There’s Room at the Inn: Saxtons River Reopens

The Vermont tavern, once owned by my great-grandfather, is again serving travelers and locals alike.

The promise of a Bloody Mary is rarely used to entice a prospective inn buyer, but it was enough to sell Susan Saunders on the Saxtons River Inn.  I wrote about Saxtons River and spun a yarn about my family’s connections and personal overnight experience. Being the journalist I am, I also met the Saunders and wrote about their plans to reopen the inn. A lot can happen in a year, and Saxtons River Inn has changed quite a bit during the past 12 months. Caleb and Susan Saunders bought the one-time B&B 2 ½ years ago and have been working painstakingly to bring the 208-year-old New England guesthouse back to life. They’ve turned the promise of a Bloody Mary into profit. The inn reopened a few months ago, just before the holiday season in 2024.

“Downstairs is done, and now moving up to the rooms,” Caleb wrote to me in a Facebook message in November. “We are booked solid for holidays parties.”

Saxtons River Inn has been a part of my life since I was a child, even though I was 24 before I visited, and the town’s name is only coincidentally similar to mine. My great-grandfather, Carl Morey, owned it in the 1950s, and my dad was a fan of his grandfather. Then, I visited the inn one night in 2001 just to get the full experience. But it’s easier to get the full experience from afar in 2025. The Saunders—led by their toddler son, Carter, and with Susan carrying her baby, Cole—gave a tour of the inn for the podcast Eager to Know. The show is hosted by Ricky McEachern, an inquisitive artist who meets with some of Vermont’s creative and industrious people for a videocast that is part of Falls Area Community Television. The production is so good that it was almost better than what I saw in person. I didn’t see every room and never made it into the tower. The Saunders couple also shared several interesting tidbits about the historic inn. It’s worth watching the 20-minute episode, although it lacked the perfect smoked salmon I had for breakfast during my stay.

Inside Saxtons River Inn

Starting in the parlor, the family of four walked with Ricky through the inn to show the improvements they’ve made. From there, they revealed changes to the room that had been a bar for many years. The Saunders, who grew up in Saxtons River, reminisced about the old bar from the days when each was 20-something. I had a 12-ounce bottle of MGD at the Saxtons River Inn bar myself. It’s now a reception area that greets visitors with some of the more charming details of the 19^th-century inn, including the varnished bar that now serves as a front desk. It also includes two 10-foot windows that provide a clear view of what’s happening outside 27 Main St. Meanwhile, the Saunders installed a new, locally built custom bar in another room that has more than three times the seating capacity.

Speaking of food and drink, the Saunders also have brought back the inn’s dining services. They started with private parties around the holidays and have been so booked that they have not yet been able to open the dining room to walk-ins, according to Susan, who responded to a Facebook post in a Saxtons River group. But there’s no shortage of places to enjoy their meals or sip their drinks. The inn has a renovated patio with seating, too.

A short clip of the hallways and bedrooms inside quickly took me back 24 years. In some ways, very little has changed. Each guestroom has a bathroom. They showed a room that had a king-size bed and a porch. The room was tastefully decorated with subtly cheerful and soft colors. One room even has front-porch access, Susan said. Yet, there are no rooms in “Anna’s tower,” as Caleb calls it, or at least none that are available for rent. However, the tower has a unique living space with different perspectives through the windows that give a different view of the town.

The new management

After the tour, Ricky interviewed the couple and asked about how they came to own the inn. Caleb grew up just a couple of blocks away at 11 Main St. in Saxtons River. Susan grew up a short distance away in Bellows Falls. Of course, they knew the inn growing up and had been there more times than Caleb could quantify. Saxtons River is a very small community. There are only 479 people in town, according to the 2020 US Census. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and everything else. But just because they knew and liked the inn didn’t mean they aspired to become inn owners.

Susan explained that they used to enjoy a Bloody Mary on the porch every year while they watched the Fourth of July parade, but they couldn’t after the inn closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. She hinted to the former owner that she wanted her to reopen so that she could have one. Susan said the family friend suggested she could make the Bloody Mary and serve it herself if she owned the inn. She took the hint. It didn’t take much to convince her and Caleb that they should become innkeepers at one of the community’s cornerstone businesses.

Saxtons River Inn was once referred to as the “armchair” of Saxtons River because it was a place where everyone gathered. Over many decades, the inn has hosted community events, meetings for various local groups and associations, and thousands of private events. Susan suggested that may be why she and Caleb don’t think of re-opening the inn as a risk. Nevertheless, the couple has done much of the hands-on renovation work with the help of Susan’s family. They are also putting together a business plan that includes the restaurant, bar, and seven guest rooms. Caleb said they would start with the rooms that have balconies and hopefully reopen the other nine rooms later.

Realizing a fortune

Revitalizing and running an inn is a very tough job. Inkeepers are on their feet day and night. The inn always needs to be cleaned. Bills are there even if the customers aren’t. It becomes necessary to learn how to do every kind of building repair there is. Marketing efforts are constant, and the Vermont hospitality industry is tough. My great-grandfather discovered that first-hand.

Carl was a sailor, civil engineer, shipbuilder, model ship carver, and painter. But he was not an innkeeper. He was an excellent chef, at least according to my dad. Part of the job came naturally, but running an inn was not his cup of tea. I never got to know for myself because he died 7 ½ years before I was born. Carl tried to run two inns—the one in Saxtons River and another in Maine that is now a retirement home. Neither were successful, but Carl had poor fortune when it came to business.

My great-grandfather was born in Maryland because his father, William, was a draftsman for the War Department around the turn of the 20^th century. But his family roots on both sides trace their lines to the 17th century New England when western Massachusetts was the frontier. He fell in love with his family’s home territory and spent many years living there. My grandmother, his oldest of five daughters, was born in Boston. So, I might be from Pennsylvania, but I carry a lot of New England blood. The classic Vermont inn in a town that happens to share my last name will always be part of my heritage. Now, the Saunders are making it part of their family’s heritage, too.