Welcome to the Black Sheep Inn, the historic 1859 Octagon house in Hammondsport, NY. We, the Stewarts - Kim, Gary, Patrick, and our dog Rex - are excited to be the new caretakers and owners of this incredible home. We bought this Inn at the end of September 2025, right in the middle of peak Fall Foliage season. It was the best time in every way possible; we learned quickly, because there was no other way; we listened intently to our guests and community; and we formulated how we would make this our Inn and our home.
Just over a year ago, we started this journey to do something not expected by us much less our family and friends; to be Innkeepers in the Finger Lakes. We were leaving the comfortable, albeit not necessarily enjoyable, and doing something different and definitely outside our comfort zone. We had never been in the hospitality industry, but we had talked about owning a bed and breakfast someday, the way you talk about the future but know that you would never actually do it. Over the next six months, we bought the Inn, sold our house, packed up our home and dog, and went north to a region we loved but had no family or friends, to run a historic Inn, in full operation during fall foliage, with guests the next day.
Fast forward nine months later. We are making our Inn our own, transforming it to reflect us. We love our new home, and we love sharing our home with others near and far. We love hearing the memories, experiences, and meaning of this home to them, whether they lived in it or just visited it or passed by it. We welcome guests and visitors to come inside, see our Inn, and learn the history and the people who have lived here. Enjoy the historic features and the fresh updates.
We look forward to our adventure in caring for this icon in the community and learning more about it and its meaning to our neighbors who have personally lived in it, as well as our guests who come as a first-time visitor or several times previously. We are putting our touches to it too, and we look forward to how it will evolve with us and how we will evolve because of it. We look forward to sharing our experiences along the way and hope that you enjoy listening to our adventures and perhaps being part of them too.
Cheers! And we look forward to sharing our experiences on this adventure, and we hope to hear about your own journeys and adventures that bring you to our beautiful historic Octagon house, the Black Sheep Inn.