Time for Two
Grinnell Mill Bed & Breakfast
Spring/Summer 2011
When couples long for a bit of cozy seclusion, few places deliver like the venerable Grinnell Mill Bed & Breakfast in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
No one stumbles upon the Grinnell — you have to be looking for the bright red building down a little country lane. If you and your partner cycle up on the bike trail from Cincinnati or Columbus, listen for the Little Miami River bubbling just beyond the property fringe.
Inside, the grand old building is just as private. Innkeeper Donna McGovern welcomes guests to the inn’s two bedrooms, up the stairs in this renovated heritage building.
The massive two-and-a-half story building reflects Ohio’s earliest days of statehood. Andrew and Robert Moody built the mill in 1813, and rebuilt it on the original limestone foundation in 1821 after a fire. Mills once lined this stretch of the Little Miami River, but now Grinnell and its big cousin, Clifton Mill, are the main survivors. Today, Grinnell is part of Glen Helen Nature Preserve.
“I used to drive by this place when it was a shambles,” McGovern recalls. “It was boarded up, the roof had holes, and varmints lived in here. The mill machinery was still here, but the water for the wheel was diverted. I used to say ‘Why don’t they do something with that?’ and now I feel really lucky to be living here.”
McGovern is famous for her big breakfasts of scrambled eggs, challah French toast and homemade granola with yogurt and fresh fruit.
If you feel like walking off breakfast hand in hand, just open the front door and follow the trail deeper into the woods.
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