My room was inside the Pearl Street building, which was built in 1170 and once the home of philanthropist and author Mary Isabella Forsyth (she wrote the first book on the history of the town, The Beginnings of New York, Kingston the First State Capitol). The library-esque room came equipped with dozens of books (I picked up a poetry book to read while out to dine at French bistro Le Canard) and a real fireplace. The other two Hotel Kingsley locations, 270 Fair Street and 24 John Street, were formerly a Singer Sewing Machine repair shop and the 18th-century home of Henry J. Sleight, the Kingston Village President who met with George Washington, respectively.
Regardless of which building your room is in, you’ll find easter eggs from its past life throughout, like preserved tin ceilings, custom carpeting, or the original mantle from the 1680s formal Georgian design in the original limestone. Each building’s individual custom hallway carpeting hints at it, too: checkboards for Wall Street, lightning bolts for Pearl Street, leaves for Fair Street, and scallops that mimic the Georgian architecture of John Street. Some of them also have communal spaces, like a groovy mid-century study or carriage house perfectly set up for a bridal party to hang out pre-wedding.
Photo: Harrison Lubin
The more modern touches—dark wood furniture, farmhouse sinks, Frette linens and bathrobes, heated bathroom floors, and saturated oriental rugs—are a combination of sourced vintage and custom pieces that we either sourced or made locally. There are gorgeous, hand-painted watercolors found throughout the properties in surprising ways, like lampshades and a larger-than-life mural in the restaurant, which were inspired by life in the Hudson Valley and painted by Happy Menocal.
Photo: Harrison Lubin