Keswick Hall is no stranger to accolades—the luxury hotel and golf course has received the Forbes’ Five-Star Award, Golf Digest Editors’ Choice Award for Best Golf Resorts in the Americas, and the AAA Four Diamond Rating for its Fossett’s restaurant. But three years ago, the property’s ownership group set out to take it to the next level with a soup-to-nuts renovation. And General Manager John Trevenen says when the public sees the fruits of their reno, everyone will know why the painstaking process took so long.
“It is arguably one of the nicest resorts on the eastern coast of the United States,” Trevenen says. “We see ourselves positioned as one of that extremely small group of fine resort hotel experiences. We have put together a very beautiful product.”
Already a beautiful product, the new Keswick boasts an expanded guest wing (bringing the property to 80 total rooms), an infinity pool and cabanas, red clay tennis courts, and fully reimagined resort grounds. Fossett’s is replaced by Marigold, a fine-dining restaurant led by culinary icon Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The entire guest space has been redesigned from the studs, according to Trevenen, as the project was “an undertaking that no one could have imagined.” That means everything—plumbing, electrical, every non-structural item—was stripped from the facility and recreated from scratch.
The hotel now offers four signature suites, including the two-bedroom Hardie Suite. The guest rooms are decorated subtly, featuring white, blue, and cream shades, as well as light wood, elegant furniture, beds with Duxiana mattresses, and Frette sheets and bath linens. Each guest room includes a smart television and Lutron lighting, and local photographs decorate the walls. The Hardie Suite is fitted with a kitchenette built around Viking appliances and a wet bar.
The general design style, according to Trevenen, is to ensure form follows function. Because Keswick intends to be among the best hotels in the world, its service must be at the highest level. Personnel must predict guests’ needs and meet them before they know they have them themselves.
“We have a tagline of ‘redefining the art of American hospitality,’” he says. “We are reestablishing a style of hospitality that we think is a little different from what is on offer in other properties. We are trying to do it in a more gentle and relaxed manner.”
Trevenen offers Marigold as an example. All resort meals, from breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the week to weekend brunches, are served in the restaurant, a departure from Keswick’s previous approach where different meal seatings were at multiple restaurants. According to Trevenen, the change means the restaurant’s servers will quickly become experts at doing a simple set of activities to the absolute best of their abilities.
According to Trevenen, Keswick owners Robert and Molly Hardie have always treated the century-old resort property as a passion project. “Molly and Robert have had a love of Keswick since Robert was studying at the university. I think it’s just a special place to them,” he says. “They have been terribly good about maintaining the building, the culture, and the DNA within a new structure. It was a labor of love. It might have been easier to start again, but they really wanted to make sure it was given back to the community better than it was before.”