Sauerkraut Festival Weekend Brings the Hammel House Back to Main Street

The Hammel House Inn at 121 S. Main St. has been closed since a kitchen fire in August 2024. On Oct. 10, it sits inside the footprint of the 56th Ohio Sauerkraut Festival with its doors open again. The new owners set that date for themselves.

Festival weekend has always brought a crowd to Main Street. This year the same weekend also reopens the building that the Waynesville Area Chamber of Commerce calls one of the village's main landmarks. While it was closed, the business community took a measurable hit. "Some of our shops lost 50% of their sales," Chamber Executive Director Lacie Sims told WKEF. The street closures and shuttle details below are worth knowing whether you plan to stroll the booths or drive around them. They mean a little more this year because of what's reopening in the middle of it all.

How the Hammel House made it back in time

The Journal-News reported on Sept. 27 that the inn stayed closed after the fire until Allison Edmonds talked her father, Jeff Bonham, into buying it. Bonham is retired from Bonham Electric. Edmonds, Bonham and their family bought the property at auction at the end of August 2026. Bonham's own account of his first reaction is "No way, that's crazy."

That left roughly six weeks between the auction and the festival. According to Bonham, the roof was off and the rooms were full of smoke damage. Back in March, the village's preservation review had found that the main historic building escaped direct fire damage. The kitchen, a later addition at the back, was severely damaged and judged not rebuildable, and the long vacancy added weather wear on top of that. Village Manager and Director of Public Safety Gary Copeland has been watching the work. He told WKEF the family is "meeting all the codes actually exceeding them as far as I'm concerned."

The building is older than most of the festival's traditions put together. The Journal-News account gives this history:

• Built in 1822, it has served as a tavern, inn, stagecoach stop and restaurant.
• Waynesville's first election, in 1803, took place in an earlier structure on the same site.
• The Museum at the Friends Home says it is believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The family has been furnishing the rooms with period antiques bought from shops and estate sales around Waynesville. A Facebook page they set up to announce the reopening had drawn more than 24,000 views by late September.

What is open at 121 S. Main this weekend, and what comes later

WKEF reported on Oct. 1 that the Hammel House Inn and Restaurant will be open for the festival on Oct. 10–11, with five rooms available to rent. The rooms make up the first phase of a step-by-step plan, and each is named for a bird:

1. Peacock
2. Cardinal
3. Goldfinch
4. Hummingbird
5. Bluebird

Between them, the rooms offer beds from twins to kings. Edmonds put the appeal of a festival-weekend stay simply: "Imagine waking up here and looking out seeing everything going on."

Before you count on lunch there, know that the two news reports describe the dining room differently. The Journal-News story lists reopening the dining area as a later step, along with a gift shop of locally made goods, new parking and a mural. Edmonds said she hopes to keep the food "as local as possible" once public dining returns. Neither story gives restaurant hours or a menu. The confirmed part of the reopening is the five rooms. Whether meals will be served during the festival is still an open question.

The parking that comes later belongs to the village. Waynesville bought the lot next door and plans to tear down the building there to make room for a 20-space lot for downtown visitors. Edmonds said the family will paint a mural on the inn's side about its history and the village's once the lot is finished. As of WKEF's Oct. 1 report, the house was still waiting to be demolished. Don't expect that lot to help with parking this weekend.

Getting around the festival when you live here

The festival is free. The Waynesville Area Chamber of Commerce hosts it. For anyone who lives nearby, the details that matter most are timing and the footprint. Here is the published schedule:

The tents sit on the pavement itself. According to the 2026 vendor packet, the festival runs along Main Street from the State Route 73 end down to Franklin Road. It also takes in Marvin Lane, the alley west of Main between Main and Third, and the front yard of the United Methodist Church. The packet's map labels that stretch of Main as State Route 42. It also says cars may not re-enter festival streets after closing until the police chief and the festival committee reopen them. So if your usual route runs through downtown on 42, plan on a different one from Friday's setup through Sunday evening.

No public detour route has been published. The Friday directions in the packet are meant for vendors loading in. Follow the temporary signs and the officers directing traffic, and don't assume a side street is an approved cut-through.

There is one new piece of hardware on the edge of the festival area. Minutes from the Sept. 8 village council meeting say a new traffic signal at Route 42 and North Street had been installed and was expected to switch on Sept. 21. The record doesn't confirm that it did. Obey whatever the intersection shows when you get there.

Shuttle parking: The official 2026 program puts the shuttle lot at Wayne Local High School, 735 Dayton Road. Parking costs $5 in cash or $6 by card. Buses drop off at North and Third streets, close to the main stage. One event listing gives the address as 625 Dayton Road, so go with the program's address. The program also says other private lots have no connection to the Chamber or the festival and set their own terms and prices.

Where the food money goes

The craft side of the festival is huge. Estimates range from more than 400 vendors from over 26 states on the 2026 Eventeny listing to about 460 from 25-plus states in the festival website's general profile. The official 2026 program lists vendors by name without giving a total.

The food booths are the part most tied to the village itself. The 2026 program says local school, church and nonprofit groups run them. The program's highlights include:

• Sauerkraut pizza
• Sauerkraut fudge
• Cabbage rolls
• German sundaes
• Reubens and Reuben balls
• Goetta
• Sauerkraut balls

Each sauerkraut ball you buy goes to a local group's fundraising. That's the same pattern that makes the Hammel House reopening matter. Festival weekend sends its money through Waynesville organizations and storefronts, and the shops around 121 S. Main felt it when that address went dark. Sims said shops nearby started doing better as soon as the reopening was announced, because people came downtown to see the building. "It is an iconic centerpiece of our community," she told the Journal-News.

This weekend's festival crowd will be the biggest test yet of that recovery. Coming back after Oct. 11 is when you'll see the next phases: the gift shop, the mural, the parking lot and eventually the dining room.

The Hammel House story shows how much one building can shape a street, and that kind of local detail is exactly what our team follows across Southwest Ohio. If you're weighing a move to or from Waynesville and want a pressure-free conversation about how downtown changes like these figure into your plans, Beacon Home Group is glad to help. Schedule a Consultation, and enjoy the cabbage rolls.