FFI News
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell had a private luncheon with owners, Sal & Joan Chandon, their daughter,
Alexandra, and Joan's mother, Olga, on Saturday, August 11, 2007. The Governor wanted to commemorate the Inn's 250th Anniversary
Celebration!
Reviews & News....
'Celebrate Gettysburg Magazine' LIBERTY, LODGING AND LONGEVITY - 250 Years of Service at The Fairfield
Inn', by: Barbara D'Arienzo, October, 2007 issue
The Fairfield Inn, just
eight miles west of Gettysburg, is one of this country's oldest continuously operated inns. Established in 1757, consistent
ambience and hospitality have made it a favorite since colonial days.
The
Fairfiled Inn was built by Squire Miller, founder of Fairfield, which, at that time, was in Maryland. The address changed
to Pennsylvania with the drawing of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1767. Originally called the Mansion House, it was used as a colonial
meeting house and, in the 1800's, became a stagecoach stop and drover's tavern on the 'Great Road' linking York and Hagerstown,
MD. During the Civil War, it was used as a battlefield hospital and was a safe station along the Underground Railroad.
Today's owners are Sal & Joan Chandon. With both restaurant and innkeeping experience, they
were ready to combine their talents when the Fairfiled Inn became available in 2002. Since then, they have lovingly worked
to restore and revamp, bringing their own flair while maintaining historical accuracy.
Former
owners of the Doubleday Inn in Gettysburg, the Chandons saw the opportunity to bring the Fairfield Inn back to its former
glory and become part of its legacy.
Fine dining is offered in the Mansion
House restaurant and Squire Miller tavern. You can eat in the favorite dining room of the Eisenhowers. Their likenesses rest
above the formal, Philadelphia-style fireplace in the room where they often took their meals. With its beautiful French-style
doors, this room was added in 1801.
Between the summer kitchen and the Mansion
House is the courtyard. Many colonial meetings took place here. Originally outdoors, it is now an enclosed, large dining room
with Wishing Walls. Here, in a long-time tradition, guests tuck coins between the cracks in the stone walls for luck.
Guests who really want to step back in time can dine in the original Miller homestead. With its
period front door hardware and woodwork intact, the room is a humble dining space with working fireplace. Additional seating
is available alongside the fireplace and baking oven of the original summer kitchen. The fireplace is circa 1757 and is still
in use today.
For a more casual setting, dine in the Squire Miller tavern
on the first floor. Warm and inviting, it has the oldest tavern license issued in this area. The huge, original stone fireplace
is still used to prepare soups and stews. Next to the smaller fireplace is the Maria furnace built by frequent guest Thaddeus
Stevens, an abolitionist and proponent of public schools. Next to his portrait is one of Lydia Smith, the woman with whom
he lived....
(4-page article/includes additional information not here)
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Fairfield
Inn to Celebrate 250 Years on August 18 - THE GETTYSBURG TIMES - August 8, 2007
While exploring the antique Inn, full
of history and patriotism the cool breeze through the doorways can cause chills if the imagination wanders. This Inn was once
a colonial meeting house. It was also once a Confederate Civil War field hospital. Legends such as Patrick Henry, Thaddeus
Stevens and General J.E.B. Stuart visited. And now, this Inn is celebrating its 250th anniversary....The owners have taken
the festival to a whole new level. With live music by Cormorants Fancy, colonial and Civil War re-enactments, drills
and demonstrations, artisan and craft exhibits, give-a-ways, fiddlers and magic shows, the festival does not end there....In
honor of Fairfield being one of America's oldest operated inns, Gov. Ed Rendell sent a citation congratulation management,
staff and customers on their 250th anniversary. In part of the citation, he said, "Not only does The Fairfield Inn have
a storied past, but it also has truly come to represent the finest in Pennsylvania dining experiences.".....
(6-Column
article/includes additional information not here)
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AREA SOCIETY LAUDS HISTORIC PRESERVATION EFFORTS, 'The Gettysburg Times', June 20, 2007
Historic Gettysburg Adams County honored four historic building owners for their efforts to preserve significant
connections to Adams County history. The Fairfield Inn, built in 1757, this year celebrates its 250th anniversary, with its
current owners, Sal and Joan Chandon. The Chandons, who own the building, were lauded this month for their work to preserve
their historic inn and restaurant. During the Historic Gettysburg Adams County annual dinner they were presented a numbered
cast bronze plaque marking the building as one of only 109 given such recognition by the preservation organization so far.
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INN
TURNS INTO TREASURE HUNT - Couple Unearth Timeless Finds while Restoring 1757 Hotel, 'York Sunday News', by: Angie Mason,
March 4, 2007
A few years ago, Joan and Sal Chandon were running the Doubleday Inn in Gettysburg, which they established.
But they wanted a place where they could have a restaurant too. When the historic Fairfield Inn went up for sale, it seemed
like a perfect fit - a restaurant, tavern and bed and breakfast. Plus, it's old!
"Both of us, we've never had anything
new," Joan Chandon said. "We like to buy old things." The Fairfield Inn qualifies, marking its 250th anniversary
this year. The Chandons purchased the inn in 2002, knowing it was a historic building. But they're still discovering elements
of the inn's history as they work to restore it.
"Now it's turned into a quest to show everyone the history,"
Joan Chandon said. A walk through the inn moves a visitor from one time period to another. The main home was built in 1757,
while the tavern was added about 30 years later. The "new" section of the home was added in 1801.
The home
boasts many famous visitors. Statesman Patrick Henry, nephew of the original owner's wife, spent several nights there, and
current guests can spend the night in a room he once used for meetings, now named for him.
A small window on the third
floor landing peeks into a room where runaway slaves were hidden as part of the Underground Railroad. Civil War buffs often
request the J.E.B. Stuart room on the floor below, Joan Chandon said. The General slept there in 1862 during a Confederate
raid of the area, and he ate at the establishment in 1863 with General Robert E. Lee.
More modern history is on display
in the dining room which was a frequent stop for President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. There's been no shortage
of discoveries as the Chandons have worked to refurbish the inn...."We're always looking for new pieces of information,
Sal said. Usually, a restaurant can be a pretty all-consuming business, but he doesn't feel any day-to-day drudgery with the
Inn. "There is such a sense of history," Sal said. "It sort of gives you a sense of responsibility to the actual
inn."
Both he and his wife said they think of the previous owners ad workers before them. "It's exciting to
be a tavernkeeper and think you're doing something they did 250 years ago," Joan Chandon said. The couple is in the process
of renovating several upstairs rooms into suites. One will be named the "three colonels" suite, after three Civil
War officers who were brought to the inn, which served as a field hospital during the war. "That's the part of it that
we like the best, " Sal said. "Rebuilding it and trying to give it back some of its former glory."
Side
bar: "Ghost Stories" - The Fairfield Inn's role as a field hospital for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War
has led to tales of haunting. Joan and Sal said they have had their share of weird happenings. They said they heard a
man's voice on a tape when a ghost hunter spent time alone in the house. Lights turn on and off by themselves, and if a light
doesn't turn on, the staff memebers don't immediately change the bulb, they said. More often than not, they find the bulbs
have been unscrewed, but no one knows by whom. Still the couple doesn't bring up the history unless a guests asks. "We
don't push it,' she said. "We don't want to detract from the history of the place."
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'CLEVELAND MAGAZINE' - 12 GREAT GETAWAYS, by: Lynne Thompson
It's 9:30
on a Thursday night, but the main streets of Gettysburg, Pa., are still jammed with cars, tour buses and the occasional horsedrawn
carriages - for-hire. Darkness has forced the tourists from this south-central Pennsylvania town's main attraction - the 5,989-acre
Civil War battlefield preserved by the National Park Service - to the shops and restaurants of its historic district.
The pedestrian traffic is particularly hearty on Baltimore Street, a stretch of 19th-century storefronts that
quickly give way to row houses and homes. After inching along in my Honda Civic for four blocks, I finally see the reason
why: A man in a black period suit is selling tickets for candlelight ghost tours at a table just outside the Farnsworth House
Inn, an early 19th-century red-brick home-turned-Victorian B&B and restaurant with a tavern and bookstore next door. On
the sidewalk is a three-dimensional sign in the shape of a tombstone that advertises a "Civil War Mourning Theatre"
in the B&B's cellar.
An entire industry has sprung up around Gettysburg's reputation
as one of the most haunted places in the US, a result of the staggering loss of life there. In addition to the ghost tours
offered by multiple operators, there are books on local ghosts, a photographer who specializes in taking pictures of customers
in costume with spirits, even B&B's that publicize the presence of their spectral inhabitants.
The
Farnsworth House, my home for the night, is one of them.
It sounded like a good idea at
first, but the concept begins to lose its appeal as I follow a tavern employee up a steep staircase and down a narrow hall
to my second-floor accommodations. I'm in no mood at this late hour to encounter anything. And my antique-filled room, minus
the window air conditioner and electric alarm clock, looks like the original occupant might be back at any moment.
I decided to sleep with the lights on after I run into the owner's daughter, ghost-tour operator Patty O'Day,
just outside the tavern. My room, she tells me, is haunted by a mid-wife who delivered a stillborn baby there.
The only disturbances that night, it turns out, are caused by the living - the footsteps of a ghost tour group
filing past my door on their way to an attic once occupied by Confederate sharp-shooters and the rumble of passing truck and
motorcycle. Yet I'm somehow relieved to check out the next morning.
Unlike the Farnsworth
House, The Fairfield Inn doesn't advertise its ghosts -- prank-pulling soldiers in the kitchen, a crusty old character in
the dining room, a female with a dislike for closed doors on the third floor - perhaps because owner Sal Chandon doesn't quite
believe in them. Located eight miles outside of Gettysburg, the place has the sort of history that supports such a cast. The
stone tavern and one time stagecoach stop, built in 1757, and adjoining "mansion house" constructed in 1801, served
as a colonial meeting house, Underground Railroad station and Confederate field hospital.
My
large corner room, with its canopy bed and whirlpool tub in the recently remodeled bath, seems inviting enough - until, that
is, I find out I'm the only one staying at the inn this night. I reluctantly return to my room after a dinner of chicken and
biscuits, armed with the cordless house phone as the last two remaining employees close the dining room and tavern.
First, the same closet door that wouldn't open while I was trying to dress for dinner won't stay closed. The
door slowly inches open once, then twice, after I carefully turn the knob and fit the bolt into the doorframe. Then the floor
begins to silently vibrate - yes, vibrate - while I'm in bed watching TV. I screw up the courage to climb out of
bed and peek out a window, then stick my head out the door into the second-floor hall. The whole place is frighteningly quiet.
Twenty minutes later, the vibrations lessen in intensity and then stop. By that time, I've changed into my
street clothes, turned on all the lights and returned to bed with the phone in one hand, my purse in the other, ready to dail
9-1-1 and make a run for the front door. I don't fall asleep until after dawn.
The next
day, I drive back to Gettysburg to explore what should be the area's most haunted site: the battlefield that rings the town.
Even after my experience at the Fairfield Inn, I can't imagine running into a ghost as I begin to drive the 18-mile auto-tour
route on this sparkling Saturday afternoon.....
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FAIRFIELD INN is Scheduled to be on H&G Television - THE GETTYSBURG TIMES - 30 March 2007
Friday, 7:00p.m., the 250-year-old Historic Fairfield Inn, located in Fairfield, PA,
will be featured in "If Walls Could Talk" on the Home & Garden Television Network.
The segment entitled: "Basement Bonanza" highlights four homeowners and their ancient discoveries
from antique tapestries in Connecticut, colorful love letters from an 1886 home in California, to a mysterious staircase built
in Newburyport, Mass.
The Fairfield Inn and it's owners, Sal, Joan
and Alexandra Chandon, will be the second home featured for the Inn's distinguished past as being one of the oldest,
continuously operated taverns in the country. The segment will touch on the prominent visitors, which include a U.S. president,
a Civil War general and one of the most quoted men in history.
In
April, 2006, a television crew from the Home & Garden Television network taped a segment of The Fairfield inn, located
8 miles west of Gettysburg.
"When HGTV contacted us last year to tell
us we made the cut to be on the show, we were so excited, especially my 10-year old daughter," explained Joan Chandon.
"To be a part of the taping process and to finally get to see the show, is going to be fantastic."
The Chandons purchased the Inn four years ago and have been doing extensive preservation work
which uncovered many of the items to be featured on the show.
"What really
makes this all the more poignant," Joan said, "the show is airing during our 250th aniversary celebration."
The original home, where guests can dine in was built in 1757. Guests can also stay in the newly
renovated bed & breakfast or enjoy meals at the Inn in either the Mansion House Restaurant or Squire Miller's Tavern.
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"IF WALLS COULD TALK"
HGTV - Home & Garden Television Crew films TV
show at The Fairfield Inn.
THE EVENING SUN - SUNDAY EDITION - 16 April 2006
By: Ashley Adams
Alexandra
Chandon twirles around so her pink and white checkered dress will billow out around her. As the 10 year-old delights in the
old-fashioned dress and bonnet, a voice echoes through the halls of The Fairfield inn calling her name. Heaving a sigh, Alexandra
runs to the tavern to pick up her tray and step in front of the camera. Joan Chandon, Alexandra's mother, smiles as she refastens
the neck straps of her daugher's apron. "I don't think they had Velcro in the 1700's," she says with a smile.
The Fairfield Inn is the scene of an upcoming special on the Home and Garden Channel called "IF WALLS COULD TALK."
"The Inn is a wealth of historical information," said Joan, who co-owns the Inn with her husband, Sal. "When
my husband and I purchased the Inn almost four years ago, we knew it was historical...but we had no idea of the wonderful
artifacts that we would find here."
Joan, Sal and Alexandra donned clothing from the 1700's to shoot scenes in the
tavern, by the summer baking oven and in other various rooms of the house.
On Saturday, a freelance crew from High Noon
Entertainment showed up at the Inn to film various shots. One such shot was a re-creation of the Chandons finding artifacts
in the shed out back. "We found farm implements, a sleigh, blacksmith tools and a wine press," Joan said. "We
knew the history and we knew it was old. The other owners had all these wonderful finds and never did anything with them."
Alexandra Chandon dressed as Jane Maria Miller, one of the children of William and Maggie Miller, the first tavern keepers,
Joan Chandon, was dressed as Maggie. As Alexandra walked through the various rooms of the Inn that dates back to 1757, she
told the rich history found within the walls.
"This is the Patrick Henry guest room," she said, "We think
he had meetings here...and there's the J.E.B. Stuart guest room, named for the Confederate officer who stayed at the Inn."
As the Confederates retreated from Gettysburg through Fairfield, General Robert E. Lee and other officers stopped at the Inn
to eat.
The building also was used as a Confederate Civil War Hospital and a stop on the Underground Railroad.
However,
Alexandra said, "Some people think the Inn is haunted, but I don't think so."
Guests such as Thaddeus Stevens,
President Eisenhower and other notable Americans have also graced the rooms of The Fairfield Inn.
The HGTV show "IF
WALLS COULD TALK" will highlight various home owner's historical discoveries. It is set to air later this year.
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WITF TV - South Central PA's PBS Station taped a segment at The Fairfield Inn highlighting the
Inn's important role in the American Civil War for it's "Explore PA - The Spirit of Independence - Road to Gettysburg"
Series, to premier Wednesday, July 19 at 8:00 pm and air again on Saturday, July 22 at 3:00 pm.
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"Historical Society of Pennsylvania to Feature the Fairfield Inn"
GETTYBURG TIMES, January 19, 2005
The Fairfield Inn will be featured at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's 2005 Founder's Award program as one
of their 2005 Historical Inns.
This year the grand event will take place at The Park Hyatt Philadelphia Bellevue in
May. Founded in 1824, the Historical Society of PA houses one of the country's greatest collections of American history. Members
and supporters live all across the United States and in over a dozen countries. Each year, this distinguished library invites
supporters of American history to help honor the notable contributions that leading philanthropists, filmmakers, preservationists,
journalists, scholars and cultural leaders have made to history.
The Fairfield Inn will be featured in both the Founder's
Award invitations and event program.
The Fairfield Inn also listed
on THE BALTIMORE SUN'S "Must Do" List for 2005.
The Fairfield Inn Featured on the Front Page of
THE FREDERICK NEWS-POST, December
19, 2004
"247 Years of History"
Horizon Section by Dickson Mercer
A glowing three-page article
with pleanty of photos recommends the Inn's guests rooms and dining facilities. "... Guests can dine in the late President
and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower's favorite room, sleep where statesman Patrick Henry held meetings, view an original Maria Furnace
designed by Thaddeus Stevens, order the same meals generals Robert E. Lee and J.
E.B. Stuart were fed during the infamous
Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, or relax in the tavern where baseball great Eddie Plank once sat down for a good ale."
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November 2004
A Piece of Pennsylvania
History Uncovered
A Tavern License dating to 1786 has recently been discovered making The Fairfield Inn the oldest
continuously operated Tavern in the Gettysburg and Adams County area and one of the oldest Taverns still operational in America.
The Fairfield Inn, just outside of Gettysburg, PA, was built 247 years ago in 1757. The Inn was used as a Colonial Meeting
House in the 1700’s and in the 1800’s found itself being used as a Stagecoach Stop and Drover’s Tavern on
the “Great Road” which traveled between York and Hagerstown, MD. It had been believed that the Inn began serving
travelers when an addition referred to as the Mansion House was added in the early 1800’s. This latest discovery, however,
obtained from the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg, PA, places the date of the Tavern License, issued to Squire
Miller, 37 years earlier than previously believed.
The town of Fairfield, PA, just 8 miles west of Gettysburg, was actually
in Maryland when the Inn was built. In 1735 Lord Baltimore conferred upon Charles, Mary & Elinor Carroll a tract of 5,000
acres known as Carroll’s Delight, Maryland. In 1755, Squire Miller secured 247 acres, built The Fairfield Inn and laid
out the town of Fairfield. It remained part of Maryland until the Mason-Dixon Line was drawn in 1767, officially placing Fairfield
in Pennsylvania. It has the unusual distinction of being the only Inn that has crossed state lines without ever moving.
With origins dating back 247 years, the Inn was used as an early Colonial Settler’s Meeting House, a Stagecoach Stop,
Confederate Civil War Hospital and was part of the Underground Railroad. Many notable Americans have graced it’s halls.
Today guests of the Inn can dine in President & Mrs. Eisenhower’s favorite room or sleep where Statesman Patrick
Henry conducted meetings, view the original Maria Furnace designed by Thaddeus Stevens when he resided at the Inn, order the
same meal Generals Robert E. Lee & J.E.B. Stuart were fed during the infamous Confederate Retreat from Gettysburg on July
4, 1863 or relax in the Tavern where baseball great, Eddie Plank, enjoyed a good ale.
