The manor house at the Inn at Warner Hall came alive with history last weekend.

Living history set the stage for Saturday night’s 1781 Colonial Dinner hosted by Col. Warner Lewis and his wife, Eleanor Bowles Gooch Lewis, interpreted in present day by Warren and Becky Deal of Gloucester.

Colonial music filled the drawing room. Ladies swished around in gowns and petticoats. The boots of Revolutionary War soldiers echoed across the hard, wood floors. And the smells from recipes inspired by "Dining With the Washingtons" overwhelmed the dining room.

The Inn at Warner Hall, at the head of the Severn River in Gloucester, hosted an Ancestral Homecoming Weekend Friday through Sunday, bringing together more than 50 descendants of the Warner, Lewis and Washington families to get to know each other, learn more about their heritage and the ways of life of their ancestors.

"The history of Warner Hall is unique," said owner Troy Stavens, who, along with his wife Theresa, runs the Inn ...