A Hometown Restaurant

Charlestown's Sumner House serves up history, too.
More info and menu here:
http://www.thesumnerhouse.com/about-us.html http://www.vnews.com/08082012/9713405.htm

Published 8/8/2012 Restaurant staff members James Lufkin and Kate Hayward discuss lunch setup while standing in the old diner that’s attached to the back of the Sumner House. (Valley News — Sarah Priestap) A Hometown Restaurant Charlestown's Sumner House Serves Up History, Too By Dan Mackie Valley News Staff Writer When you talk to Carol Clark about the Sumner House in Charlestown, you sense that she is an accidental restaurateur. In retirement, Clark already had plenty on her plate, as a busy volunteer and member of Charlestown's Heritage Commission. She wasn't looking for more work, profits or income. “My husband and I are not doing this to make money. I don't earn a salary,’’ she said recently at the Sumner House restaurant, on Main Street in the town’s historic district. Sometimes a business is more than just a business, and a restaurant is more than just a restaurant. Clark says she and her husband Rodney bought (and extensively renovated) the Sumner House to serve the community -- which she said needed a hometown restaurant, a place for people to gather. And what's more, “I think it's nice we're bringing some pride back in Charlestown.'’ That sense of pride and place is strong at the Sumner House, where even the placemats celebrate Charlestown's history -- 24 different placemats contain photos of historic homes and buildings, and short bios of notables, such as Phineas Stevens, an early settler who organized the defense at nearby Fort at No. 4. The Sumner House dates to 1823, when it was built by Judge Frederick Augustus Sumner, a postmaster and lawyer who opened the Democratic National Convention -- the party's first -- in Baltimore in 1832. It's among a number of buildings in town on the National Register of Historic Places. Through the years, Clark said, it has been a home, a barbershop, even a gun and ammo shop, and has had other uses. It was most recently the Heritage Restaurant, which went under in 2007 in the first wave of the Great Recession. Another local institution, the Fort at No. 4 living history museum, also closed for a time during the recession because of financial struggles. (It has since reopened.) Clark recalls wistfully looking at the empty Sumner House and thinking, “Boy, I wish somebody would buy that building and bring it back to life.'' She said that when she and her husband bought it in March 2011, the roof was in bad shape, there were holes in the walls, and interior ceilings were sagging. None of that disrepair is visible now, and Clark is proud of the restoration, down to the three ADA-compliant bathrooms. The Clarks had never been in the restaurant business. The couple had a globe-trotting career as telecommunications specialists with the State Department, working in embassies in Turkey, China, Romania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. They retired here and first renovated the 1834 Stone House for their home. Carol Clark got involved in community projects; after a time Rodney Clark went back to work as a consultant in Washington D.C., commuting home on weekends. The Sumner House menu, developed by head chef Jim Younce, is described as “classic American with a twist.'' Clark said prices are kept reasonable because many people in town are retired and on fixed incomes. Several of the dinner entrees are close to $10, and all are under $20. The menu features comfort food reliables such as meatloaf, pork chops, and turkey pot pie. Dessert includes homemade pies, and Clark said she emphasizes local products such as bakery goods from Heaven Scent in Claremont, and produce from local farms in season. The soups are homemade, and so are the potato chips. On one recent day, the restaurant had drawn a group of diners who were themselves part of Charlestown's recent history -- members of the Class of 1947, from when the town still had its own high school. Joyce Davidson, who lives in Charlestown, was asked if it's was a source of pride to see the Sumner House restored. “Of course,’’ she answered simply.