The History of The Strawberry Inn

We're nearing a decade of operation here at The Strawberry Inn, so we figured it was past time for us to write down the history of The Strawberry Inn in one spot. To begin, we'll need to go back in time all the way back to 1960. In the tiny town of Strawberry, AZ, barely a blip on your Rand-McNally map, a Dutch-style commercial building was constructed with the cutest little decorative windmill in front. For many years, the rooms in the building functioned as office and storefronts. The windmill was even a coffee shop at one point.

Fast forward a few years, and the building operated as a small roadside Inn with varying degrees of success.

Along comes our little family, with a dream and a willingness to work hard. In 2016, I (Amber) found out that this building was for sale. I have longtime family roots in Pine and Strawberry, and the area had always been on my radar because of my love for the community. Back in 2016, Carson and I had two small kids, and had been working in real estate and hospitality. When we found the Inn for sale, it was the sign we'd been looking for that would combine our passions. The perfect project that included a town we loved, hospitality, design, and hard work.

We bought the 8-room Inn, assembled a crew, and got to work. The first order of business was to host a community giveaway to get rid of the existing hotel furniture. After that, we stripped everything down to complete much needed repairs and improvements. We did a lot of the work ourselves, with our two toddlers tagging along for the ride. I did all the design work myself, and had so much fun bringing our vision to life. We officially launched in November 2016, and we were shocked when we sold out our very first weekend.

The Strawberry Inn, Spring 2017

Over the years, we've been fortunate to be able to add to the amenities at the Inn. We started by adding The Creek Cabin, and later added 3 additional cabins. After that, we built Tiny Cottages and remodeled Vintage Airstreams for guests to stay in. We also turned the windmill from a storage area to a fully functioning coffee shop, serving up coffee, tea, and treats 7 days a week.

We've had the chance to host incredible groups and events onsite, have been the location of choice for many proposals (with a 100% success rate as far as we know!), host summer movie nights, Easter egg hunts, and so much more. Those toddler girls who tagged along at the beginning are much older now (with a baby brother in tow these days!), but some of their best memories are from right here at the Inn. It's truly been such a joy and we can't wait for what's to come in the future.