There's a photograph taken on the porch of the Grafton Inn in 1893. Five men sit gathered in the afternoon light - one of them is Rudyard Kipling. It's the kind of detail that stops you: Kipling could almost be mistaken for a footnote in The Grafton Inn's history.
This year, the Grafton Inn turns 225. To mark the occasion, they're offering a special anniversary rate for stays booked by March 1st: $225 per night for standard rooms, $299 per night for Presidential Suites, with breakfast for two included. Book online by March 1st using promo code 225YEARS.
The History Behind It
Grafton resident Enos Lovell converted his two-story home into an inn in 1801, convinced - correctly, as it turned out - that people were looking for a place with good food and lodging. The building still stands as part of the inn today. By 1823, the inn had doubled in size under Hyman Burgess, and the expansion was done quickly enough that the floor levels on the second and third floor corridors quite quirkily never exactly matched up. In the 1880s, the Phelps brothers added a third floor as well as the signature wraparound porches, giving the inn much of the appearance it has today.
Over those two centuries, the guest list accumulated: Ulysses S. Grant in 1867, Rudyard Kipling in 1892, Daniel Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The inn passed through various owners until 1964, when the Windham Foundation purchased it and undertook a major restoration. Today the Foundation - whose mission is the preservation and vitality of Vermont's rural communities - still owns and operates the property. Every stay, in a literal sense, contributes to that work.
What You're Actually Booking
The inn's 45 individually appointed rooms are spread across the main building, outbuildings, and private guest houses, furnished with period antiques. Breakfast is included with every stay - a proper sit-down country breakfast, not a continental tray. The Phelps Barn Pub, operating year-round in what was originally the inn's carriage house, serves farm-to-table pub fare with Vermont brews and local spirits. The 1801 Tavern runs seasonally; both venues are members of the Vermont Fresh Network.
Less than a mile from the inn, the Grafton Trails and Outdoor Center offers Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, fat tire biking, a 600-foot tubing run, ice skating, and horse-drawn sleigh rides on select Saturdays through early March. Trail passes and equipment rentals are complimentary for inn guests - worth noting when doing the math on the anniversary rate.
For those who want something a little different, the weekly wine and cheese snowshoe tour at Grafton Trails - a guided hour through the forest followed by a Grafton Village Cheese plate and wine at the cabin.
Book Before March 1st
The 225th Anniversary Rate is available for March 2026 stays, booked online by March 1st using promo code 225YEARS. Standard rooms from $225/night. Presidential Suites at $299/night. Breakfast for two included, plus taxes, service fee, and the standard $20 resort fee.
Two hundred and twenty-five years is a long time to keep the doors open - and a reminder that some places are worth preserving. March is a good time to be part of that.
