Need a cup of coffee to go with your pastry? Soap Co. Let me tell you-SafeCo Snails are a great option! The first time Saif, the owner there, asked me if I’d tried a snail I thought he’d lost his mind! Au contraire. Insider Tip: If unfilled chocolate iced long johns are your favorite, you have to get to SafeCo early in the morning to get your pick! However, if you have to settle, let me recommend their Snail, a combination danish and puff pastry. The Colonial Inn may have gone out of business a hundred years ago, but thankfully, we’ve got great locally owned bakeries that use only the freshest ingredients to bake pies, cakes, pastries and artisan breads, and one is even housed in a vintage building downtown. The awesome kind you dream of living in when you’re reading classic literature.Ĭredit: Gwenn Eyer, Innkeeper, Blessings on State Bed & Breakfast Not Rockefeller mansions, exactly, but vintage mansions just the same. I just wonder what she looked like standing next to Abraham Lincoln! The architecture here is amazing!Īt first glance, Jacksonville is filled with historic architecture and the streets are filled with old mansions. Duncan was a tiny woman that the Governor could lift up to sit on the mantel. Since Governor Duncan and Abraham Lincoln were contemporaries, I sometimes wonder if Lincoln once enjoyed visiting the Governor Duncan Mansion as much as I enjoy it today. Visiting here really is like stepping back in time. Settlers began arriving around 1818, and Jacksonville was officially laid out and identified as the county seat in 1825. Illinois is celebrating its 200 th year and Jacksonville is almost the same age. Like any good concierge, I have to know what places are like before I recommend them, right? So after making many friends and strategic partnerships throughout the area, I’ve got some insider tips that will enhance your stay as you visit my adopted hometown. I’ve explored our terrific local restaurants, attended seasonal special events and shopped my way through town. I’ve attended sporting events from D3 college football games, to car, boat and go-kart races. I’ve attended art openings at the historic David Strawn Art Gallery and toured our historic sites from Woodlawn Farm, an early agricultural center and Underground Railroad site, to the gracious Governor Duncan Mansion, the only existing governor’s mansion outside Springfield. (I don’t actually get sworn in, but you know what I mean!) Experience all that historic Jacksonville has to offer!ĭuring my 11 years living in Jacksonville I’ve gotten to know this wonderful community pretty well. You’ll find a gracious community rich in historical treasures with sporting events, locally-owned restaurants and shops, thriving arts, education and culture, all wrapped in Midwestern hospitality.Īs the innkeeper at Blessings on State Bed & Breakfast, Jacksonville’s only bed and breakfast inn, it’s my sworn duty to know my community. Some people even say we’re in the South!Īctually, to get here, just start in the middle of the state in Springfield, and drive west about 30 minutes. Jacksonville is a historic town of 20,000 located outside Chicago. By Gwenn Eyer, innkeeper at Jacksonville's Blessings on State Bed and Breakfast
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