Aurora Inn

Old Aurora Inn

Originally named Aurora House, the Aurora Inn was set on the shores of the lake. It was built for E.B. Morgan, who operated the Morgan Store with his brothers. He made his wealth with trade and shipping. As one of the seven Finger Lakes, Aurora served as a port for shipping goods up Cayuga Lake and through the Erie Canal to New York City and other major markets. Morgan was an early investor in The New York Times and American Express and served as a director on Wells Fargo & Company. Morgan's former home, the E. B. Morgan House, a lakefront mansion designed by New York City architect Joseph C. Wells, is also in the historic district.

In the early 1840s, Willem D. Eagles purchased the Aurora Inn. He engaged his uncle John Eagles, a retired sea captain, to manage it. Oil portraits of William Eagles, his wife, Nancy, John Eagles, and his wife were painted in the 19th century by New York artist Charles Loring Elliott and still hang in the inn.

During the 19th century's busy years, the Aurora Inn was an overnight destination for travelers borne by stagecoach, canal boat and rail. Soon after the Aurora Inn's opening, an article in the local newspaper noted the Inn's "regularity, neatness and order exhibited everywhere — as well as the thousand little attentions which are paid to the comfort and convenience of travelers". The writer also commented on the Aurora Inn's "uninterrupted view of the water scenery of the most enchanting kind" and its "elegance scarcely surpassed by the most extensive houses of our large towns."

The Aurora Inn when renamed the "Wayside Inn"

When a fire destroyed the main building at Wells College in 1888, many students lived temporarily at the Aurora Inn. They renamed it the Wayside Inn. A fire in the early morning on February 27, 1919, destroyed Aurora's business district between the old post office and the Aurora Inn. When the south cornices of the inn caught fire, Wells College President Kerr Duncan McMillan climbed onto the roof and doused the fire with buckets of water handed to him by the village brigade. The charred beams are still present under the current roof.

In 1943, the Aurora Inn was deeded to Wells College. In the 1960s, the Inn served as a residence hall due to increasing enrollment. A drain on the college's resources, the building was repeatedly closed between the 1970s and 2000s, most recently in October 2000.

The Aurora Inn Today

The Aurora Foundation, a partnership between Wells College and the Pleasant Rowland Foundation, renovated the Aurora Inn in 2001 to redevelop it for lodging, dining, and events. Finished in 2003, the Aurora Inn has 10 guest rooms, a restaurant with outdoor dining, and a banquet room. Original architectural details were reused or reproduced in many places, but interior remodels were made to meet current code requirements and modern preferences. Historic photographs and etchings were consulted when making exterior changes. A stone terrace, lawns, and gardens were developed between the inn and Cayuga Lake.[2]

Aurora Inn decorated for the holidays

• List of threatened historic sites in the United States
• National Heritage Area
• Contributing property
• Cultural landscape
• Historic preservation

Edmunds, Shelia (2000). Aurora: Time Well Spent.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aurora Inn.

• "Local Attractions", Wells College Newsletter
• Website for the Aurora Inn at the Inns of Aurora