Inside the Vermont Seminary That Inspired a New Kind of Hospitality Company
The opening marks the beginning of a new hospitality venture dedicated to restoring American landmarks as character-rich lodgings
At the bucolic crossroads of southern Vermont and the Berkshires, the Mount Anthony Seminary stands as an indelible beacon of Old Bennington. Few know the colonial-style structure more intimately than architect Rafe Churchill, who attended Bennington College and often returns with his wife and creative partner, Heide Hendricks, to visit their children, one of whom is currently enrolled, the other a recent alumna.
By early 2025, he was contemplating his next chapter after a decade leading their New England firm, Hendricks Churchill, and began searching for a property near the school to convert into a space for the college to host gatherings and house overnight guests. Nothing quite clicked until the seminary hit the market. Years of deferred maintenance had left it in a dilapidated condition, but Churchill saw its potential. “Every house I’ve ever bought was the one nobody else wanted,” he says of his affinity for resurrecting neglected homes with an astute eye for history and place.
When the studio’s managing director, Casey Sunderland, visited the location, he suggested establishing an inn instead. That sparked the idea for Place in Mind, a hospitality venture dedicated to restoring American landmarks as character-rich lodgings. The Seminary will serve as its flagship when it opens in early fall, becoming the first property in a growing portfolio that will soon include the nearby Walloomsac Inn, one of Vermont’s oldest hotels. “It’s exactly what we’ve been doing at Hendricks Churchill,” Sunderland says, “but now it’s an opportunity to bring that to more people.”
Before work began, they pored over archival material, which informed the reconstruction of a long-lost bell tower. Art and furnishings came from auctions and estate sales, with works by Keith Haring neighboring canvases by Hudson River School painters. Vintage furniture by Edward Wormley and Guillerme et Chambron lend the warmth of a home assembled over generations.
Both Churchill and Sunderland see Place in Mind as a lifeline for threatened American architecture. “Preservation doesn’t have to be purism,” the former says. “Our job is to distill each building to its essence and create something that feels true to its history.” Rather than gut these structures or erase their idiosyncrasies, Churchill begins each project with a simple yet freeing question: “What are we not going to do to this house?”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Fall Issue under the headline “Past Perfect.” Subscribe to the magazine.