OGDENSBURG, N.Y. (WWTI) — What originally was expected to be a nearly silent weekend due to the Blizzard of ’22, ended up being a full Christmas at the “inn.”

More specifically, the Sherman Inn in the City of Ogdensburg.

This five-suite bed and breakfast, owned by Jim and Donna Reagan, is a restored elementary school building. Each room is after each of the former U.S. presidents that visited Ogdensburg throughout history.

But, the Inn had a much more important task over the holiday weekend, sheltering stranded travelers.

“The people that were coming to stay with us, couldn’t come,” Jim Reagen explained. “And then, the phones started ringing and it was other people who found themselves stranded here.”

As the Sherman Inn is located less than ten miles from the U.S.-Canada border, many of the travelers were coming down from Ontario and Montreal.

But travelers explained to the Reagen’s that by the time they hit the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge on Christmas Eve, road conditions were impassible due to high winds and blinding snow.

“We ended up with 14 people stranded,” Donna Reagen explained. “A lot of them were families with four of them in the car.”

At this point, the region had been shut down, with businesses closed and travel bans in place.

The Reagen’s then decided to go the extra mile, canceled their own Christmas Eve plans and instead prepared a warm holiday dinner for their new guests.

“[Donna] decided to do a little Christmas Eve soiree here in the parlor,” Jim said. “The following morning on Christmas morning, we had a huge breakfast for everyone.”

Donna added, “they had no place to get something to eat, and they needed to have some cheer. We were just happy to do it.”

The Sherman Inn is nothing short of a “home away from home” as visitors described as scenes inside as a “Hallmark movie” this past holiday weekend.

“Several of the families were like, ‘we would of rather had been home with our family, but if we had to be stranded anywhere on Christmas Eve, we were glad we were stranded here at the Sherman Inn,'” Jim noted. “And that makes it all worthwhile.”

Travelers that arrived as strangers, left with a new family in the North Country.