The Woodward
Hello, dear readers, it’s nice to see you again. I’m so glad you are able to join me for one of my biggest projects to date.
For my regular readers, you may remember that over the summer I visited the town of Whitehall, MI so I could review the play Cotton Patch Gospel at the Howmet Playhouse. Due to the success of that review, I pursued an opportunity with the Repertory Company Theatre of Richardson, TX which offered me a free ticket to review its production of that show. So I found myself on a frosty February morning heading down south to enjoy a worshipful play and escape from Old Man Winter’s grip on Omaha.
Continuing the weather trend from my escapades in Iowa over the holiday season, Omaha was hammered by a winter storm the day before I was set to leave for Texas. Thankfully, this time I did not have to drive in it and the road crews had a chance to clean things up pretty well before I went on my way.
One of the more enjoyable things about this drive was that I was finally seeing some new scenery. There are two main interstates out of the city (I-29 and I-80) that I normally have to take whenever I begin these excursions. This time, I got to take Hwy 75 pretty much straight to my first stop in Topeka, KS.
It was very peaceful to travel through the smaller towns of Nebraska and enjoy traditional Americana. I also considered it to be a fast forward view to spring as I watched winter’s clutch on the state weaken the further south I got. By the time I reached the Nebraska City area, the snow was a mere dusting and by the time I reached Auburn it was gone, though the weather was still quite cold.
The first leg of the drive seemed to go faster than normal as I admired the countryside and listened to the tunes of my MP3. Before I knew it I had arrived in Kansas’ capital city.
My first stop was at the Woodward Inns at Fillmore which is a hop, skip, and jump from the capitol building. The Woodward is far more than a B & B. It’s a little village of its own consisting of one gothic mansion, three stately executive inns, and three family inns with an eighth property set to open later this year that will be a luxury extended stay.
I was staying in the main inn, a Tudor mansion built in 1923 for Chester Woodward who wanted his final estate to be as authentically English as possible. It is an impressive abode which boasts charmingly gothic rooms and a 2 ½ story library modeled after the King Henry VIII library found at London’s Hampton Hall. It also features a year round lap pool heated to 90 degrees, though it was closed for cleaning due to a recent storm.
The mansion was bought by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress) in 1994 who had built a successful lobbying firm in the Topeka area. Hearing the call of God to take care of others, she gave up her lobbying career to enter the hospitality field and begin building the empire of the Woodward.
Elizabeth was a most gracious host. She is extremely knowledgeable about the Topeka area and is a fascinating conversationalist. She gave me a tour of the mansion and offered to show me some of the other properties after breakfast the next morning. After exploring the main inn, Elizabeth led me to the Master, my home for the night.
This room was almost too much room for one person. The room boasts a large 4 poster bed with a fireplace (put to good use on this chilly night and morning) and sitting room. After getting my stuff settled, my thoughts turned to dinner.
Elizabeth had suggested an eatery run by a friend of hers called the Blind Tiger Brewery and recognized for world championship caliber beers. The building is quite unique. I didn’t notice it from the outside, but once I got indoors, the place reminded me of a 3-D puzzle due to its construction and branching hallways. It would be rather easy to get lost in this place.
Blind Tiger Brewery
For my dinner, I did a rarity and sampled some of the beers due to its championship reputation. I had samples of brown ale, Munich Dunkles, pale ale, and raw wheat. I enjoyed the brown ale and the raw wheat the most. For my entrée, I enjoyed the Texas Roadrunner which was a grilled chicken breast topped with beef brisket, cheeses, and peppers served on a bed of rice and steak fries.
The Blind Tiger Brewery apparently has a haunted history as Elizabeth suggested I ask about the ghost tour which I did, but there wasn’t anybody there who knew enough about the history to tell me the story. So I returned to the mansion, organized some photos, set up the artificial fire for the night and hit the hay.
I awoke the next morning feeling ravenous. I headed to the dining room where I found goblets of water and black cherry/cranberry juice waiting for me. I sipped the glass of juice and found the fusion of the two fruits worked very well.
Within a few moments, Elizabeth brought me my breakfast which was an oven baked pancake with orange maple syrup, cream, blueberries, and bananas. I managed to eat the fruit, but only made it halfway through the pancake before I felt full.
Oven baked pancake with fruit and black cherry/cranberry juice
After breakfast, Elizabeth had her associate, Sarah, show me around her new properties called the Woodward Row Houses. These will be luxury extended stay rooms and they look very nice. My favorite was the basement studio apartment which is one of the nicest apartments I have ever seen.
Alas, it seemed my time came to an end too soon. Currently I am putting the finishing touches on this article before beginning the next leg of my journey which will bring me to Norman, OK.
But if you are in the Topeka area, take some time to visit one of the many rooms of the Woodward. You will find rooms suited to all tastes on the financial spectrum and one amazing innkeeper in Elizabeth Taylor.
Chris' Corner 