The Bruce House Inn ($119 – $159)
Cumberland, Maryland
July 2016 

    

    

I've been to Cumberland several times and always wanted to stay at this place, but it’s always booked. Turns out there’s a reason.  If you’ve ever been to this town, you know it’s really difficult to find nice places to stay.

The Bruce House Inn  comes highly recommended and is well-rated, so I was pleased with myself for having planned in advance enough to secure my (& family’s) stay.  (Pre-planning is not my forte.)

As an aside, this place is big among bicyclists. (I am not a bicyclist.)  The inn is a red brick federal house that was built in 1840 on a block of similar homes. It has five rooms, all of which have a private bathroom.  I did not know about the bathroom situation  before checking in and was pleasantly surprised (read: thrilled) by that fact. I noticed all rooms also have a fireplace of some kind, which would be nice in wintertime.

The hostess/owner is friendly, relaxed and easy to be around.

Oddly, I had the opportunity to stay in all but one of the rooms. The excluded room – the George Washington Room – is the only room on the second floor, where the kitchen is also located.  There are two rooms on the first floor and two on the third.

There are many great reasons I would recommend this B&B. First, we were greeted with delicious chocolate chip cookies. (I wish I took a picture of them!)That’s a no-fail good start in my book. (I wonder if the cookies were from Jennifer’s Desserts, a local place?  They looked like her cookies and were crispy on the outside and the chips were melted and gooey.)

This picture was taken at Cafe Mark where they sell some of Jennifer's Desserts goods.

Second, the breakfasts were great. Each of my family members requested something different to eat at every meal (I’m sure the hostess loved us), and all meals – including gluten-free vegan waffles (not pictured) – were delicious and came with a lovely bowl of fresh fruit.

Third, all the rooms were different and lovely and clean. (Maybe my ‘third’ should be ‘first’, but dessert and breakfast are two of my very favorite things in life, so third, it is.)

I was glad to see the bath products, BeeKind, are eco-friendly, natural and support honey bee and sustainable pollination research. For me, the products say a lot about the place and, here, positively influences my overall feeling  about the inn. The products smell and feel wonderful, too.

Now I will give more detailed observations of the rooms.  Since I gave my overall review, and it was positive and I will happily stay here again, I will give my nit-picky comments with the gist being that the first floor rooms are great and the third floor rooms are less so.  (What I am trying to say is, You should reserve the top floor so that the bottom is available for my family and me ;)

FIRST FLOOR ROOMS
  The Robert Bruce Suite: I only have praises for this suite so move on if you’re looking for nit-picks.  (This is rare for me; enjoy it.)  Alright, I do find this suite to be masculine and dark but I’m not sure that’s a criticism.

The Robert Bruce Suite is large with beautifully paneled rooms, a nice sized sitting room, side dressing room, window coverings that seal out the light (wooden blinds and curtains), great air conditioning and ceiling fan, comfy bedding, ample storage and it’s at the back of the house, so it’s quiet. 



Mmmmmm…. Nice and cozy here.

Sitting room. There is also a couch. The bathroom is to one side and the bedroom to the other. The little dressing room is seen in this photo.

The "fireplace" is in the sitting room.

There is a bathtub and shower like in your bathroom at home.

  The Columbia Bruce Room: This room is light, bright, airy and relaxing.  It feels feminine to me after being in the Robert Bruce Suite.

This room also has wooden blinds and curtains to keep out the light, a ceiling fan, great air conditioning, a little sitting area, and a comfortable bed.
  

  










It has a nice sized stand-up shower, no bathtub.

This room was surprisingly quiet given that it abuts the dining room and main hallway.

This shot is taken from the Robert Bruce Suite.  The Columbia Bruce Room is the open door to the left.  The next doorway is the dining room.

Looking up the stairwell.

The dining room.

THIRD FLOOR ROOMS

(Before I start in, I need to apologize for the small amount of photos.  I promise to do better in the future. I learned a valuable lesson, though.  I will be quicker next time – My family settled in before I snapped pics and you would have seen piles of clothes, shoes and electronics; not what you are looking for!)

La Salle des Freres: This room is large and spacious (think, bonus room or finished attic space), has central air and a window unit but still stayed a bit warm for my taste.  I'm guessing this room is a bit cold in the winter, too, because there's a floor heater provided.  The wind coverings are a lacey fabric, so if you are light sensitive (I am), you will be bothered by the outside street lights and awoken early (I was).

Lacey curtains and heater.

The cute cast iron tub has a shower, which is nice, but it’s so low that even a petite person has to bend to get her hair wet.

The armoire.

There is an armoire provided for storage but one door was stuck closed (painted shut? I really don’t know…); and there’s storage for hanging clothes but no drawers, which was annoying.

Lastly, one person I met who stayed in this room said some of the ceilings are so low that he almost hit his head, although the varied ceiling height added to the quaintness for me.

What I did like about this room is the fresh color, the king sized bed (the downstairs rooms had queens), the open space, and the sense of privacy being on one end of the top floor.

The Crow's Nest: This room is much like the other one on this floor except half the size, no window air conditioning unit, and it has two single beds instead of one king.  It does have an oscillating floor fan = this rooms even warmer than the other.  It has the same lacey window coverings = same light sensitivity issues.  Same shower situation, too.  The comforters were rough (they were probably new and will soften with time and washings), but it was too warm to use one, anyway, so I guess it didn't matter.  

The Crow's Nest bathroom

Bottom line: This room would be perfect for the kids.

Same bathroom from another angle.

Have you been here?  Would you like to go?  I’d love to hear from you!!
Thank you for reading my blog.  
~ The Pampered Wife