About
It started in Charleston, at the John Rutledge House Inn. The house went up in 1763 and once belonged to a signer of the Constitution. Something about that stay stuck with us, and we’ve been planning trips around old buildings ever since.
What you’ll find here
Most of this site comes from nights we’ve spent somewhere old. We write up each stay the way it happened: the room, the people at the front desk, the story behind the building and whatever caught us off guard.
Some hotels we only pass through for dinner or a drink, and those get shorter posts. Between trips we write essays about the parts of old hotels we can’t stop thinking about. Every so often a subject needs months of digging, and that turns into a long feature.
How we travel
- Slowly. Fewer stops and more nights in each place. It takes a while for a building to show you what it is.
- We spend money where the history is. We eat in the hotel restaurant, order a drink at the old bar and take the tour when there is one. Places like these stay open because guests use them.
- We pick the room with the story. Offered a renovated suite or the smaller original room where something happened, we’ll take the small room every time.
- We walk the town first. A historic hotel almost always grew out of the place around it, so we see the neighborhood before we make up our minds about the hotel.
What counts as historic
We judge the building. If staying there teaches you something about where you are, it counts. However, we focus our attention on establishments that are over 50 years old.
Our badges
Three badges show up on the hotels we write about, and nobody can buy one. The Nickel Seal and White Glove take a night in the building. Stay for Dinner can come from a single meal.
The Nickel Seal
Our highest recommendation. We'd send our own family here, and we'd pay full price to come back.
The 2 hotels that have earned it
Stay for Dinner
The food and drink are worth the trip on their own. Eat here, or at least have a drink at the bar, even if you're sleeping somewhere else.
The 6 hotels that have earned it
White Glove
Shannon's cleanliness standard. The room passed her full inspection, from the top of the doorframe to under the bed.
The 1 hotel that has earned itWho’s behind this
Just the two of us. We have day jobs, a little one at home and a house that always needs something, so Staying in History runs on evenings and whatever weekends we can spare. New stories go up about twice a month, and the newsletter rounds them up once a month.
Get in touch
Know a hotel we should see, or run one and want us to visit? Write to Evan at evan@stayinginhistory.com. If a hotel hosts our stay, the review will say so.
Evan & Shannon