The Blackburn Inn

From a glance at the place, you’d think there’d been some mistake — surely this lush neoclassical red-brick monument, now home to the Blackburn Inn, couldn’t have begun its life as the Western State Lunatic Asylum. Then again, Virginia isn’t like most places; nor is the town of Staunton, in the Shenandoah Valley, 40 miles to the west of Charlottesville. And while we’ve seen institutions converted into boutique hotels before, few of them began with such lavish raw material as the Blackburn Inn.

That’s not to downplay what the new proprietors have done with the place. The interiors are stylish, not overly devoted to the building’s visual heritage, an eclectic mix of farmhouse style and modernist flair, with a result that’s incredibly warm and anything but institutional. And the benefits of a new build are everywhere in evidence: the bathrooms are large and luxe, and the rooms are wired with contemporary conveniences like USB outlets.

Second Draft, the Blackburn Inn’s New American bistro and bar, serves dishes made from locally sourced ingredients. And from here, you’ve got the charming town of Staunton at your feet, as well as the fourteen breweries of the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail and all the attractions of Charlottesville, of Western Virginia, and of the Blue Ridge Mountains.