Rock Hall, a New B&B in Connecticut's Litchfield County
Rock Hall was built in 1912 by Addison Mizner, the architect whose Mediterranean Revival style was behind the development of Boca Raton as a resort community. Mizner built this 10,000 square foot home some six years before he went to Florida -- where he'd eventually go bankrupt and die.
But before all that, in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills, Mizner received this commission for Jerome Alexandre, a bond trader. Alexandre was heir to the Alexandre Steam Ship Lines fortune, a company which once sailed between New York and Mexico -- perhaps explaining Alexandre's taste for Spanish-style architecture?
Anyway, fast forward to present times, Rock Hall was bought as a country home by another bond trader, Michael Somers, managing director of Dillon Read and Company (most recently a part of UBS) and his wife Stella, a designer. Let's just say that investment banking isn't what it once was, and so late last winter, Michael became an innkeeper. The Somers transformed their country manor into a B&B and have repaired to an apartment on the top floor of the home. (Their former master suite, now Chamber #2, would be the room to reserve.) Stella is a delightful hostess, and Michael has channeled his energies into his long-time hobby, cooking -- he makes a mean house-cured gravlax.
