The Story Inn is actually an entire town, founded as a logging community in 1851. It is perhaps the best preserved example of a 19th century village that survives in the American Midwest.
The little town/inn is dominated by the old General Store and is now a gourmet restaurant. The remaining buildings in town, the Old Mill, Sawmill, several homes and out-buildings--serve as over night accomodations.
The town was founded by Dr. George Story and soon became the largest settlement in the area. In it's heyday (1880-1929) the village supported two general stores, a nondenominational church, a one-room schoolhouse, a grain mill, a sawmill, a slaughterhouse, a blacksmith's forge and a post office. It never recovered from the Great Depression (1929-1933), as families abandoned their hilly,marginal farms in search of work elsewhere.
The second floor of the Old General Store has been renovated into four quaint bed & breakfast accomodations notable for their year-round occupant, the "Blue Lady". The Blue Lady is a mirthful albeit innocuous apparition with flowing white robes, whose cheeky behavior has been observed by Story Inn employees and recorded in guest books since the 1970's.
One of the original Royal Crown gas pumps displayed outside.
Love to swing!! And what a wonderful swing this was in a tree out back of the Story Inn.
The Story Garden.....where they grow vegetables and herbs for their gourmet restaurant in the Inn.
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