Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick Celebrate Forty Years at the Red Lion Inn

The iconic Red Lion Inn has been a bastion of hospitality in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, since 1773—and May 29 marks forty years to the day that the Fitzpatrick family took over the venerable hostelry, a benchmark well worth celebrating. 

Back in the winter of 1968, the Red Lion Inn was about to be sold, and a gas station was to be built on the property. To the rescue of the historic structure came Stockbridge residents Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick, who purchased the inn to house their mail-order business, Country Curtains. As it turned out, the Fitzpatricks had a knack for innkeeping; today the Red Lion is owned and operated by their daughter, Nancy.

“They committed to run it as an inn for at least five years, and they expected the curtain business to take over,” Nancy explains during a fireside chat in the Red Lion lobby. “My mother really took to the business.… She always loved decorating and buying antiques. She found a great deal of personal satisfaction in taking this on.”

A visit to the Red Lion Inn provides a lovely marriage of quaint historic ambiance and luxurious modern amenities, from feather beds and wireless Internet to the heated pool and hot tub, all designed with “green” sensibility. The Fitzpatricks have made the inn their own over the years by adding extensively to the collections of art and antiques. The rambling hallways are lined with Victorian settees; china cabinets displaying porcelain, tiny chairs, and vintage hats; and innumerable prints, paintings, maps, and photographs.

“What I’ve discovered over the years—I love to travel and I love to stay in hotels—is that I enjoy creating experiences for people,” says Nancy.

Much festivity is planned for the month of May, including a special prix-fixe menu during lunch and dinner, Monday through Thursday, until May 28; art tours of the collections in the inn with Nancy on selected dates; and a reunion of former Lion’s Den entertainers led by David Grover on
May 31.

(Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick, in blue, with family)

THE GOODS

Red Lion Inn
30 Main St.
Stockbridge, Mass.
413.298.5545
www.redlioninn.com