News · September 12, 2023 · Posted by Theo Alcott

Pickleball courts coming in spring 2024!

After two years of talking about it (and one year of Maren drawing it on napkins), it's official: the Crane & Lantern House is getting pickleball courts.

If you've stayed with us in the last couple of years, there's a good chance someone at breakfast asked you whether you play. Pickleball has gone from a thing our guests' parents did in Florida to a thing everyone's doing everywhere, and more and more of you have been arriving with paddles in your luggage and asking where the nearest court is. The honest answer has been "about a fifteen-minute drive, and good luck in October."

So we're building our own. Two full-size courts are going in on the old kitchen-garden lot behind the carriage house, the stretch of lawn that has mostly been used for croquet, overflow wedding parking and Ledger's afternoon naps. Construction starts this fall once the last weddings of the season are done, and the plan is to open in the spring of 2024.

What we're planning

• Two regulation courts, 20 by 44 feet each, with proper runoff, a cushioned surface, and permanent nets.
• Free for inn guests, with paddles and balls to borrow from the front desk.
• Open to the public by the hour, so our neighbors on Mercy Lane can play too.
• Clinics on weekends for beginners and improvers. We're talking to a coach now and hope to announce soon.
• A summer social night, because Theo can't resist the idea of a round robin followed by a pint in the garden.
• Lights, so you can keep playing after dinner on summer evenings. We're looking at fixtures that won't bother the neighbors.

What about the garden?

A fair question, and one we took seriously. The lot was Dr. Ezra Pell's physic garden in the 1840s and 1850s, and we replanted a portion of it from his daybook in 2017. That part isn't going anywhere. The feverfew, horehound, sage, chamomile and lavender all live along the south wall, and the Saturday herb walk will carry on exactly as before. The courts go on the open lawn beyond it, which has been lawn since the 1950s and was, before that, the place where the Hollis family kept their chickens.

Dr. Pell, we suspect, would not have approved of the noise. We've promised Samuel that play will stop for quiet hours, and that nobody will be allowed to shout "kitchen!" during the Thursday history talk.

Want to be the first on the court?

Sign up for our newsletter and we'll let you know the moment the nets go up. We'll also have a Pickle & Pint Getaway package ready in time for opening, with two nights, court time and a round at the bar.

See you in the spring. Bring your paddle. Or borrow one of ours.

— Theo