Right now, there is no room at the Inn.
The Inn at Longshore has closed for renovations. It will reopen later this year.
Work is moving steadily along at the Delamar Hotel. The plan is to open in the spring, on the site of the former Westport Inn.
Until then, there is not one hotel room to be had in our entire town.
A century ago, there were plenty.
The Westport Hotel — at the corner of State Street (Post Road East) and Main Street — was a handsome building. It included a saloon and pool tables.
Decades earlier, Edward T. Bedford was too young to enter.
After becoming wealthy — as a broker of lubricating oils for railroads, helping chemist Robert Chesebrough sell his new product Vaseline, and a director of Standard Oil, among other things — he wanted the boys of Westport to have a place to gather.
Bedford bought the Westport Hotel, and demolished it. In its place, he built a $150,000 Tudor-style YMCA. It had reading and writing rooms, a bowling alley — and of course, pool tables.
For 90 years, the Y stood on the site of the old Westport Hotel. Since then — after the YMCA moved to its Mahackeno property on Wilton Road — the building has been leased to Anthropologie.
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Crazy to thing the town doesn’t have a single hotel room available.
Thank you, Dan. This is an interesting piece of Westport history. .
Does the “Y” still own the original Bedford building?
I believe there are still signs on I-95 advising of lodging – “Westport Inn”.
Interesting. Never knew that growing up here. The YMCA was the hub of downtown during the Wonder Years. Now, working out in the YMCA is like hustling through Grand Central Station. Everybody in a hurry. I believe folks think being busy is being important?
It is fascinating that we have a newly renovated homeless center but not a hotel room to be had?
What exactly is your point Jo Ann = never mind I think I know.
My point is that finally somebody got it right. We don’t need hotels, we need assistance for those in need.
A bit confused as to why that question mark landed at the end of what appears to be a declarative sentece. But I see the point: why must we force people to drive at least 2 or 3 minutes over the Westport town line to find adequate lodgings while we spend lord knows how much money and time to renovate a homeless shelter just a stone’s throw from downtown?? Surely we could have gotten a 5 star hotel built for our visiting friends and family instead of a glorified flop house so near to the heart of our beloved Main Street. Fascinating, indeed. Priorities, Westport, priorities!? Oh, wait, won’t there soon be a couple of motel rooms on the Post Road? Phew. Crisis averted.
Typical white privilege with that answer Frank. God for bid your rich privledged family and friends have to drive 3 minutes to a hotel.
And that flop house has been located in that area a lot longer than you new rich white liberals have lived in town.
People like you have ruined Westport!
Seriously?
If I’m not mistaken — I believe Mr. Marrone was being sarcastic.
Maybe it was too subtle for you.
I’m not sure Westport needs a hotel since there’s a gorgeous hotel on East Avenue in Norwalk, just a few miles away. The Norwalk Inn and Conference Center is the name and coincidentally, my wife has stayed there twice within the past 2 months while visiting her sister, who lives a few miles away. My wife absolutely loves the hotel.
I would garner a guess that most residents do not favor hotels and now we are talking the new Delmar as well as one down by the Saugatuck train station. It has become the mindset of the administration and powers to be to attract visitors to Westport to show off its attributes and spend their dollars. Meanwhile, while it would be nice to have friends of residents having a place to stay (besides my back bedroom), this mantra also means more traffic, congestion and crowds. Something, I feel, is not desired by most here. Build a hockey rink, movie theater, bowling alley and/or driving range whereby our residents and especially, their offspring have something to do.
I agree with Scooter 100%. The town used to be filled with activities like bowling, miniature golf, batting cages, trampolines, Arnie’s Place and a pool room, where I played pool with the likes of Sean Cunningham and his brothers.