See ya next year!

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Thank you SO MUCH for such a wonderful 2023 season at the Spruceton Inn! It absolutely flew by. We welcomed old friends and new, hosted art shows and Sunday Service story hours, celebrated our 10th year of business with a big o’ party in the barn, and got up to our usual itty-bitty bar shenanigans…!

Our calendar is currently closed to reservations. We’re running our annual Artist Residency program for the month of November then hibernating through the winter. We’ll reopen for the season again in May 2024.

Thank you again to all of you who came to stay and/or dropped by Room One for a sip of something this year. Plus an extra special shout-out to our super-duper repeats and our local Friday night bar regulars! I keep thinking about what I said in my toast at our 10 year party— this place is only as good as the people who visit. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I sincerely can’t wait to host you all again next year!

Congrats to the 2023 Spruceton Inn Artist Residents!

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Julie Baumgardner, writer / Nicholas Day, writer / Jessica Goldstein, writer / Arti Gollapudi, writer & performer / Andy Griffiths, writer / Christina Hunt Wood, visual artist & writer/ Chukwuebuka Ibeh, writer / Ishita Jain, visual artist & writer / Joy Lazendorfer, writer / Rachel Mannheimer, poet / Kate McKean, writer / Roman Muradov, visual artist / Janelle Nanos, writer / Billy Recce, lyricist & composer / Alexandra Tanner, writer / Preeti Torul, writer & performer / Sarah Wheeler, writer

A sincere thank you to everyone who applied. We received just shy of 400 applications (!!) and while it’s always hard to choose, I swear, this year made for the hardest deliberations yet. Steven and I spent SO MANY HOURS reading everyone’s applications, poring over the writing samples, getting happily lost in the websites and online portfolios… It has been such a simultaneously humbling and inspiring experience.

I’m especially excited to announce the recipient of this year’s Tracy Kennard Emerging Writer’s Award: Arti Gollapudi.

Can’t wait to host everyone here at the Inn this November!

10 Year Party!

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Thank you SO much to everyone who came by to celebrate 10 years of the Spruceton Inn with us! To say we had fun is quite the understatement.

There were neighbors! Inn guests! Old friends! New friends! Snacks! Pizza! Barefoot dancing! Soooo many bottles of bubbly!

We even had a little awards ceremony where we gave out Spruceton Inn Certificates and prizes for things like our “Most Regular Bar Regulars” and “Most Stays Ever”.

Like I said I person during these toasts, THIS PLACE IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PEOPLE WHO VISIT IT. So while yes, Steven and I have put a lot of love into the Inn over the past decade (!!), we owe so much its success to all of you. So, thank you! You all have very literally made a dream of mine come true.

Here’s to many more celebrations!

2023 Artist Residency Applications are OPEN!

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It’s that time of year again…!

Check out details on the Inn’s website here and/or our Substack here.

And a big thank you to everyone who came out for our Upstate Art Weekend show last weekend featuring work from ALL 79 Artist Residents! I took zero pictures of any visitors (too busy chatting!), but here’s a little peek at what it looked like in the barn:

Looking forward to reading your applications!

10 Years Already?!

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Like I said on Instagram the other week:

It’s our TENTH season running the Inn this year. Over the past decade we’ve changed a lot (hello kids! hello so many other nuanced and kind impossible things to list right here right now!), the Inn has changed (remember when we were open 7 days a week all year long and the bar was poppin every night until 11pm?), the Catskills have changed (there are approximately 100 million more hotels and Airbnbs), and omg THE WHOLE WORLD HAS CHANGED (I can’t even begin to list those differences, we’ve all lived them— the good and the excruciatingly bad).

Adorable and completely staged family photo by Anna Wolf for Tidal Mag. Well, it is authentic in that these are some of our legitimately favorite things: picnics, painting, snacks, pretty dresses.

You know what hasn’t changed here though? The beauty of Spruceton Valley, the humbling majesty of the Milky Way we see out here every night, aaaaand you. Well no, you’ve changed over these last ten years too. But only for the better. What I’m really saying is, this place is made of and made for our guests and you all are the F*CKING BEST. Our stayed-here-20-times “repeat” guests, our annual regulars, our local bar patrons, our folks-who’ve-been-following-on-the-’gram-still-waiting-for-the-right-weekend-to-come-up… So thank you— all of you!—for making the Spruceton Inn the place I love so much. Here’s to much more together!

Went back to Austin!

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Steven and I went back to Austin and it was sooooo fun. Just three nights, but not in the middle of a serious pandemic crisis? And with the little ones back East with their grandparents? It felt like THREE WEEKS of tacos and two-stepping.

We stayed at the lovely little Hotel San José on South Congress, same neighborhood we “lived” last year for a few months so we felt right at home. Such a different kind of trip to just be hitting up all your old haunts vs. constantly researching spots and how to get there etc. Extra lovely to get a big dose of sunshine as spring out here in the Catskills is really just winter with more mud. (I say with some affection.)

All that said, in some ways it feels like summer is just around the corner because I’m opening up our Spruceton Inn summer and fall reservations THIS FRIDAY!

Thank You Artist Residents

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Like last year, we had batches of about six folks at a time for five days each during for our Spruceton Inn Artist Residency. The way it worked out was that most Artists didn’t have any professional overlap. Filmmakers were with novelists, photographers were with muralists, kids book illustrators were with journalists… Sure it’s fun and important to schmooze and talk industry sometimes. But it was such a pleasure to watch these people connect with each other as artists first and foremost, not necessarily industry peers. As people who are simply compelled to create.

With this residency we’ve always emphasized that there are zero expectations, that there's no wrong way to do it. Some people were powering through drafts, others were in the more nebulous inspiration/gathering phase. People took walks, had bonfires, made big "family meals" with each other, took freezing cold dips in the creek...! My hope is that each one of them left with something more than they came with.

Congrats to the 2022 Spruceton Inn Artist Residents!

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Holy guacamole, the applications this year!! Check out this group!

Kelli Anderson, writer + visual artist / Ruth Chan , writer + illustrator / Joshua Cochran, illustrator + muralist / Gaia Cornwall, writer + illustrator / Angela Garbes, writer / Molly Gillis, filmmaker / Stephanie Gravalese, writer + photographer / Michelle Hart, writer / Jordan Mann, writer + performer / Chanel Miller, writer + visual artist / Jeremy Nguyen, cartoonist + illustrator / Aimee Pokwatka, writer /Jeremy Shellhorn, visual artist + designer / Whitney Sherman, visual artist / Daniel Sitts, documentarian + writer / Leigh Stein, writer / Isvett Verde, writer / Justin J. Wee, photographer

And check out just a tiny sliver of their work!

I am so-many-exclamation-points excited to host everyone this year!!

I’m also particularly excited to announce the recipient of the Tracy Kennard Emerging Writer’s Award. I miss Tracy every day and am so glad that her husband Jamie had the idea to sponsor this in her honor.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who applied. It was truly inspiring and humbling to read through all of your applications.

Congrats again to the 2022 Artist Residents!

Spruceton Inn Reopening in May!

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We’re reopening Memorial Day Weekend!

Mailing list members get first dibs on rooms with a secret link that goes out Monday 4/4 7am. We open it up to the rest of the public on Friday 4/8.

More details here!

P.S. Texas was SO MUCH FUN. I’ve got a whole Highlight on our time in Austin and another in Marfa & Big Bend over on Instagram. It was so dang great to get our sunshine and road-tripping on!

Closing Up for Winter

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2021 was a wacky one to say the least, but hosting you all again at the Inn was simply THE BEST. Thank you so much to everyone who stayed with us this year! And an extra special thank you to everyone who bought a drink or three when you were here— this year we donated half of our bar profits to the following social and climate justice groups: Native Women’s Wilderness, Marsha P. Johnson Institute, Lilith Fund, Brown Folks Fishing, and Loveland Foundation.

Mailing list members gets first dibs on rooms when we open the calendar for bookings, so sign up below. You can also follow along on Instagram here for more insider scoops! Gotta warn you though: we’re spending January and February in Austin (woohoo! yes, innkeepers occasionally get to travel too!) so there’s gonna be fewer pics of Spruceton Valley and way more pics of… tacos? Cowboy boots? Armadillos? If you’ve got any recommendations for when we’re there, DM me!

Stay safe out there! Be just. Be joyful. See you in the spring!

Congrats to our 2021 Spruceton Inn Artist Residents!

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More than 500 people applied this year to our Spruceton Inn Artist Residency (!!) and the talent. You guys. The TALENT.

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Simon Arizpe, visual artist / Pooja Bhatia, writer / Marcus Anthony Brock, writer / Susannah Cahalan, writer / Jesus Ian Kumamoto, writer / Whitney McGuire, writer / Anne Elizabeth Moore, writer / Christine Rai, cartoonist / Daniel Salmieri, children’s book author & illustrator / Liza St. James, writer

I was overwhelmed going through all the applications. It’s always a lot to digest so many people’s creative visions and aspirations, I know this eight years in and yet it still slams me every time. But this year it was also such a necessary, soul-nourishing reminder that there are so many people out there making moving, unique art and hell if that didn’t just get me feeling plain old fashioned inspired and even a little excited about the prospects of humanity. It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the horrifying and mundane details of life these days in a never-quite-ending pandemic, in a so-systemically-unfair world, ain’t it? I highly recommend inviting more art into your life. Maybe even into your literal backyard ;) I can’t wait to have these folks up this November!

Weddings at the Spruceton Inn!

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Just officially opened our 2022 calendar to weddings!

Spruceton Inn is Reopening This Summer!

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With widespread vaccinations on the rise, we are so excited to REOPEN THE INN THIS SUMMER!

Want first dibs on a room? Sign up for our mailing list and get *exclusive access* to our booking calendar before we open it up to the general public. Reopening day is May 28th aka Memorial Day Weekend.

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We’ve had a lot of time to reflect and consider exactly how we want to reopen. A whole YEAR in fact! And while it has been hard for all the obvious reasons, it’s also been an invaluable opportunity to not only learn as much as we can about COVID safety, but to reassess and realign the nitty gritty of this operation with our big picture values.

So for the sake of everyone’s safety, we’re running things a little differently than before. But don’t worry, all your favorite parts of the Inn— stunning nature! cozy rooms! yummy booze! starry bonfires! — are still very much a part of the experience.

Check out our website for all of policy updates including our COVID safety procedures. Most notable changes include:

  • We’re reopening for *WEEKEND STAYS ONLY*.

  • Coffee and bar service in Room One will all be *TO-GO* because it’s too dang tiny in there to safely socially distance.

  • In the spirit of the *15% PLEDGE*, we are committing at least 15% of our purchasing power—from lightbulbs to booze to toilet paper— to Black owned businesses. We’re also continuing to prioritize supporting eco-friendly and local businesses in this way too.

  • Bar donations: Drink up when you’re here! This year we’re *DONATING 50% OF OUR BAR PROFITS TO SOCIAL AND CLIMATE JUSTICE* focused nonprofits like @nativewomenswilderness, @thelovelandfoundation, and the @aclu_nationwide.

  • We’re taking a *PAUSE* in booking groups, weddings, or parties of any kind for this year.

In the meantime, stay safe out there! Wear your mask, keep your distance, get vaccinated… and get ready to visit us again soon!

Small Business Saturday at the Inn

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The Inn may be closed but our ONLINE SHOP IS OPEN!

We’ve got gear plus some Steven Weinberg paintings and prints just like the ones in the rooms so you can hang ‘em up at your place, pour yourself a Room One (bourbon + lemon + maple syrup) and pretend you’re here at the Inn!

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Nope, Not Open Yet

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People have been asking us at the Inn: ARE YOU OPEN?

No, we are NOT open. And no, we do NOT think you should visit the area. Yet.

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WHY ARE YOU NOT REOPENING RIGHT NOW? LOADS OF OTHER PLACES ARE!

Because scientists and health experts (and Governor Cuomo!) warn that allowing people to travel widely could trigger a second outbreak and we do not want to have a hand in those hospitalizations and deaths. There is still not enough testing, there is still no vaccine.

WHAT IF I PROMISE I'LL BE REEEEEEEALLY GOOD ABOUT SOCIAL DISTANCING?

I'm sure you would be! And I'm sure we could be too! Our Inn is super well situated for social distancing. But it's not about that right now. It's about having tens of thousands of "you" coming up from the hotbed of the infection to an area that's underserved in the best of times. (There is literally no hospital here in Greene County!) It's a numbers game; some of "you" will be infected, some of "you" will be silent carriers, some of "you" will accidentally transmit it. And that could all contribute to a second spike.

THIS IS ALL EASY FOR YOU TO SAY. YOU'RE NOT STUCK IN THIS TINY APARTMENT IN NYC.

I know. And I'm sorry staying at home has sucked so much for so many of you! I fully acknowledge that I am very lucky to have all this space. I wish I could safely share it with all of you!

FINE, I'LL JUST STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE NEARBY INSTEAD. YOU'RE BEING OVERLY CAUTIOUS.

Maybe I am. But if we open the Inn this summer, we could personally bring up almost 2,000 people from NYC in the next few months. Until we can be more confident that bringing tourists to the area will not significantly spread the disease, we don't want to reopen.

YOU SOUND REALLY SAD AND ANGRY.

Because I am. This is scary! It was scary tending bar at our tiny front desk the last weekend before the Pause when no one knew what was going on. It was scary wearing gloves and masks to sanitize the hell out of the rooms and roll up possibly infected laundry. It was scary coming home to my two babies and running off to change before I held them. It's scary watching the bank account balance go down, down, down. I'm sad we had to let go of our staff. I'm sad and angry that our government's response has been such a mixed bag. I'm sad and angry that I've spent years working so hard to get people to come up to the Catskills and now I'm telling them to stay away. And I'm REALLY sad and angry that people are dying from this disease when they don't have to.

BUT YOU WILL REOPEN AGAIN ONE DAY, RIGHT?

Yes! A resounding yes. And we cannot wait to have you back! Once we feel it's safe and responsible for us to do so. It might be a matter of just a few weeks. But it might be a matter of months.

HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN THAT IS?

We'll make an announcement on our website, our mailing list , and our Instagram the moment we've decided something new, so stay in touch!

THIS IS ALL GOOD TO KNOW, BUT YOU STILL HAVEN'T ANSWERED MY SPECIFIC QUESTION.

Email us at info@sprucetoninn.com or call us at 518-989-6404. 

We cannot wait to have you up for some Catskills fun when we're all on the other side of this. Stay healthy out there!

Casey / Head Innkeeper

Strange Times

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I feel lucky, tired, anxious, enraged, afraid, grateful, uncertain, overwhelmed, sad, lonely, stunned, helpless, and cautiously optimistic.

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I don’t know what reopening looks like, and I don’t know when anything of the sort will happen. There are parts of running a 24/7 business in my own backyard that I don’t miss a bit, and plenty more that I do.

These are weird f*cking times my friends. I hope you all are staying healthy out there. I hope we get through this to other side better than we all were before.