Archibald Stark Master Suite -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". 30+ year old's preferred. Other rooms in the barn/lodge include The Major General John Stark, the Caleb Stark, The Molly Stark and the William Stark rooms, all listed on AirBNB. If one is booked, please look at others. The Archibald Stark Room on the second floor of Stark Barn is finished in its 200 year old barn rustic wood and offers a king size bed, antique dressers and wingback chairs in there adjoining sitting area, cable TV and private adjoining bathroom with claws foot tub. Quests have access to the entire barn lodge. 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 and The John Stark Room both master bedrooms and a individual guest bedrooms The Caleb Stark Room, the William Stark Room and the Molly Stark Room. The master bedrooms offer king beds and the quest bedrooms offer queen beds with an additional 2nd floor sitting room equipped with pull out couch, leather easy chair and ottoman, 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 Farm 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 in Dunbarton, NH. There is a picture of Stark Barn in NH prior to dismantling, tagging and reconstruction in Odessa, FL. John Stark was a General in the Continental Army who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and Battle of Bennington and others. General Stark reinforced General George Washington's troops in Delaware. He was on the panel for the court martial of Major Benedict Arnold for treason and other high crimes. Stark coined the inspirational state motto for New Hampshire “live free or die". John Stark's father and Caleb Stark's grandfather, Archibald Stark was born at Glasgow, Scotland in 1697, and received his education in the university of that city. When quite young, he went with his father to Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, where he married Eleanor Nichols, the daughter of a fellow immigrant from Scotland. In 1720 he embarked for America in company with many of his country men, and after a tedious voyage in which his children died, the ship arrived in Boston in late autumn. Many of them arrived ill with smallpox, and they were not permitted to land, but went to the present town of Wiscasset, on the Maine coast, where they spent the winter. The following year he joined the Scotch-Irish settlers in what is now called Londonderry, where he lived until 1736. His home was about two miles south of the village of East Derry. During that year (1736) his buildings were destroyed by fire, and instead of rebuilding he removed to Harrytown [Manchester] and settled on the Thaxter grant a short distance above Amoskeag falls. He built the house now standing at the east end of the Amoskeag bridge, which was occupied for many years by the widow of Jonas Page. For the safety of the people in his immediate vicinity a fort was built at Amoskeag, which was called Starks' Fort. On the 9th of March 1747, he petitioned His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq. , that a competent number of soldiers may be allowed him to be station at his garrison to guard and defend him and others in performing their necessary labors. He was the first named grantee and one of the principal proprietors, and in compliment to him the town of Dunbarton was known as Starkstown for fourteen years, until 1765. Archibald Stark died in Derryfield [Manchester] 25 June, 1758 and was buried in what was known as the Christian brook cemetery, which was situated about where the north end of the Manchester locomotive works later stood. The bluff on which it was situated was some thirty or more feet high and close to Canal street, and was leveled to make way for a street that was put through just north of the locomotive works as then built. This street was afterwards discontinued so that the locomotive works could enlarge their plant and still have the same under one roof. A low slate headstone in the south-westerly corner of the Valley cemetery marks the spot where the remains of Archibald Stark now repose, and bears this inscription: "HERE LYES THE BODY OF Mr. / ARCHIBALD STARK HE / Departed This Life June 25th / 1758 Aged 61 Years." / His wife was Eleanor "Hellen " Nichols whom he married in Londonderry, Ireland. After the death of Archibald Stark, his land was divided among his four sons: William, John, Samuel and Archibald. 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. 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 son Caleb Stark is available in each room