The Golden Lamb Inn, Lebanon, OH

Just a little north of Cincinatti is Lebanon Ohio. This is the kind of town that is totally laid back and fun to visit. We went up to Lebanon for a visit last September. We had visited the Golden Lamb before with our friends Nate and Holly, but we had booked a room for the weekend this time. Its easy to find the basics on the Golden Lamb, and there is a lot of history to read about. If you want more info, check their official web site or wikipedia. In a nutshell, the place was established in 1803 making it the oldest hotel in Ohio. Oh, and a ton of presidents and other famous people have stayed there. The rooms are named after some of the famous occupants. We drove up on a Friday night, and had dinner in the tavern. The tavern was exactly what a tavern should be. We had good food, a very pleasant and informative waitress, and we got to listen to a guy playing a keyboard live. He wasn't too loud though. The tavern has a really retro feel to it (as does the whole inn). And by retro I am not talking about a decade or two, I mean it feels unchanged in a century or two. We had heard rumors about ghosts at the Inn. I am generally pretty skeptical about such things, but I love hearing about them. I love being a little creeped out too. Our waitress did not let us down. she gave us some strange personal experiences, and also told us that she would not stay in the room we had for the weekend. Hmm.
That evening, we noticed a couple of flyers up for the Apple festival. What luck! It started tomorrow! We figured this would be fun for the day. We assumed it might be a nice small gathering. I think we all figured it would be a street or two of vendors, maybe a few hundred people, and a couple of guys selling apples. We got up Saturday morning, pretty early, and looked outside. We saw a few sellers setting up, not much was going on. We had a basic breakfast at the hotel, took our time getting ready, then decided to go out and see how this little apple festival was coming along. We were overwhelmed! I can't guess how many people invaded the small town of Lebanon, but it was easily in the thousands. Several streets were lined with people selling cool hand made art, bread, candy, and other items. It was sort of like a very classy flea market minus the used junk. The town was totally taken over by the festival. It wasn't one street of festivities, it was several intersecting streets. There was an entire street of food vendors. I am pretty sure every type of food was represented there.
We picked up a lot of breads, apple products, and dip mixes. We were exhausted after walking around the festival. We had a late dinner at the hotel in their main dining area. Food was good. They have a very relaxing dining area. Oddly, we had the same waitress from the night before at the tavern.
The hotel is something to see. It is four stories, has 40 rooms, the tavern, and restaurant. In the back is a very large gift shop. It has old building charm. Lots of wood. It is a very relaxing place to hang out, whether its in the tavern, a room, or the lobby.
Lebanon is a great town to roam around for the day or a weekend. I bet it would be a great place to retire too. Rumor is the legend Neil Armstrong has done just that. The place does have a Mayberry quality to it, with the Golden Lamb surrounded by cute shops everywhere. The candy store a block or so over is unique too. No prepackaged stuff you could get at the grocery store here. The town and the Inn have a symbiotic relationship.Our rooms were very comfortable too.
Oh, and about the ghosts. Nothing happened. I didn't even get a little creeped out. I felt safe the whole weekend. I heard a few floorboards creek, that was about it.
I was at a used book store not long ago. I found a 50 year old book on the history of the Golden Lamb. I love the fact that people were interested in this place's history 50 (FIFTY) years before now.
The place is old. That's part of the charm, but it is old. I think the Golden Lamb may rely on the character of the age a little bit. If you look closely in a corner here or there, it may be a bit dusty. A couple areas need some repairs. This does not take away from the places beauty though. 4 stories, 2 hundred years.... I can over look some dust and scrapes.