Inn BoonsBoro gets its own happy ending when it is rebuilt after February 2008 fire

November 11, 6:56 AMNora Roberts ExaminerCarol Thomas

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Major news organizations throughout the United States heralded the  February 17, 2009 opening of Inn BoonsBoro – the Boonsboro, Maryland bed-and-breakfast inn owned by Nora Roberts and her husband, Bruce Wilder. They realized that the story behind the event contained as much drama as any of the novelist's works.

Shakespeare's Titania and Oberon are among the seven literary
couples with rooms designed in their honor at Inn BoonsBoro.

Roberts and Wilder purchased the property, formerly an 18th century inn, in 2007, but their efforts to renovate the building met with disaster on February 22, 2008. On that date a fire ignited by a burst propane tank almost completely destroyed the Inn and damaged six other buildings in downtown Boonsboro.

However, Roberts and Wilder were determined to rebuild. Their efforts were rewarded on February 17, 2009, one year later, when Inn BoonsBoro opened for business.

The YouTube video below from Baltimore's WBAL-TV News, dated February 13, 2009, shows scenes from both the February 22, 2008 fire and the newly rebuilt Inn BoonsBoro. Also shown are sketches of the original 18th century inn.

 

In a February 13, 2009 article by Carol Memmott appearing in USA Today, "Book a literary-lovers room at Nora Roberts' romantic inn" Roberts discusses the "literary lovers" theme she had chosen for Inn BoonsBoro and her difficulty in finding seven couples who also met her requirement of having lived "happily ever after."  According to Memmott, Roberts gives vent to her frustration with this catalog of unhappy lovers: "Romeo and Juliet? Dead. Tristan and Isolde? Dead. Not happy. Dead, dead, dead. Rhett Butler and Scarlett? He didn't give a damn. You try finding seven of them."

But Roberts did find her seven couples. As indicated on Inn BoonsBoro's website, the inn contains rooms reflecting the furnishings suitable for Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man fame; for Jane and Rochester from Jane Eyre; for Elizabeth and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice; for Marguerite and Percy from The Scarlet Pimpernel; for Titania and Oberon from A Midsummer Night’s Dream; for Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride; and for Roberts’ own characters, Eve Dallas and Roarke from her In Death series.

Visitors to Inn BoonsBoro may experience their selected ambiance for prices ranging from $220 to $300 per night. The inn is located at 1 North Main Street in Boonsboro. Nearby properties also owned by Roberts and Wilder include Gifts Inn BoonsBoro at 16 North Main and the Turn the Page Bookstore Café next door at 18 North Main.

For more info:
Gifts Inn BoonsBoro promotes regional arts and crafts
Bruce Wilder's Turn The Page Bookstore Cafe has pre-Civil War origin
From my viewpoint: Nora Roberts, romance ... and bathtubs?