Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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"Built five years after the BA Hotel burned to the ground, the BA Inn served as the community's only public guest facility from 1894 to 1917. A large rambling frame structure built in two or three stages, the inn featured an octagonal tower with faceted domical roof at its southeast corner. The Georgian Revival wraparound veranda was probably added when the three-story western section was built in 1910.
Erected by A. F. Noel, the inn was originally known as the "BA Hotel Cottage." In 1910 Mrs. TMK bought the building, enlarged it, and re-opened it as the BA Inn. Billed in its first years as a "resort and sanitarium", the Inn catered to families seeking a quiet summer vactaion. Although the building contained a dining room frequented by local residents as well as guests, it did not provide the varied sports facilities or organized social functions of the earlier BA Hotel; entertainment consisted of croquet, picnics and boating parties by day, and card games, porch-sitting, and an occasional outdoor dance at night. A particularly attractive feature of the hotel was its easy commuting distance from the city; after 1892 a special railroad stop at the end of the street served patrons of the Inn.
Shortly after the Inn closed in 1917, the K family detached the front and rear sections of the building, moved them to new locations, and remodeled them into residences; the remaining central section was transformed into the K family's own dwelling."

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