When my husband and I found out that The Blackburn was opening up a few years ago, we just had to find out what this wonderful architectural landmark was all about. We scheduled a time to view the venue and immediately fell in love with the architectural elements, gorgeous property, and historical background. The Blackburn has various locations on the property to have a wedding, which was super accommodating if we needed to have a plan B due to weather!

The staff was wonderful and so helpful from start to finish. They provided insight, recommendations, and suggestions on all of our wedding concerns. Our initial food tasting was absolutely phenomenal! We were astounded by the high quality service, professionalism, and hard work The Blackburn put in to make our day so special. Highly recommend this venue!

Absolutely beautiful venue and location. The Blackburn Inn really gives you a good feel of historic Staunton and is seconds away from downtown. Very professional and friendly people. Overall wonderful experience!

The Blackburn Inn was an AMAZING venue to work with. We were originally scheduled to be married in Cancun this Halloween, with Covid we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel our international destination wedding back in August. We knew we still wanted to be married this Halloween and have a celebration with those closest to us. We started looking online at different venues in Virginia and stumbled across the Inn. That weekend we came to view it and then within a couple of days we signed. Aimee Snyder was the reason we chose the Inn. She made us feel so special during our first visit and we instantly knew it was the venue. All in all, we made our wedding happen in 10 weeks!!! Our ceremony was in front of the Inn and we were the first wedding to be hosted in their brand new event and conference center! The entire Blackburn Inn team worked tirelessly for us to get things ready. The Executive Chef Ryan was a pleasure to work with. We had extremely strict dietary restrictions and he made sure that we were accommodated and well fed, not to mention everyone was raving about how good the food was! The drinks were also great, we had special drinks named after our dogs that Jeremy helped us to accommodate. The Inn made sure to have masks and hand sanitizers placed throughout our event and everything was extremely clean. The history of the inn is quite interesting and made it the perfect destination for our Halloween wedding. If you are thinking about getting married at Blackburn do not think twice! The team here will make sure that your wedding is executed beautifully.

Wow, this is a very special place! That is all I heard the entire time during the weekend of our wedding. Not a lot of people had heard of the Blackburn Inn, so the guess didn’t really know what to expect. Our guests were absolutely blown away with this venue.. The grounds are just so beautiful, very well kept and maintained. The Inn itself is a historical gem. I absolutely love incorporating pieces of history in events like weddings that symbolize a new future so it meant alot to me. Outside of the Inn’s rich history, it was recently renovated to build onto the historic beauty with a few more modern elements and it is gorgeous inside and out. They have a great little bistro inside that serves delicious food. My husband and I had an amazing breakfast English muffin that really started the day of our wedding on the best foot possible. We hosted our rehearsal dinner in the penthouse suite where my husband and I stayed for the duration of the weekend. That penthouse was everything and more. It was a little boho, a little industrial, a little historic, a little modern and very much me. That’s another thing I heard a lot that weekend, that the Blackburn Inn was very much my aesthetic. I agree with them as I did feel in my element there. I’d say we had between 15-20 people at the rehearsal dinner and we all fit perfectly and it created a private, intimate setting. We weren’t cramped at all and the food and service was absolutely amazing. They recently built a conference center on the property that allowed them to have a full kitchen and service staff and I was very impressed by the food and service we received during the rehearsal dinner. Everyone was full and happy and we ended the night upstairs on the patio of the penthouse. That patio was beautiful, it had a great view of Staunton and the grounds at the Inn. We spent a lot of time out there just enjoying the views and weather. Our wedding went perfectly! We got married in front of the inn in between their lovely fountains on their walk way that served as a built in aisle. Our reception was held under a tent on their grounds a short distance from the ceremony space. This was perfect as people had somewhere to go that was away from the ceremony space so we could use it for photo ops without people wandering in the background. We were allowed to use outside vendors for our food and bar, and we really appreciated that accommodation because some venues require you to use their preferred vendors or not allow any outside vendors at all. Everything was amazing, the Inn, their grounds, the penthouse. I couldn’t have wished for a better day or a better venue!

Speaking from a Wedding Planner perspective. This is my second couple to have come through the doors of Blackburn Inn and both times have been stellar, which can be difficult to find in this industry with changing staff, etc. Even under COVID restrictions, the staff that I have worked with have been professional and just a pure joy. This is also with the stresses of the construction build out of their new event spaces.
We had our tasting for our October Couple of which the bride has specific dietary needs. The amount of research performed by their Exec Chef and staff to ensure the most desired, enjoyable outcome was touching. The food and presentation was incredible and as a Planner, I experience many tastings. The fact that they have found such a talented Executive Chef, Ryan Youngman is a huge upsell for this boutique adorable hotel venue. Where Ryan is you will find his Assistant Chef Gabe close by rounding out this team so perfectly.
While I am at it, I want to go ahead a praise the other staffers that I have been working with. Food and Beverage Manager Jeremy Wojton and GM Richard Smith. These two have always been close by to answer any questions.
Lastly, Aimee Snyder, their Weddings and Special Events Manager. Her communication is on point. Her personality and knowledge of events is what makes her the perfect fit for this role. I have thoroughly enjoyed working along side of her working out the final details for our upcoming event.
If this pre-show is any indication of what will happen game day. This planner won't have any concerns for my couple at all. They will be in great hands.

Though my husband and I did not use the Blackburn Inn as a venue - we did use them for our hotel block for our wedding in Staunton. The Inn is absolutely adorable and we were so happy that we were able to give our guests the opportunity to see this historic site. The suites were cozy but spacious and very clean. The staff at the hotel was very responsive to us and we greatly appreciated the flexibility. The one thing I would note to future couples looking to do a hotel block, is to be mindful of the check in time for your guests. If you guests are arriving into town the same day as your wedding, make sure they have enough time to check in, get ready/freshen up then head to your wedding. The staff was very responsive to us in this matter - but we definitely ran into some frantic wedding guests worried they wouldn't have enough time to check in, get ready and then get to the wedding. Just make sure you are aware of that time before you sign the contract.

First, their space is very inaccessible. The event I was at (not a wedding, but similar) had issues when two people needed help getting into the building, one with a broken bone and the other with a disability. The bathrooms also sucked.

Secondly, most locals know that this place is a disgusting stain on Staunton's legacy. The Inn actively rewrites the complex and horrific history of their buildings. The legacy of the old hospital haunts Staunton and some residents living today who were mistreated in the '80s and later. The Blackburn Inn will tell you about the moral treatment movement (and at times imply it was invented at Western State Hospital, the asylum-turned-hospital that the Inn originally was) and the architecture, and then skip to its modern renovation. What they won't tell you is that this was a hub of American eugenics during the 19th century and through much of the 20th century. Joseph "Sterilization" (his nickname) DeJarnette, the long-standing superintendent of the hospital, was an outspoken proponent of eugenics, which is a pseudoscience that advocates for the disabled, the poor, the mentally ill, the norm-breaking, women, and non-white people to be sterilized or killed. In fact, because he operated in the early 20th century, his work and the work of his contemporaries was a direct inspiration for the N*zis (censoring in case this gets restricted). He continued to support their actions after the full horrors of the H*locaust were revealed to the world, and once complained that they were "beating us at our own game".
His work is part of the reason that forced sterilization is still legal in 31 states and is sometimes practiced today, though not as often as in the 1890s through the 1990s. Disabled women are a particular target. You can be sterilized without your knowledge by a doctor to this day for any reason the doctor decides makes you unworthy of having children- it's known as a "Mississippi appendectomy". It shouldn't matter, but it doesn't just happen to disabled women, it could happen to you. There is a chance it may have already, without your knowledge.

Not only did he run the hospital, at least until he was removed as superintendent due to the horrible conditions:
*JOSEPH DEJARNETTE PERSONALLY DESIGNED MANY COMPONENTS OF THE INN'S ARCHITECTURE.*
The Wheary building, its primary wedding venue, was constructed in 1935 and designed by Joseph DeJarnette- not Thomas Blackburn. It was mostly built by the patients/inmates, to save money on construction.

When you stay here, you are spitting in the face of all Stauntonians who suffered at the hands of this institution. Lobotomies, sterilization, restraint, torture. This was intended to be a place of healing at first, sure, (although the man who started it was strongly pro-segregation) but it devolved quickly and its legacy is much different than the Inn would have you believe.

I am sorry to those who were not informed of this and found out after the fact. Staunton has many other incredible wedding venues that do not involve dancing on the graves of eugenics' victims, nor in the face of people suffering from its history today. Do not allow people to profit off of rewriting our town's history.

Do not hold your wedding a two minute walk from over 3,000 unmarked graves tucked behind the buildings. I've attached a photo of the graveyard. I went there when I attended the event I went to- the place feels like it is grieving, every unmarked concrete grave has been neglected. They are crumbling, many about to fall into obscurity and join the people they represent.