by David Flint
The bar known as the Stephentown Hotel has been shut down for some time now, but it’s about to begin a new chapter in its long and storied life. Local residents Jennifer and Tim Austin have purchased the property and plan to reopen it in the fall as the Stephentown Trading Post – sort of a café, a market and a resale and consignment shop all in one. [private]Jennifer Austin said that they see it not just as a business that sells things, “but a local meeting place where you can have a cup of coffee and maybe a muffin, a place where you can get your essentials like butter, flour, milk, bread, coffee or fresh eggs or maybe even a gift or something to furnish your home with.”
Jennifer said they would like also to provide an outlet where local artists and farmers can sell their merchandise. Beyond that, she sees it as “a place where you can purchase used items at a decent price or sell your own items to make a little extra cash and give them a new life – recycle rather than throw everything away. Sort of like the old fashioned trading post that used to exist way back when, a place where you would go for just about anything, minus today’s Walmart atmosphere.”
The Austins will not be selling liquor to be consumed on the premises, but they may in the future apply for a license to sell wine.
Jennifer admits that this is a new and exciting adventure for them but points out that the family does have some 25 years of retail experience.
The Austins respect the history of the old hotel and plan to maintain an old fashioned atmosphere. Only necessary minor alterations will be made. “Of course it will no longer be ‘Emily’s,’ as many locals remember it,” Jennifer said, “but Emily’s picture will still hang there, and we will try our best to maintain this great historical building’s history as much as possible.”
The Stephentown Hotel was built in 1878 as a railroad hotel alongside the Lebanon Springs Railroad (later part of the Rutland RR). It was called the Stephentown House then, and it competed with the Vanderbilt House, another railroad hotel across the road. In 1941 Emily Morin bought the hotel, then known as “Joe’s Place,” from her cousin and eventually the hotel and its popular bar took on the familiar name of “Emily’s.” When Emily died in 1994 her daughter Marilyn took over the establishment and kept it open for a number of years in memory of her mother. It was sold in 2009 to Miguel Melendez, owner of the Bridgeway Restaurant in Cherry Plain, but financial difficulties later resulted in ownership reverting to Marilyn Morin Means.
Marilyn said that she and her husband are very happy to have met the Austins and to transfer ownership to them. She noted that for 67 years the Hotel had been her home but in recent years she had been “heartbroken” to see what it had become. “With the Hotel finally in Jennifer and Tim’s hands, it will regain its good name,” Marilyn said, “for they are the very definition of integrity, ambition, honesty and kindness.” Marilyn thought that her mother Emily will be very happy.
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