Featured B&B: Inn on the Creek, Salado, Texas

Hotels in Salado

Suzi Epps knows what B&B guests like and acknowledges that many bed and breakfast properties in Texas that she's visited are lacking something. That kind of perfectionism, along with Epps's experience as a professional architect, has helped turn the Inn on the Creek into a reason to stop in Salado, a little town 45 miles north of Austin known mostly for its well-preserved 19th-century Main Street.

Inn on the Creek is a collection of historic structures, three salvaged from condemnation and brought to a shady spot on Salado Creek from elsewhere in Texas; all were painstakingly restored by Suzi, along with parents, Bob and Sue Whistler, and husband, Lynn. The oldest of the houses, an 1892 woodframe Victorian imported from Cameron, is connected to another house by a covered wooden walkway to form the inn's main complex.

The second building, a two-story, wood frame, includes a large dining room that on Friday and Saturday opens for dinner as a full-service restaurant. The breakfasts served here tend toward the exotic, ranging from German puff pancakes to Italian frittatas.

The furnishings throughout the main complex are anything but exotic; they run toward the simpler, more understated pieces of the Victorian age. The rooms exude a quiet elegance, each furnished with Victorian antiques, family photographs, and antique dresser sets. White wrought iron and wicker fill the Tyler Room. In the Rose Room, a Victorian walnut bed is covered with a collection of antique pillowcases. The most impressive is the spacious, third-floor McKie Room, which has a king-size bed as well as a library nook with a daybed that overlooks the creek---the perfect spot for a lazy weekend afternoon.

Directly across the street is the Holland House, built circa 1880, and up the block the Reue House, a Civil War--era farmhouse with four guest rooms. Its highlight is the Kiowa Room, which has a bed made from a 300-year-old loom. Sally's Cottage, a tiny one-bedroom hideaway with an adjoining living room, rounds out the inn's facilities.

All the guest rooms at Inn on the Creek have private baths---some with a pair of vintage bloomers hanging from the wall. Evenings at the inn, and throughout Salado, are quiet. Most guests just sit on the back porch and listen to the cicadas sing on a warm summer evening.

For More Information: visit Inn on the Creek

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