837, the Spread Eagle Tavern is recognized today as one of the area’s finest examples of Federal-period architecture. Plans for the inn were taken from the pattern books of the preeminent Boston architect Asher Benjamin. Evidence of his designs can be seen in the finish work—raised-wood window and door frames, fluted column casings, and intricately carved mantels. The stairway, with continuing handrail, extends 72 feet to the fourth floor.

During the canal era, Hanover (it became Hanoverton in 1828) was situated midway between the mouth and tail of the 731&Mac218;2-mile-long Sandy and Beaver Canal. This early village became the depot for the canal system, with three large warehouses, and it also served as a busy commercial center with travelers coming to Hanover to purchase goods staying at the Spread Eagle. When the canal era wound down and the railroad bypassed Hanover, the town went to sleep for 150 years.

David’s parents, Peter and Jean Johnson, purchased the inn in 1988. A painstaking two-year restoration project included gutting the building down to the stud walls and incorporating beams from old barns and hand-chiseled stone in an addition. The renovation was done so expertly that it is hard to tell where the old building ends and the addition begins.

Today, guests find a full-service country inn enhanced by the Johnson family’s love of history and appreciation of fine antiques. Seven restaurants offer dining options. We had a leisurely lunch on a winter day in the rustic Barn Room, warmed by the crackling fire in the massive fireplace nearby. While longtime favorites like chicken potpie and clam chowder remain on the luncheon menu, newer dinner entrees include grilled bison skewers and slow-roasted half-chicken with andouille sausage and pine-nut dressing. Pan-roasted half-pheasant and smoked rack of New Zealand lamb are featured on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Pewter lines the mantel of the Patriots Tavern Room. Check out the hand-painted tiles behind the bar depicting the history of the canal era, and take time to see Gaver’s Rathskeller patterned after an eighteenth-century wine cellar. Hanover served as a safe haven for runaway slaves, and the Johnsons reinstalled a slave tunnel that wraps around the wine cellar.

After dinner, head upstairs to the second and third floors to one of the guest rooms named for United States presidents. The Washington room is a study in blue and white, with a king-size four-poster bed, and a sitting area with blue-and-white-checked wing chair and sofa set against wallpaper and fabrics using the same colors. The Lincoln Room is elegantly appointed with an early nineteenth-century four poster encased in a flowered fabric from Costan & Tout. As in many of the rooms, hand-painted tiles from the family-owned Summitville Tiles frame the fireplace. The spacious bath is fitted with a tub and sink with gold fixtures, a bidet, and yet another fireplace repeating the bird motif of the bedroom tiles. House guests are treated to a full breakfast in the Barn Room.

A new accommodation located behind the inn, the Hanover House, offers an upscale guest house. With a great room, several smaller parlors, a kitchen on the main floor, and two guests rooms and bath on the second, it provides an ideal space for gatherings like weddings, cocktail parties, and receptions. The Johnsons furnished the Hanover House with beautiful period pieces, including a mirror in the parlor from the John Quincy Adams collection and a nineteenth-century mahogany Plantation canopy bed in the bedroom.

THINGS TO DO
The receptionist at the desk handed me a list of places to visit in the area—such as Columbiana (to shop for antiques), the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, or Beaver Creek State Park. But if I had the gift of a weekend stay at the Spread Eagle, I wouldn’t leave the peace and quiet of this historic inn. I would head to the charming parlor, the Asher Benjamin Room, and snuggle down in a deep wing chair by the fire to read for the afternoon. In the evening, I would sample the chef’s best in the Patriots Tavern Room and wander up to spend the night in a presidential guest room. The next morning I would stroll down historic Plymouth Street on the brick footpath, past buildings from the nineteenth century, and take home a weekend to remember.