Thursday, January 1, 2009

The Beginning

Start with an old house. Add a charming town on the shores of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. Add two classic underachievers with great people skills who stumbled into the charming town and 11 years later found themselves the unlikely innkeepers of the old house.

This is the story of the Lovejoy Inn.

It all started in 1886 when Howard B. Lovejoy was contracted by Rev. Ernest Watson to build him a house in Coupeville, Washington.

Here’s a photo of Watson:



The house was not grandiose or extravagant. This is the earliest photo we have of the house.








There weren’t many houses in town at that time, a few nearby, then mostly pastures, farmland and cows.

Watson got quite a deal on the house as he ended up marrying Lovejoy’s sister Nellie. Here’s a photo of Nellie Lovejoy Watson:

They were married on Christmas Eve in 1886. How nice for her to move into a brand new house that her brother built.

In the past 123 years many (?) owners have expanded, remodeled, painted, carpeted, wallpapered and fixed up this house. We are still trying to figure out what came when. Here are a few photos we have of the additions:





Over the past 2 years that we have owned the house, we are beginning to understand that the beauty of the Lovejoy Inn is not found in its originality, but in its “charm” – read funkiness, uniqueness, location...and the stories of all its' inhabitants over the years.


More to come!


The 2 pictures below are the Lovejoy Inn today.











6 comments:

  1. Mitch and Lynda! What an interesting story... brings so much more meaning to your wonderful Inn!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! What a treat to have a photographic history of your home. Are there any ghosts? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is great. You should put rental info on here, or a link on the sidebar.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really enjoyed that trip through time. Amazing that you have a copy of the wedding certificate.
    I'd love to spend a few days there... wish I was 20 years younger. I'd volunteer to Inn Sit for you, so you could have a break.
    Do you use the "Baked Eggs" recipe at the Inn?
    I did at Hale 'Aha on Kauai, by making each serving in a buttered cake pan. People loved it.
    Thanks for the show.
    God bless the Inn.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm trying to find more history on the Lovejoys as I believe Howard Bentley Lovejoy may have been my great grandfather. My father was born in 1917 on Whidbey Island to a Howard Lovejoy. My father said his ancestors were sea captains, which fits the family profile of the builder of this home. If you have any contacts that may have more historical documentation (picture of Howard?), I'm sure you'd have posted a picture here already, but if you can get any more, I'd love to see!

    ReplyDelete