Enjoy a 1786 Historic "Treasure"-Caleb Stark

Caleb Stark Room - Enjoy a circa 1786 Revolutionary War era, relocated NH barn/lodge filled with New England antiques located on a working farm surrounded by wilderness preserves and bike trails. The Tampa Tribune calls Stark Barn "a museum that you can sleep in". Other rooms in the barn/lodge include The Major General John Stark, the William Stark, The Molly Stark and the Archibald Stark rooms, all listed on AirBNB. If this room booked, please look at the availability of these rooms. The Caleb Stark Room on the second floor of Stark Barn is finished in its 200 year old barn rustic wood and drywall and offers a queen size bed, antique dressers and lamps, and cable TV. Quests at Stark Barn have access to the entire barn/guest lodge except for private rooms. The 1st floor is the common area for use by all guests and includes wine room, laundry and bathroom, a professional kitchen, family/TV room, a chapel and two private offices reserved for your hosts. The barn lodge offers central air conditioning of all common areas and individual control of the temperature in each of the guest bedrooms. The 2nd floor at Stark Barn is the private sleeping area offering three queen bedrooms (with community bath) and two large king suites (with private baths), The Archibald Stark Room, the General John Stark Room, the Caleb Stark Room, the Molly Stark Room and the William Stark Room. The master bedrooms offer king beds and the quest bedrooms offer queen beds with 2nd floor sitting area equipped with cable TV, computer and writing desk. The interior of the lodge also includes original barn wood offsetting drywall and used for all flooring planks throughout the barn. Even the kitchen cabinets and vanities are made from 200 year old original barn wood. The barn/lodge is outfitted with New England antiques and furniture from the 1700's and 1800's. We added modern beds and leather couches, love seats and reclining chairs for comfort for our guests. Stark Barn has Cable TVs in all bedrooms, sitting areas and family rooms. Free internet access is available. Guests are allowed access to the property adjoining the barn/lodge. There are pastures surrounding Stark Barn that have livestock and other animals owned by your hosts. For safety, guests are not allowed in the pastures without your hosts. Your hosts live just three miles from Stark Barn and will welcome you personally, if in town. Summer months may find your hosts sailing S/Y Acadia out of homeport Newport, Rhode Island. Otherwise, a caretaker for Stark Farms lives on the property 24/7 in a separate building and is available to handle any of your needs. Stark Barn is located in Odessa, Florida, a semi-rural equestrian community 20 minutes outside Tampa, Florida. The lodge fronts on a dedicated paved bike trail which traverses through protected wilderness areas and extends three counties north along the Suncoast Highway to Hernando County, Florida. The Upper Tampa Bay Trail is located in residential northwest Hillsborough County. Although some missing links, eventually the Upper Tampa Bay Bike Trail will connects to the Suncoast Trail just one mile from Stark Barn. Eventually, the Tampa Bay Bike Trail will connect Stark Barn to St Petersburg, Florida when the missing links are complete. The Suncoast Trail is a 42-mile paved trail that stretches from Hillsborough County through Pasco and ending in Hernando County. The shared path is owned by Florida Department of Transportation, Turnpike Enterprise, and operated and maintained by the three counties' Parks and Recreation Departments. The majority of the trail is in Pasco County which is 21.6 miles long. This trail is part of Florida's statewide system of greenways and trails. You can explore maps and descriptions for this and other trails in Florida at their website. There are benches along the entire trail and some sheltered tables as well. You will find two wildlife viewing areas on the Pasco section of the trail. Current access to the trail is available at all crossing of public roads. You will find certain amenities at some of the intersections such as a port-o-let, restroom, public telephone, water supply or cooler and four information kiosks Stark Barn also lies within the Brooker Creek Headwaters, a 1,100 acre wilderness preserve that surrounds the Stark Barn property with hiking trails clearly marked by Hillsborough County. Deer and turkey roam the wilderness area daily and most times join our livestock in our farm property. Stark Barn is one of two private properties within the Brooker Creek Headwaters. The headwaters preserve contain the largest area of contiguous natural habitat remaining in northwest Hillsborough County, public ownership of this preserve ensures protection of important wildlife habitat and the site's wetlands, which serve as the headwaters of the Brooker Creek system. This property includes a mosaic of forested swamps, floodplains and low-lying uplands. The uplands include pine flatwoods, xeric oak hammocks, and mixed hardwood and pine prairies. Since 1993, Hillsborough County staff has performed a number of resource inventories that identified an abundance of wildlife and vegetation, some of which are considered threatened or endangered. For this reason, recreational activities on the property are limited to walking and hiking. Stark Barn is conveniently located 20 miles outside Tampa, 30 miles from Clearwater Beach and St Petersburg and a short 10 miles from Tarpon Springs. Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World are 1.5 hours travel time away. The barn was said to be originally built by Major General John Stark for his son Caleb just after the Revolutionary War . John Stark was a Major General in the Continental Army who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and Battle of Bennington. Stark coined the inspirational state motto for New Hampshire “live free or die". Caleb Stark was born December 3, 1759, at Dunbarton, New Hampshire. During the American Revolutionary War Caleb served with his father in the 1st New Hampshire Regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Trenton and Princeton as an Ensign. After his father resigned his commission Caleb remained in the Continental Army, serving the rest of the war and rising to the rank of major. In 1787, Caleb married Sarah McKinstry. In 1811, Caleb Stark started the first cotton mill in Suncook, New Hampshire. Stark practiced law and became a historian, and a member of the New Hampshire State Senate. The term during which he served in the New Hampshire Senate lasted from 1818 to 1819. In 1828, he moved to Oxford Township, Ohio, where he would later die on August 28, 1838. Come and relive history at Stark Barn; this is a very unique experience and a “must stay" as the 1776 era is depicted in pictures, books, antiques and in the spirit of the barn guest/lodge. A book with the Memoir and Official Correspondence of General John Stark with Notices of Several Other Officers of the American Revolution written by his grandson Caleb Stark is available in each room for your reading pleasure. Stark Barn offers a large stone front porch with rocking chairs all for watching bicyclers and joggers traversing on the Upper Tampa Bay Trail.