The smell of fresh varnish wafts through the formal bar as painters finish table walnut tops for the dining room. Landscapers scurry from one flower bed to another, while bricklayers set pavers in the courtyard and roofers put the finishing touches on a new skylight in the solarium.
Amid this construction and renovation beehive stands Kevin Showe, looking remarkably calm for someone who is going to host Gov. Mike DeWine and 200 guests who paid $200 each for the “Grand Reawakening of the Historic Buxton Inn” on Sept. 23.
“Actually, I’m not sleeping well,” Showe said with a faint smile as one of his daughters handed him eyeshades as a sleep aid. “I wake up at 12:30 and then 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. thinking about all that we need to get done.”
The upcoming reception is a celebration of the future of a renewed and refreshed inn, as well as its place in the history of Granville and Ohio during the nation’s semiquincentennial year. And in that spirit, Showe said all of the funds from ticket sales for the Grand Reawakening will go to the Granville Historical Society.
About 40 tickets remained for sale a week before the event, which begins at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4:30 p.m., followed by tours of the original inn, the courtyard around it and four adjacent historic buildings that house many of the inn’s sleeping rooms.
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Even as the new owner of the 214-year-old Buxton Inn struggles to sleep at night, Showe is beaming with pride about all that has been done to restore, preserve and update the inn. The goal is to make it a destination for tourists, business travelers and parents of Denison University students – and a complement to the Granville Inn, another village landmark directly across E. Broadway from the Buxton.
The main challenge in the restoration process has been getting materials.
“It’s supply-chain hiccups,” Showe said about a delay in delivery of windows to enclose several balconies, as well as some equipment for the basement tavern.
“It’s nothing we found here,” said the veteran of many historic preservation projects about surprises that crop up while working on old buildings.
He and a host of contractors have rolled with several of those surprises, including determining the need to replace a crumbling slate roof on one of the houses and rebuilding the basin that surrounds the largest of several fountains on the property.
Showe has come to terms with the fact that some of the fine details he had hoped would be done before the Sept. 23 celebration won’t be finished, so in the week before the event, the restoration crews focused on all that they knew they could complete.
They also were preparing for both an outdoor celebration and the possibility of an indoor event if the recent trend of afternoon downpours occurs on Wednesday.
Either way, Showe, a Worthington resident whose family develops real estate across the country with their National Housing Corporation, is excited about showing off the place with much the same kind of event the Showe family held years ago when they renovated the historic Worthington Inn, which they later sold.
At the same time renovation work at the Buxton Inn continues, Showe is working to find a chef who will bring fine dining to the inn. The inn also has managed to host guests on weekends during the past six months.
“All the rooms are full on weekends,” Showe said. “It has worked well because the contractors have the weekend off, and most of our guests are tourists or Denison parents who want to be here on weekends.”
Also thrilled about the rebirth of the inn are several alumni of the staff who worked for longtime owners Orville and Audrey Orr and are returning. Among them is Richie Hughes, who tended bar there from 2002 to 2012. The Alexandria native who now lives in Granville beamed with pride at being hired as the inn’s new bar manager.
“I learned to tend bar here on the day I turned 21,” Hughes said. “I’m so glad it is being preserved. It touches my heart and means the world to me. I’m honored to be part of it.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.