The Barksville Inn to move to Lansing

For over seven years, The Barksville Inn in Brooktondale has welcomed hundreds of furry “guests.” Soon, it’ll be starting a new chapter as leaders there look to move the business to Lansing at 89 Goodman Rd. by early next year.

The Barksville Inn is a “hotel for dogs” of sorts. Kevin Kirby, owner and founder of Barksville, runs the business out of his home in Brooktondale along with his partner, David Eastham. Families bring their dogs to Barksville during events such as weddings, vacations and more, so the dogs get to enjoy plenty of fun times while their families are away.

Kirby grew up in Lansing. Though he later moved away for 20 years, he came back to the county in the mid-2010s, which is when Barksville’s history begins.

“I was staying at a friend’s, and [they said], ‘Hey, can you watch my dog for me?’” he said. “And I said, ‘Sure,’ and it just sort of organically started. When I first moved back, I discovered my dad was allergic to dogs. So, I stayed with my parents first, and so, I had to watch [their dogs], and it was so hard to find a cage-free place for them to board. … So, I just thought, ‘Something I’d love to do is just have a non-kennel kennel.’ And so, … it just kind of started. We didn’t really have a name, just watching friends’ dogs here and there and just kind of turned it into a business.”

Around the same time, Kirby started a relationship with Eastham, who is originally from the New York City area. Eastham said that when he visited Kirby during the early stages of the business, it was a totally new concept to him.

“It dawns on me, ‘This is dog-sitting in your house,’” he said. “And I thought, ‘I never heard of such a thing.’”

Soon, the two moved to their current home in Brooktondale — Barksville’s home base. By 2015, the business was finally formalized, complete with a name.

“[The name] came from a friend of mine,” Kirby said. “When I was living in Georgia in Atlanta, a friend of mine moved into what they call a transitional neighborhood. … And he used to call it Barksville because at night, you could hear tons of dogs barking. He’s like, ‘There’s not that many people that live in this neighborhood, but there’s all these dogs.’ So, he always posted on Facebook, ‘Oh, it’s loud in Barksville.’ I just thought that was really cute.”

It didn’t take long for the business to take off from there, Kirby said.

“We had more demand than we could imagine,” he said. “And I realized there’s really no cage-free boarding facilities in Tompkins County. Every place was a typical 4-by-10, chain-link fence kennel.”

Kirby said that they received plenty of positive feedback then and continue to now.

“They say that when they turn onto our road, their dogs get excited,” he said. “And that makes me feel so good. We do have a lot of guests — we call [dogs] guests — and we want them to be excited to come back. And that tells us that we’re making a place that they want to be at. And then, it’s kind of like a second home. And it’s sort of the thought that your family goes on vacation, then they should go on vacation too.”

Eastham said that the business has the added benefit of lifting spirits at home.

“It’s pet therapy, but [the dogs are] getting something out of it in return,” he said.

Eastham and Kirby said that during the pandemic, the business went through significant fluctuations all within a short time span.

“We shut down when the governor did the order we had to shut down,” Kirby said. “And then—”

“It was a ghost town,” Eastham finished.

When the travel ban was lifted, demand immediately spiked. Kirby said that they quickly received over 120 requests for reservations just in June of 2021 alone — over four times as many as they typically saw in a month.

“Everybody wanted to go somewhere at the same time,” Eastham said.

That increased demand — combined with desired improvements piling up — drove Eastham and Kirby to find a new, bigger home for Barksville. They wanted somewhere that had plenty of room and was more easily accessible for older dogs and for Kirby, who uses a wheelchair. But the ever-fluctuating housing market meant that it was next to impossible for them to find a place to buy that wasn’t quickly bought by someone else (tinyurl.com/yapy2v36), so they pivoted and decided to build.

“We actually bought some land from my aunt in Lansing, and now we’re building a house,” Kirby said. “We’re sort of putting in all the ‘I wish we had this or that.’ So, all we’ve learned in the past five years, we’re going to put into the new place so it’s going to be exactly what we want. And we still want to keep the business small. We don’t want to be a big, huge place.”

Kirby said that Barksville’s current location has some significant limitations that they’re hoping to remedy with the move, such as all of the entrances being accessible only by stairs, the house being off a very busy highway and lots of cats living just across the street. He said the new location, once building is complete, will have all-flat entrances, will be located away from heavy traffic and won’t have a lot of feline neighbors.

“We’re building a Morton building that’s going to be a steel building,” he said. “And the reason why is, that way, we can build it out the way [we want]. It’s going to be built on a cement slab, with easy in, easy out both for me, being in the chair, and then for dogs walking, there won’t be any steps, so it’s going to be easy.”

While it’s certainly been an involved and complicated process to make the move happen and make the new space have all of the features they want, Kirby and Eastham said they’re enjoying the experience. Eastham picked up woodworking recently and plans to put those skills to work on things like the new location’s fencing, and Kirby loves browsing online for new ideas.

Ultimately, Kirby and Eastham are looking forward to what’s to come with their business. While they’re currently focused on what’s ahead, they also reflected on how far Barksville has come, from a makeshift operation with “a piece of paper stuck in the window,” as Eastham described, to a place families come back to year after year.

“What I thought when we started wasn’t anything like what’s happened,” Kirby said. “It’s really changed. Like I said, really it wasn’t a goal. It’s kind of just helping out a neighbor and watching their dog when they went out. … So, it just sort of started naturally.”

For more information on Barksville, visit its website at thebarksvilleinn.com.

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

In brief:

Journaling event at Lansing library

Calling all teens and tweens! The Lansing Community Library is hosting the program “Dump Your Brain On Paper: Journaling and Art as Self-Expression for Tweens and Teens” with Lydia Dolch, empowerment coach from Open the Lid, Nov. 7 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Dolch will show attendees how to use journaling and art as tools to enable better management of thoughts and feelings. Come to the library for a chance to mess around with some art materials and try out a few journaling techniques.

You don’t have to be an artist or a writer to get something out of this low-key workshop. All materials will be supplied. All teens and tweens are welcome. Email info@lansinglibrary.org for more information.