Historic Norfolk inn is ready for Leaf Season

NORFOLK — Husband and wife Michael Dylan and Wendy Roberts of Marlboro, N.J., have continued their love affair with the Northwest Corner by re-opening the former Mountain View Inn, located at 67 Litchfield Road.

The couple moved to Winsted two years ago and relocated their business, Five Elements Robotics, from New Jersey to the town’s Industrial Park on Groppo Road.

Both Dylan and Roberts also own software development company Future Skies, which continues to operate out of New Jersey.

The couple purchased the historic Victorian inn, which was built in 1890, in August 2017 from the previous owner, Dean Johnson. 

“We were looking around for a house in Norfolk and we fell in love with this one,” Roberts said. “Initially, we thought about just having this as a residence for ourselves. But people kept coming up to us and told us about how they’d come to the inn for years. Some people told us about how they had their weddings here.”

It took nine months for the couple to completely renovate the three-floor building from top to bottom.

“When we purchased the inn there were some places in the building where the ceiling plaster was falling and crumbling,” Roberts said. “A lot of the walls had giant cracks in them. In one part of the building, the original floor from 1890 was still there, but there was a crack in it and you could see through all the way down to the basement.”

New crystal chandeliers were installed. So were new marble bathtubs and new floors.

Roberts said the nine months of hard work was well worth it.

The inn, which is now named the Mountain View Green Retreat, opened in May as a nine-room bed-and-breakfast.

“We changed the theme of the inn to make it much more health-based,” she said. “We want people to have a place where they can rejuvenate their bodies, minds and spirits in order to face the busy world we live in.”

On a first floor is a dining room where breakfast choices include omelets made with eggs from cage-free hens and organic buttermilk pancakes.

“We’re planning to open a spa here in the future with a variety of different services, including reflexology, holistic healing services, biomagnetic therapy and deep tissue massage,” Roberts said. 

Roberts said the couple’s ultimate goal is to make the Mountain View Green Retreat a destination.

“We want to attract more people not just to here, but also to the Northwest Corner.”

For more information about Mountain View Green Retreat, go to www.mountainviewgreenretreat.com.