Remembering Stone House Inn

By Tom Crilly

[Editor’s Note: Through the NFCCA Listserv, I asked long-time residents of our neighborhood for their memories of Four Corners and Woodmoor Shopping Center. This is the first in a series of the responses received.]

In 1965, I was a young upstart engineer at the Naval Ordnance Lab in White Oak (now the FDA). My boss tasked me to arrange a retirement party for a coworker. I was new to the area, but someone suggested the Stone House Inn. I had never been there, but it was close and many recommended it. I called for a lunchtime reservation for about 20 guests.

The Stone House Inn, located on Colesville Road where the 7-11 now sits, was owned by John Emory, who, according to his 1997 obituary in the Gazette, “specialized in family-style Southern cooking and all-you-can-eat chicken from the family farm.”

When we arrived, there was obviously a large dining table all set up for us in the main dining area, but we were asked to wait, and the staff quickly set up a table in a somewhat cramped room in the back of the restaurant. We were escorted to the room and seated. The party was enjoyable and the service was what I would consider normal.

On the way out, I noticed that large table in the main dining area had been dismantled and set up as several smaller tables, but there were very few guests that day. The Maître d’, who most likely didn’t know that I was the one who phoned in the reservation, quipped to me on the way out, “Those people are getting into every place.” In the group, our secretary, an engineer, and a technician were black. I was shocked at the blatant discrimination, realizing that is why we were shuffled off to the back room.

I never went back to the Stone House Inn, and was glad to see it go out of business and get torn down. ■