Maybe the people who have written glowing reviews of Walker House had the only decent rooms in the place. There is a vast difference between eclectic decor and cluttered mess, between worn and downright dirty, between charming and decrepit, between basic and spartan, and between aged and ramshackle. The Walker House misses on all counts. We only saw our hostess Peggy, a few fellow guests, and several cats. Never saw Richard. Our rooms were musty, dark and decorated with a mix of (interesting) opera memorabilia and worn-out junk. The lamps were too dim to see anything at all and the wallpaper had come almost completely away from the wall. The smell of mildew was overwhelming. The bath shared by our two rooms had a dirty fiberglass shower and tub insert with a showerhead meant for a munchkin. The linens looked as though they had come from a yard sale; they were mismatched and tattered. Admittedly, there was a large and attractive veranda across the back of the house, onto which our rooms opened. However, the floor was dangerously weak at points, the furniture was literally falling apart, and the garage off the back leaned to one side and had a huge hole in the roof. A strong wind might have knocked it down by now. We are early risers, but no one even started a pot of coffee before 8:30. Breakfast, never ready before 9, was cold cereal and maybe some fruit or a few pastries. It was very disapponting, not at all like the descriptions we had read, and grossly overpriced. Location was the only positive for this place. It is within walking distance of Lenox shops and restaurants, and a short, easy and uncongested drive to the secondary parking lot at Tanglewood.
