Since so many guests are curious about the house and its history, we thought we'd give you just a little bit of its background. It was built around 1884, by an architect that liked to copy the H.H. Richardson style, with strong influences of German design, due to the original owners, Judge and Julia Smith, having enjoyed the castles they saw in their travels in Europe. It was mostly used as a summer home by the Smiths, but once they passed on in the early 1900's, their adopted daughter Louise, stayed on year-round (from what we can gather).  Somewhere in the early 1950's, probably due to operating costs, Louise sold the home to the Staley's, after having sold off most of the lands that were originally bought (three parcels came together to make the estate). One of the Staley children eventually rented it out to be used as a Nursing Home, and from records it seemed to have operated from 1952 until 1958. Once the Nursing Home closed, it seemed to have started sitting idle, and stayed that way until we (the Remington family) bought it in the winter of 1969. We moved in during the summer of 1970, and began to clean up the yards and work on the inside, remodeling the kitchen and working on the "Servant's Quarters" at the back of the house. Within a few years most of the house had been returned to its original look due to Ron Remington's talents and Rosemary's wonderful tastes for decorating , as well as the talents of several various local carpenters. 

We lost Ron (Dad) to cancer in 1984, at which time Rosemary moved back into Stoneleigh full time. (Before that point, she had been living in Westport and we kids were living in the house, but it didn't have the flair that you see today).

In 1986 Rosemary met a local man, Bill Ames, a retired Merchant Mariner (and wonderful man), and together they decided to open the house to the public as a B&B. Just before Rosemary and Bill decided to open Stoneleigh as a Bed and Breakfast (in 1987), they replaced the railing around the curved balcony, with Bill turning each spindle by hand himself, and they found a talented man from Port Henry, to recreate the upper railings. Other than that, there wasn't much else needed to start using the home for guests, and  thus began the life of Stoneleigh B & B. 

We sadly lost Bill  to cancer in 1997, but Rosemary has continued on, opening her home and heart to all who visit. It's run by her hand and at her pace, which is probably why she has so many return visitors....it's like your home away from home.....

And then there's the ghost stories...but that's another story...