Canoe Place Inn & Cottages

Their own site says 1697 and two press accounts say 1679

The accommodations page carries 1697 in the property name, and PartySlate uses the same year while calling it the site of the nation's oldest inn. James Lane Post and Global Traveler both say 1679, founded as a coaching inn. We print both, because nobody has reconciled them and an eighteen year gap in a founding date is exactly the thing a venue should be able to answer on a tour.

The documented middle is better sourced than either end. Global Traveler records British officers quartered here during the Revolutionary War, an inn and dance hall in the early twentieth century, a speakeasy under Prohibition, and a nightclub running from the 1980s into the early 2000s. Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Cary Grant and Lucille Ball are named among the guests. Then it sat vacant for nearly two decades.

The rebuild is recent and well documented. Mitchell and Gregg Rechler of Rechler Equity Partners restored the property in partnership with Main Street Hospitality, with interiors by the design firm Workstead, and it reopened in 2022. The Knot and WeddingWire both count four years in business, which lines up.

Union Square Events runs the kitchen and $350 per person follows from that

Here Comes The Guide lists reception packages starting at $350 per person. Zola gives the same $350 for off peak dates with a $35,000 minimum total spend. PartySlate estimates $350 per guest with catering and beverage included and taxes and fees excluded. Three marketplaces landing on one number is more agreement than most venues on this list can manage.

None of it is first party. canoeplace.com publishes no price anywhere. The weddings page, the events page, the spaces page and the blog all terminate in an inquiry form.

What Here Comes The Guide says the package covers is specific. Passed and stationary hors d'oeuvres, a two course plated dinner, a five hour premium open bar, and cake service. Then a coffee and tea station, linens, a dance floor, an overnight for the couple, valet and staff. The separate bar figures are a mess. WeddingWire shows bar service from $5 per person, The Knot shows $50 per person, and neither sits comfortably beside an all inclusive package. We would not build a budget on either.

5,087 square feet of ballroom and a lawn measured for a tent

The venue publishes a real spaces table, which is rare enough to be worth using. The Grand Ballroom runs 5,087 square feet under a barrel vault ceiling, seating 300 for dinner or holding 375 standing. The Pavilion is 2,454 square feet and takes 300, or 200 theater style, and does cocktail hour. The Event Lawn is 7,200 square feet, 92 feet wide by 80 feet deep, tentable, and holds outdoor ceremonies up to 250.

The smaller rooms each do a specific job. The Terrace is 2,000 square feet for 100. The Study is 1,300 square feet with an original brick fireplace and is marketed for after parties. The Rotunda and the Garden, which has a firepit, handle cocktails. There is a bridal suite and a groom lounge.

Lodging is the other half of the property. Global Traveler counts 13 guestrooms, 7 suites and 5 cottages across six acres, and the venue's accommodations page adds waterfront boathouse residences managed by Inspirato. The Knot counts 20 guest rooms and 5 cottages. Marketplace capacity figures wander from 250 up to 400, so use the venue's own table.

A 25% administrative fee, published by exactly one source

Here Comes The Guide states a 25% administrative fee. Nobody else publishes a percentage, the venue included. The same site lists 22% for Gatsby on the Ocean, so 25% runs three points above a figure that appears commonly on Long Island, sitting on top of a base that is already several times larger.

Nothing else about the fee structure is public. No maitre d' fee, no bridal attendant fee, no statement of how New York sales tax is applied. PartySlate notes only that taxes and fees sit outside its $350 per guest estimate.

Ceremony fees are published three ways. Here Comes The Guide gives a $2,000 to $5,000 band depending on season. The Knot lists a $2,000 ceremony fee and a separate $5,000 reception fee. WeddingWire lists $2,000 for peak and off peak alike. The Knot's $5,000 may be the top of that same seasonal band filed in the wrong box, but no source says so and we are not going to assume it.

Minimums run from $10,000 off peak to $100,000 for a full buyout

Here Comes The Guide is the only source that separates a single venue booking from a full property buyout. In peak season, May through October, a single venue runs $15,000 to $60,000 and a full buyout runs $60,000 to $100,000. Off peak, November through April, a single venue runs $10,000 to $30,000 and a buyout $25,000 to $50,000. It also notes that a full buyout requires separate hotel room reservations.

Other platforms describe the same property differently. Zola shows a $35,000 minimum total spend off peak. PartySlate shows a $15,000 wedding package minimum, which is the floor of the peak single venue band rather than a headline number. The Knot shows a $35,000 starting price with couples typically spending $60,000. WeddingWire shows $35,000 off peak and $60,000 peak. Five framings and no venue published figure to arbitrate between them.

The catering rule is the one thing two sources flatly contradict

Here Comes The Guide says food and beverage are in house only and outside catering is not permitted. WeddingWire's FAQ says outside vendors are permitted. Union Square Events confirms on its own site that it provides catering for the property, which supports the in house reading. The likeliest explanation is that WeddingWire means photographers, florists and bands. Confirm it before you sign a caterer of your own.

Zola's FAQ states one wedding per property, with no multiple weddings in a day. Read that against the shape of the place. There are six or more event spaces and a working hotel, so one wedding does not mean the property is empty of other guests unless you take the buyout.

No end time is published anywhere. Here Comes The Guide says amplified music is allowed indoors and outdoors and that the venue is available year round, daily, then stops. The Study and the firepit garden are marketed for after parties, which implies the main reception has a defined end. The time itself is not stated.

Rain has two answers in fact and none in policy. The Ballroom takes 200 for an indoor ceremony and the lawn is tentable at 7,200 square feet. There is no written weather call, no deadline and no published tent cost. Get the tent quoted separately, because at that footprint it will not be a small line.