Tag Archives: hipstorical

Lumeria Retreat, Maui

March 16, 2016 hipstorical@gmail.com

Lumeria Maui Retreat is a yoga and wellness hotel in Makawao, Maui. It’s location in the upcountry of Maui allows for a perfect serene getaway for peaceful contemplation. The hotel features eight acres of quiet, tranquil grounds including a pool and, my personal favorite—hammock garden. I spent a lovely afternoon there reading a book in the light of the setting sun, a gentle breeze rocking me to sleep.

The Lumeria has a very unique #hipstorical heritage. Built in 1910, it is the oldest wooden structure on Maui. It was designed by Honolulu architect H.R. Kerr and built as the Fred C. Baldwin Memorial home by a local sugar cane family. Emily and Henry Baldwin built the home to house retired plantation workers and named it in honor of their son Fred who died at the age of 24 from appendicitis.

Fred C. Baldwin Home in the early twentieth century

During WWII, retired residents were moved to the Pioneer Inn in Lahaina, and the property was used as a military hospital. When the home closed during WWII, the Fred Baldwin Memorial Foundation became a charitable grant foundation to support programs throughout the island of Maui.

Since then, the property has served as a dormitory for the nearby Maunaolu Women’s College and was owned by Maui Land + Pineapple Company to house summer workers in the 80s and 90s.

Lumeria has the details down—from leaving out televisions in the rooms to adding in rosemary mint Aveda soaps in the stone-floored showers. I loved exploring the quiet property and finding nooks where I could read and enjoy the sunshine.

The seven original buildings house 24 rooms with simplistic décor. Our adorable twin beds and the seven separate buildings almost made me feel like I was a kid at sleepaway summer camp—a rustic yet luxurious summer camp.

Lumeria offers daily classes– like meditation, yoga, Hawaiian heritage, and ecology– and spa treatments and healing sessions for total relaxation. Try a Lomi Lomi Hawaiian massage or a lava sea salt exfoliation to connect with the culture and nature of Maui.

Enjoy organic breakfasts, garden-to-table lunches, and communal dinners each evening at 6:30 at the Wooden Crate (the hotel’s kitchen). Their menu is constantly changing based on what’s fresh, but when we were there the chef was grilling up the fresh fish of the day with basil and lime and garden vegetables in a coconut curry sauce. Or head over to the Haliimaile General Store nearby for lunch or dinner—another Hipstorical landmark in Maui.

There is a calming energy that permeates the Lumeria retreat, and although we were only passing through for a one-night visit, we left feeling relaxed and reenergized for the rest of our week in Maui ahead.

Suggestions for more hipstorical places in Hawaii? Email me and help me build my archives!

Press Hotel, Portland

February 22, 2016 hipstorical@gmail.com

The first time I visited Portland, Maine two years ago, the old Press Herald building appeared to be an abandoned building, sitting sad, lonely and retired at the corner of Federal and Exchange Street. Just a year later on my next visit to this vibrant city, the beautiful old building had experienced a restoration and resurgence like no other, making it perfect for my first Hipstorical hotel.

I love meeting other people who share my passion for historical preservation and restoration, so I was incredibly excited for Jim Brady, owner and developer of The Press Hotel, to give me a tour of the hotel and point out all of its lovingly restored details. I loved seeing the passion and excitement in him as he took me on my tour.

The Press Hotel was built in 1923 and was home to the Portland Press Herald, the state’s largest newspaper, until 2010 when it moved down the street to its current location. Jim Brady returned to Portland in 2011 after spending some time abroad and found that the building was vacant. Construction started in 2013, and the hotel opened in May of 2015.

From the moment you step through the front door of the hotel, you can tell that so much thought went into not only the preservation and restoration, but also the design. Portland has a rich artistic and creative community, and Jim shared with me how it was important to him to take advantage of that by featuring art by local students and artists throughout the hotel. Jim saw an opportunity to create a high-end, boutique experience for travelers that didn’t exist yet in Portland. It was important for him to create a space that reflected the culture and feel of Portland for visitors.

My absolute favorite art installation in The Press Hotel, and what drew me in as soon as I stepped in the lobby, was a piece called “SWARM.” The installation features a collection of vintage typewriters affixed to a wall in a circular formation, designed by artists at the nearby Maine College of Art (MECA) to represent the chaos of a newsroom. You can also find an installation using the vintage typewriters’ cases near the front desk.

Jim did his best to preserve as many historical aspects of the building as he could, including the original marble and stairs in the entryway and the staircase to the left of the front desk. The window in the entryway is framed by letter press-inspired boxes—a nod to its printing press roots.

In the lobby, Jim and his design team chose an ink blue and orange theme, giving it a retro vibe. Chairs, tables, and textiles were designed by local artists and craftsmen like Angela Adams and Nelson Metal Fabrication. These tables (above) feature stories from different decades of the Portland Press Herald.

Behind the front desk, the newspaper theme continues with a letterpress art installation featuring letters of all sizes, fonts, and colors. (Insider detail: the orange letters spell “resurgam,” which means “to rise again” in Latin—Portland’s motto.)

The letterpress work can also be found on the hotel directional signs throughout the hotel’s hallways, pointing to rooms and meeting spaces in the hotel with names like “The Newsroom,” that reflect the hotel’s history.

The hallways’ wallpaper features actual headlines from the newspaper throughout history, and tumbling typewriter keys cover the carpet.

My day started with breakfast at UNION, the hotel’s restaurant. The quiche and a carrot smoothie were a perfect start to my day, and I loved how they used newspaper clippings as a dining accessory.

The tasteful design aesthetic continues in The Press Hotel’s guestrooms.

My favorite details were the long writer’s desk, the leather chair with “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” printed on the back.

I was in love with The Press Hotel’s logo and all of the quotes featured on the “do not disturb” sign and other signs throughout the guest rooms and in the lobby.

I even loved the luxurious, lavender boutique C.O. Bigelow bath products in the bathroom. It’s thoughtful details like these that really make a difference in a guest experience.

Guests can rent the penthouse suite with private access to a rooftop deck. And your very own vintage typewriter.

The lower level of the hotel once housed the printing presses. Jim and his team wanted to make the best use of the high ceilings and art-gallery feel by creating an art gallery that is open to the public and features works from local artists.

Another great detail in the lower level is the preserved scale located in the hotel’s gym. It once measured paper before it went to press.

My stay at The Press Hotel was one I won’t soon forget. There were so many thoughtful details that went into the design and restoration of the hotel that I felt like Jim and his team not only truly cared about history and the building, but also about me as a guest. Whether you’re a Portland local or a visitor to the area, a stay at The Press Hotel is a must!

Suggestions for more hipstorical places in Maine? Email me and help me build my archives!

Kings County Distillery, New York

December 18, 2015 hipstorical@gmail.com

Tucked away behind the bricked gates of the Brooklyn Navy yard, at the corner of Sands Street and Navy Street, you’ll find an old Paymaster’s building—where the sailors once queued up to collect their paychecks. Inside that old brick building is a collection of copper stills, handmade wooden fermenters, a black cat named Jeffy, and hip young distillers including the one master-distiller and historian, Colin Spoelman, who co-founded the distillery with his partner David Haskell. Kings County Distillery is the oldest operating whiskey distillery in New York City… and it’s only five years old.

Brooklyn Navy Yard - Hipstorical — The gate to the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard

Your tour will begin in the garden outside, where Colin, a Kentucky native who grew up around moonshine and bootleggers, (or whoever your tour guide may be when you arrive at Kings County Distillery) will fill you in on a thorough history of liquor distilling in New York. Before Prohibition, New York State was home to hundreds of whiskey distilleries. It wasn’t until the passing of the Craft Distillers License in 2002 and then the Farm Distillers License in 2009 that the state saw the rebirth of the small-still liquor. The laws provides licenses to small distilleries with two caveats: they must not produce more than 35,000 gallons of liquor each year, and they must produce their liquor primarily using New York farm products. New York State actually now has more distilleries than any other state except Washington!

So that’s why the five-year-old Kings County Distillery can claim they are the oldest whiskey distillery in NYC (those sneaky bastards). Founded in 2010 in East Williamsburg, Kings County started as the smallest commercial distillery in the US. They continued to grow and in 2012 moved into their current location: an 1899 Paymaster Building in the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard. The distillery is named for Kings County, which shares the same boundaries as Brooklyn.

The building has since been the home to an officer’s club and, when the Navy Yard was decommissioned in 1966, it became an Orthodox Jewish shroud factory. The Navy Yard is just steps from the legendary site of the Brooklyn Whiskey Wars of 1860 and the former distillery district of Brooklyn (which your tour guide will tell you more about on your tour!)

The Brooklyn Navy Yard was active from 1806 until 1966. Today, it is home to 200 private businesses including Steiner Studios, one of the largest production studios outside of California and Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, a museum which tells the story of the Navy Yard.

Once we learned the full history of whiskey in Brooklyn and beyond, our guide lead us inside where we marveled at the copper stills and swallowed the scent of malting barley. Kings county creates handmade moonshine and bourbon using cracked organic corn from upstate New York. They use traditional distilling equipment including copper stills from Scotland, and only corn and malted barley (no rye)—making their whiskey more like scotch and European whiskeys than bourbon. “The flavor comes from the process, not the recipe,” says Colin.

Kings produces 100 gallons of whiskey per day, including moonshine, bourbon, and spiced whiskeys. Their whiskeys age anywhere from 18 months to 10 years. They’re currently working on a 10-year-old whiskey that they won’t be able to taste for five more years. Colin says that the oldest whiskeys are indeed the most rare, but not necessarily the best. “There’s a sweet spot for every whiskey,” he says.

Colin and his team of distillers are known for playing around with unusual, creative whiskeys in small, experimental barrels, adding flavors like chocolate and spices. “That’s the fun of being a small distillery,” says Colin. “You get to be creative.”

Stop by Kings County Distillery on a Saturday for a tasting. We tried the moonshine, bourbon, chocolate whiskey, and pumpkin spiced whiskey. The latter was by far my favorite, and I bought a bottle which I’ve since used to make some of the best hot toddies I’ve ever tasted.

A visit to King’s is a truly unique, neighborhood experience for local New Yorkers or those who have “been there, done that” when it comes to the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Stop in, sip some whiskey, hear some history, and enjoy the #hipstorical all around you.

Suggestions for more hipstorical places in Chicago? Email me and help me build my archives!

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Repurposed. Reinvented. Reimagined.