This article is brought to you in partnership with Hermann Hill

Peggy and Terry Hammer celebrated their 49th Wedding Anniversary June 7th. They are the owners and innkeepers of Hermann Hill Vineyard Inn and Spa, Hermann Hill Riverbluff Cottages, and the Hermann Hill Wedding and reception venue, all located in Hermann, Missouri.

They came to the Hermann area in 1970 as school teachers, living in a mobile home about 7 miles north of Hermann, where they later built their own  house and raised two daughters, Beth and Kate. Successive floods isolated them from Hermann and following the four 1993 floods they decided it was time to “move to town.” Thinking it was crazy to build a big house for two people since their kids were in high school, they investigated the bed and breakfast industry by attending a week-long seminar in Santa Barbara, CA entitled “So you think you want to be an innkeeper?” They learned about industry trends and decided that they could build a new inn on a property overlooking the town of Hermann that they had purchased and planted grapes on nearly a decade before.

It took them nearly two years to get the Inn construction completed, partly because of its location on such a steep hill. They opened the Inn for business in 1995 initially with 5 rooms in 1995 and in 2001 converted three areas into three more guest rooms, for a total of eight.

Peggy and Terry at Hermann Hill

In 2004 Peggy and Terry were traveling in the southwest to one of their favorite areas, Sedona, AZ. They found an Inn that had rather unique cottages and thought that this concept might work well in Hermann. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough land at the Inn to do the kind of development they wanted. After a year of frustration not being able to find any land a friend showed them two tracts that were part of the Hermann Industrial Park that the city had never been able to attract anyone’s interest because of the steep terrain. Peggy and Terry liked steep terrains and were intrigued with the magnificent views hidden by a 40-year overgrowth of trees and brush. Because of the potential they saw for the property they spent about $1 million developing the site, building roads and a sewer system. By 2006 they had the five cottages built with a total of 12 guest units open for business. In 2007 they began construction on the Wedding Chapel and Pavilion used for receptions. In 2015 they added an outdoor Riverbluff ceremony site and adjacent air-conditioned rest rooms that hosts weddings with 350 guests in attendance. It’s not unusual to have a bald eagle randomly fly by during the ceremony and wedding guests continue to ask “how we pulled that off?”

A Special Offer For Our Readers

Everything that Peggy and Terry do is really about couples. In honor of their upcoming 50th anniversary in 2019 Hermann Hill has developed new and expanded Anniversary packages. As a special incentive to Missouri Life Readers, we’re offering a $50 credit when you use or mention the promo code MOLIFE when making your Hermann Hill Anniversary package reservation.

Check out the Hermann Hill website here and take a look at the packages they have to offer here.