Nauvoo Grand - A Bed & Breakfast Inn

The inn is now available to host your private meetings, receptions or other events. And, the room rates have been reduced from $129 per night to $115 per night! Please call today and make your reservation to enjoy the best of Nauvoo in an intimate historic setting surrounded by idyllic orchards and vineyards!

Just up Parley Street from the Midwest's largest collection of restored historic preservation sites, nestled behind a canopy of 145-year-old trees, sits an unexpected historic treasure, the Nauvoo Grand.

This turn-of-the-century home was built by Cecil J. Baxter whose family had come to Nauvoo with the Icarian movement in 1855.

The Baxters planted vineyards and opened their winery, originally living in an old Mormon home until they built the two-story brick home which stands today on the same site. The basement walls display a number of stones salvaged from the original Nauvoo Temple just a few blocks away.

Today, the old Baxter home has been transformed by Cassie and Kent Barrett into Nauvoo's only luxury accommodations, offering the grace and intimacy of Victorian times. Perched on a gentle rise, the Nauvoo Grand is still surrounded by the Baxter family vineyards and sits directly across the street from Illinois' oldest winery, still owned and operated by descendants of the founders.

 Tour The Inn...

As you approach the Nauvoo Grand, you will note the exquisitely detailed brick and the elaborate Victorian trim under the eaves and around the front and side porches. After stepping through the carved front door with etched glass, your eyes will immediately be drawn to the dramatic copper-colored pressed metal ceilings in the entry, which extend throughout most of the main floor and complement the restored copper door hardware found throughout the home.

In addition to your private bedchambers, all of our guests enjoy access to our main floor library, where you can sit in comfort with a good book or good friends beneath the beautiful copper-colored tin ceilings and exquisite antique chandelier and look out to the vineyards and orchards to the south and north. If you are lucky, perhaps local composer Alan Birdsall will drop by while you are there and play something for you on his beautiful six-foot grand piano that sits in the corner of the library.

We have just added wireless high speed internet available free for all our guests.

Each of our bed chambers is furnished with beautiful antiques and offers private bath, cable television, DVD player and radio/CD.

One bedchamber, "Esther's Garden", is located on the main floor at the back of the house on the foundation of the old Mormon home and features a private attached bath with jetted tub. The elegantly detailed wood banister accompanies you up the center staircase to the second floor, which features three antique-filled bed chambers, each with private bath (one not attached) and beautiful views of the one-acre grounds and surrounding vineyards and orchards. Two of the baths feature jetted tubs. From the second floor another staircase takes you to "Eleanor's Attic" which encompases the entire third floor with a queen size bed in one sleeping area, two twins in another and its own private bath.

While in the Nauvoo area, please also consider treating yourself to a stay at our sister inn, The Grand Anne Bed & Breakfast, a leisurely 15-20 minute drive south along the Mississippi River in Keokuk, Iowa. The Grand Anne is a renowned 22-room Queen Anne Revival mansion surrounded by two park-like acres on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. The Inn was recognized by Country Inns Magazine in February, 1998 as one of the "Year's Top Five Affordable Luxuries" and by the Iowan Magazine, described as "A George Barber home fit for presidents and fairy princesses."

Cassie and Kent currently reside in Columbus, Ohio, where Kent is the Senior Managing Director for Veris Consulting, LLC, a boutique firm providing forensic accounting and expert witness services. Cassie holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University but has been a "stay at home mom" for the couple's seven children. Also, Cassie has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Houston with honors. Kent has Bachelors and Masters degrees from BYU in Accounting and spent nine years as a CPA with Ernst & Young and 12 years as a financial executive in the insurance industry, before joining Veris in 2003. Over the past 30 years, the couple has resided in Provo (UT), Overland Park (KS), Jacksonville (FL), St. Louis (MO), Franklin (TN),Houston (TX), Keokuk (IA) and Columbus (OH).

Note: Please call Brenda on her cell phone at 319-325-3853 for reservations or more information. Or, call Baxter's Winery across the street toll-free at 800-854-1396
and indicate you are calling with regard to the Nauvoo Grand.

Visit our sister inn, Grand Anne Bed & Breakfast

From the intersection of Routes 136 and 96 at Hamilton, IL (just across the river from Keokuk, IA), take Route 96 north 12 miles along the east bank of the Mississippi to the entrance to Nauvoo State Park. Turn right on Parley Street at the Park entrance and the Nauvoo Grand will be a little less than a mile down on your left (2015 Parley Street).

Hundreds of thousands of visitors travel to this small village (population 1100) each year, drawn by the abundance of attractions, many of which are free to the public...

Museums

• French Icarian Living History Museum 217-453-2281
• Weld House Museum
• Rheinberger Home & Museum - Nauvoo State Park 217-453-2512

Shows

• Family Entertainment Depicting Life in Old Nauvoo (1840's)
  • Nauvoo Adventure (Memorial Day thru Labor Day; no shows on Sun.) - Nauvoo Visitors Center Theatre
  • Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo - Cultural Hall
  • Sunset by the Mississippi (Summer) - Outdoor Campfire Theatre (free reserved tickets at Visitors Center 1-888-453-6434)

Historic Attractions
Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. maintains a large number of restored homes and buildings on the flats staffed by tour guides in period clothing, including several private homes, meeting halls and businesses (bakery, brickyard, gun shop, blacksmith, wheelwright, drug store, school, printing office, tin shop, land and records office), as well as a large visitors center and memorial gardens. 888-453-6434

The Joseph Smith Historic Center offers guided walking tours of the Homestead, Mansion House, Red Brick Store, Nauvoo House and Smith Family Cemetery. 217-453-2236

Nauvoo State Park
The 148-acre park directly across from the restored historic flats includes a 13-acre lack with mile-long shoreline and offers fishing, boating, camping, and hiking along with 20 acres of playground and picnic areas. 217-453-2512

Baxter's Vineyards Winery
Illinois' oldest winery features tasting, tours, gifts hand-made by area craftsmen and specialty foods (including Carol's homemade pies and sweet breads). Baxter's Village incorporates the winery and surrounding businesses, including a craft shop, gift shop, glass blower and the Nauvoo Grand. 800-854-1396

Perhaps nowhere else can a town of 1100 inhabitants boast such a varied and tumultuous past or such a bright and exciting future. Here the mighty Mississippi bends around an eight-mile curve of fertile farmland ("the flats"). About a mile inland, the land rises about 60 feet up to level grasslands ("the bluff") which extend eastward to the horizon.

Tradition has it that this one-time Indian village of 400 to 500 lodges called "Quashquema" was traded for two hundred sacks of corn in 1824 to Captain James White, who ran a ferry and traded with the Indians. In 1830 a post office was established for the tiny settlement under the name of "Venus", which was changed not long thereafter to "Commerce".

The incredible transformation of the area began in 1839 when Joseph Smith, Jr. purchased 170 acres for a settlement of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After having been driven out of Ohio and Missouri, the "Saints" descended upon what was a mosquito-ridden swamp and began to build a city named "Nauvoo", a Hebrew word suggesting "a beautiful place". Soon wagons and tents gave way to log cabins, then frame houses and, finally, brick homes and businesses. Within five years, the population had swelled to 12,000, nearly as large as Chicago, with grist and lumber mills, potteries, tanneries, foundries, brickyards, bakeries, a slaughter house, comb and match factories and dozens of shops, stores and other businesses.

The crowning centerpiece of the settlement, however, was the magnificent Temple constructed on the edge of the bluff...

During the five years of its construction, men gave every tenth day to cut, haul and place wooden timbers and limestone blocks. Women donated their fine china to be crushed to add sparkle to the exterior. Said to be the finest building in the west at the time, the Temple measured 128 feet by 88 feet and featured an 82-foot octagonal tower.

In 1844, Joseph Smith was martyred in nearby Carthage and in 1846 mob violence forced the Saints to begin their historic trek westward to the basin of the great Salt Lake. After the exodus, the activity of the town moved to the bluff and the flats began a long period of decay. In late 1848, an arsonist destroyed all the wooden parts of the Temple, and the blackened walls were further damaged by a tornado in 1850. The City Council finally ordered the ruined remains removed in 1865.

In 1849, an orderly and industrious group of french communists known as Icarians arrived in Nauvoo and were able to buy vacated properties for little or no more than back taxes. The Icarians planted orchards and vineyards and operating numerous industries, including a sawmill, large flour mill, numerous shops, a brewery, distillery and wineries. A few years later the communal way of life proved unworkable and the colony dispersed.

In the latter half of the 19th century, German, Swiss, English, Irish and Scottish immigrants found their way to Nauvoo. German culture and language became dominant and remained so until World War 1. The soil and climate were so favorable for raising grapes that by 1866 the town had 250 vineyards and several wine cellars. Though by 1887 Nauvoo was on its way to becoming the grape-growing center of America, the industry gradually declined and many of the wine cellars were converted during the twentieth century for use in the making of now-famous Nauvoo blue cheese. Each Labor Day weekend, the Nauvoo Grape Festival celebrates these two Nauvoo industries with a pageant which observes the old French rite called "the Wedding of the Wine and Cheese".

The Sisters of St. Benedict...

The Catholic Church also has deep roots in Nauvoo. The Sisters of St. Benedict came from Chicago and opened a school (later known as St. Mary's Academy) for the advanced education of young women in 1874. A new monastery was built in 1954, a new high school in 1957 and other additions in 1962 and 1967. This complex, which sits directly west of the site of the Nauvoo Temple, was recently sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the monastery is relocating to Rock Island, Illinois.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has returned to Nauvoo and rebuilt the ruins of many of the original buildings on the flat. Established in 1962, Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated (NRI) along with the Community of Christ (which owns the original Joseph Smith home and several surrounding buildings), have created the "Williamsburg of the Midwest" with two visitors centers and numerous restored and furnished homes and shops which are open all year round for free guided tours. In addition to free musical theatre productions held daily on the flats, a spectacular outdoor pageant, "City of Joseph" has been held annually since 1976 (in late July and early August).

The latest chapter in Nauvoo's history began in 1999, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced plans to reconstruct the original Nauvoo Temple. Completed and dedicated in the Spring of 2002, the exterior of this amazing $25 million dollar edifice is virtually an exact replica of the original. The interior has been crafted with the finest materials, replicating the original where possible while accommodating the needs of modern-day Latter-day Saints who now travel to Nauvoo year-round to perform sacred ordinance work.