Welcome to the Wildwood1880

By Andra Moss

It was, virtually, love at first sight. From her kitchen table in Northern California last July, Sarah Dreyer followed intently as her realtor used a mobile phone camera to walk her room by room through the Mountain View Green Retreat in Norfolk. Dreyer definitely liked what she saw. “The inn was just the right . . . everything. I flew out a couple of days later and made an offer immediately.”

Dreyer had been scouring online property sites for months, looking, she said, “for something I could develop in some way” that would bring her and her school-age daughter back to the West Hartford area, where she had grown up and her parents still lived. Her eldest daughter is a freshman attending college in Amherst, Mass. 

“Covid kind of changed everything,” Dreyer reflected. “It became clear to me that I really wanted to move back here to be closer to my parents.”

What wasn’t necessarily as apparent, however, was the nature of the project that would draw her back to Connecticut, but Dreyer was certain it would involve a special building. She had spent her career in the Bay Area as an interior designer, working on residential, corporate and resort projects and was seeking something unique to make her own.

“And then I found this inn on Zillow,” she marveled. “There were so many things about it that were appealing. I knew it was a beautiful area. The inn was just the right size. In the end, it all happened pretty fast.”

Dreyer left the West Coast behind in late August and by Labor Day was getting to know her new home. “Wildwood,” as it was originally named by Erastus Johnson, was built on the edge of the village center on Litchfield Road around 1900 as a family home. Johnson set the first poles and ran the wires that brought telephone service to Norfolk in 1894. The large house was converted to an inn in 1951 by Mr. and Mrs. Felix Klauer and has been run variously as an inn, restaurant, retreat and wedding venue ever since. 

As she grew familiar with the space, Dreyer decided to rebrand the inn as a luxury bed and breakfast and selected the name Wildwood1880 as a nod to its origins.

Under Dreyer’s experienced designer’s eye and instincts (she describes her style as modern classic), she smoothly transformed Wildwood1880 into a welcoming temporary stop where, she says, “guests are treated to tranquillity and luxury.” By November she was ready to test the waters with an initial posting on Airbnb. It was immediately rented for a family gathering. Another large group arrived in December and then another in January. All the while, she continued refreshing the nine guest rooms, each uniquely decorated with period furniture and deluxe comforts. 

Still easing into her “soft launch” during the shoulder vacation season, Dreyer emphasized that her interior updates are still a work in progress, but that new furniture and accessories are steadily finding their perfect places. Even so, she is already able to accommodate as many as 18 guests, offering both individual rooms or the entire space for groups. 

Visitors can enjoy several relaxing common spaces, including the large light-filled dining room set with fine china and silver candlesticks, a living room where deep down sofas beckon and a parlor where on a cool day Dreyer usually keeps a fire crackling in the hearth. In fine weather, there is an extensive patio and a rustic fire pit. 

Asked to name her favorite feature of the bed and breakfast, Dreyer rightly found it hard to choose, pointing to “the incredibly beautiful woodwork, the pressed tin ceilings, the views from upstairs and all the windows.” Eventually, the property’s three-acre setting prevailed. “We’ve already seen so many animals—fox, bobcat, bear, coyote and so many birds. We saw 14 different types of birds in one morning!”

Appearing utterly unfazed by the many recent changes in her world, Dreyer instead seemed thrilled to have found her place in the Northwest Corner. “There’s so much potential here,” she raved, “so many possibilities.”

Norfolk is a place, she said, where everyone, herself included, can explore “the outdoors, music, design, eating, cooking, flowers . . . It is a wonderful place where I can exercise my creativity and others can all come and do the same.” Wildwood1880 is located at 67 Litchfield Road in Norfolk. Reservations can be made online at Wildwood1880.com or via Airbnb.