Delaware businesses: Cantwell House a return to Colonial elegance The News Journal
There are no neon lights begging for attention, but rather, homes and storefronts. Built in Federalist style dating to the 1840s, they line Main Street in appreciation of Delaware's origins. Imperfect brick sidewalks weave around town like a terra cotta history tour that leads to well-kept homes and a village green. On High Street, slightly off of Main, a skinny three-floor home painted in Colonial gray features an unpretentious wooden sign that reads "Cantwell House." Since 1983, its owner Carole Coleman has been welcoming overnight guests to her bed and breakfast, one appointed with a careworn appreciation of all things simpler. There are no flat-screen TVs, no Internet access and no coffee bars in any of the inn's three rooms (a full-service cottage is adjacent to the house). There is no heated pool and sauna awaiting visitors in the backyard. Instead, guests are welcomed by Coleman at a barn-red front door and welcomed into a home filled with pitchers, kettles, antiques and furniture dating to the 1800s. The rooms are decorated with quilts and painted in the soft hues seen in colonial Williamsburg. The breakfast menu seems ripped from the pages of the town's forefathers: orange walnut muffins and baked pears with granola, served in a dining room that features a collection of fine pewter. The Cantwell House officially opened in 1983, and for the last 25 years has served as a top overnight destination for a wide variety of guests. On any given day, Coleman will welcome a Broadway producer and his wife visiting their son at nearby St. Andrew's
