Ruben G. Wright built his house on a grand scale to provide his family with exceptional living space and to showcase his talent for creating wealth by incorporating the finest materials and organizing a workforce of the finest tradesmen to build his namesake home. That legacy lives on in the enduring comfort and uncommon elegance of the venerable historic building. While Ruben’s flagship home was a landmark of innovation and architectural sophistication in its day, the advent of modern utilities in the twentieth century ushered in conveniences that elevated home comforts and safety to new levels. Our goal, when we acquired the property from Ruben Wright’s heirs, was to transform the dormant family residence into a contemporary bed and breakfast inn while preserving the timeless elegance of their family estate home. We accomplished this functional transformation by designating the four spacious bedrooms on the second floor as guest rooms and demarking the formal dining room and parlor exclusively for guest use. Two of the four guest bedrooms were configured with in-suite bathrooms in the original floorplan and two of the bedrooms shared a bathroom accessed via a common foyer. The floorplan remains as originally conceived with the addition of modern showers in the bathrooms. Retention of the original floorplan preserves the grand scale of Ruben’s design and affords guests a sense of privacy and historic authenticity. You can take a closer look at each of the four guest bedrooms by clicking the Accommodations tab at the top of this page.

Bringing a long-neglected architectural masterpiece back to life has been a labor of love that has consumed our energy, riches and time for the past three years. The results are a triumph of collaboration and creativity with innumerable contributions from family, friends, talented contractors and resourceful vendors. Like many undertakings of this magnitude, the job is never quite done and the historic buildings continue to reveal marvels of workmanship and engineering that reveal much about the history and character of the Wright family and the 19th century tradesmen that built this community. We’ve attempted to capture and retain that workmanship through our restoration efforts and hope you can appreciate the historical significance of the property through the restoration chronicles.

Gold Brook Farm was once a thriving family business engaged in all manner of agricultural production. Like so many family farms established by settlers to the region in the 19th Century, the virtuosity, economic sustainability and diversity of farming practices changed over the years and yielded to the forces of mechanization, economies of scale, and production efficiencies. The land has remained in agricultural production since it was first developed by the Wright family in the 19th Century. We eagerly took on stewardship of the land when we purchased the property in 2016 and have been slowly and painstakingly introducing crops and farming practices that we hope will sustain the farm for many generations to come. As transplants to the agricultural scene, we manage to bumble along the learning curve leading to good agricultural practices. Perhaps our experience will offer useful case study in a few of the foibles to avoid.