The History of Shéady Acres

When we started building Shéady Acres in the Fall of 2008 there wasn’t much on paper. That would change. However, as we were channeled through the avenues of the commercial building world we realized something. Just because there are rules and codes to follow does not mean a building has to be boring and generic. You can still build from ideas and dreams…it just costs a little more.

With an unlimited budget you can build anything. With a limited budget you are forced to be creative and recycle materials. These cottages tell a story. From the theme to the trim to the countless local people who pitched in and made it happen. This plot of land was destined to become what it is today. There were plans in the late sixties to build a large hotel here that would have been part of a mountainside golf course if it had all come together. The property changed hands many times before we purchased it in 1997. The first dwelling we built here was a tree house, which we summered in for five years. After living in the trees ran its course we moved into a tipi and later a friends yurt while we built our garage which turned into our home. We continued to host alterna-dwellars on the property for a few years until we got serious about starting a business. Shéady Acres had always been open to the public for disc golf so it wasn’t such a stretch to open for lodging. As Shéady Acres continues to evolve, friends and family deserve a lot of the credit for shaping it into what it has become and always will be. A great place to hang out and relax.

Originally we planned on building six one-room cottages and a main building that would serve as a lodge. Although the lodge has not been ruled out, we decided to build only five cottages, two of which would be bigger. We found out we were going to have a baby literally the day we broke ground on the project. The choice to build the larger cottages was due in no small part to that. Our friend Jon Betts, who did all the excavation work found out he was going to be a dad a couple weeks later. Must be something in the soil. We punched up some numbers, threw down some stakes and told Jon not to stop digging until the snow fell. After a few thousand feet of electric, gas, septic, and water lines, not to mention five foundation holes we had created a mess that would not be completely cleaned up until the spring of 2011. However, we managed to get the posts in the ground for all five cottages and three of the cottages framed before the State of Vermont took notice of our “little” project and began to enquire about the proper avenues of building a business. It wasn’t that we had done anything wrong. In fact, we had done everything right. There is a reason you don’t drive by strip malls and billboards on your way up here. That reason is Act 250. A law passed in the seventies to protect Vermont’s rural landscape and keep development under a watchful eye. For the first time we had to put our thoughts on paper, and in retrospect, it might not have been such a bad thing. The winter of 2009 was one dominated by paperwork. We had breezed through town zoning only to get snagged in by the state. The town of Montgomery welcomed our project, as no one had actually built a new commercial business here for over 40 years.

We were finally back on track by the spring of 2009. Ready to start creating again. We needed a sign to start advertising our project and we knew no ordinary wooden sign could sustain the beating of Jay Peak weather. So we contacted Lucas Salmon, an 18-year-old metalsmith from Berkshire VT. We knew the family well and thought Lucas would be up to the task. What he ended up creating may be my favorite piece of the project. The day he unveiled it from the back of his truck I nearly cried. Stop at the end of the driveway and walk over, it’s worth it. We decided on the name Shéady Acres only because Lucas was starting to weld the letters (which are horseshoes) onto the sign. That is what everyone had always called it and we couldn’t think of anything better. Everything was coming together and it was time to start working on the cottages again.