SHERBURNE – The nonprofit, Save the Sherburne Inn Restoration Project (SSIRP), will begin the restoration of The Sherburne Inn this year, after receiving the first of two $500,000 grants.
SSIRP was first awarded $500,000 in Dec. of 2013 through the NYS Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, after applying for the program's economic development grant. Governor Andrew Cuomo started the program to boost economic development in rural areas of the state, and it has awarded millions of dollars to different projects, including eight projects in Chenango County. Despite SSIRP being one of the eight projects chosen, renovations for The Sherburne Inn could not begin immediately because the contract for the grant was not executed until Dec. 4, 2014.
President of the SSIRP Board of Directors, Kathleen Yasas said, “We were very excited when we got the news of the grant award in December 2013, but we had no idea it would take this long to get a signed contract from the State. It’s been frustrating, to say the least. However, we’re putting that frustration behind us now that we can begin to move forward with the initial steps of the restoration.”
After the execution of the contract for the initial 500K grant, SSIRP was awarded another $500,000 economic development grant for the restoration of The Sherburne Inn on Dec. 11, 2014. Like with the first grant, SSIRP does not know when they will receive the funds for the second grant, but they are moving forward with the restoration of the outside of the building.
“It's pretty exciting. They awarded us a million dollars in the last 12 months,” said Yasas. “We plan to start construction in the spring.”
According to the estimate of different architects, the total restoration will cost approximately $3,000,000. Yasas said they will be able to start on the outside of the building with the first half a million dollars granted and start on the inside of the building with the second half a million dollars.
The Sherburne Inn is a nationally registered historic building in Chenango County located on the anchor corner in downtown Sherburne. It was built in 1915 and opened as a restaurant and hotel on June 19, 1917. The Inn was successful until the late 90's. This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the original grand opening of The Sherburne Inn.
Yasas said the building is in a key spot in downtown Sherburne and that community members have many shared memories at the Inn. A group of Sherburne residents called the INN-SIDERS even wrote a book about memories at the Inn and are slated to publish another book about the Inn this year.
“Many famous people stayed at the Inn, like Duke Ellington, Peter Falk, Duncan Hines (who reviewed the Inn in his book, Adventures in Good Eating), possibly even Richard Gere and a variety of other famous, interesting people. Besides the people who visited the Inn, many locals also enjoyed the Inn and had their parties and celebrations there, like weddings and anniversaries,” said Yasas.
The owner who bought the building in the late 90's “could not make a go of it,” according to Yasas. The building closed for good in 2002 and has been vacant for the past 13 years.
A local business owner wanted to sell the building to a company that was going to tear down the Inn and turn the space into a gas station and convenience store, but a group of concerned residents, who became the SSIRP board of directors in Jan. of 2013, wanted more for the historic building. They wanted to preserve the Inn's history and move it forward.
