Maine-based, family-owned hospitality group Uncommon Hospitality announce their newest project, The Longfellow Hotel, designed in partnership with New York-based design firm Post Company. Opening in Summer 2023, The Longfellow will be Post Company’s first hotel in Maine delivering a distinctive design and new wellness offering to the city of Portland. The property will be the first independent full-service hotel to open in Portland in 20 years and is the namesake of famed Portland poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The Longfellow will be a five-story, ground up building located at 754 Congress Street in Portland’s historic West End neighborhood, envisioned by brothers Nate and Tony DeLois of Uncommon Hospitality with interior design by Post Company. The hotel will be located across the street from Uncommon Hospitality’s Francis Hotel, a meticulously restored historic mansion they reimagined as a hotel in 2017. The Longfellow will offer a residentially inspired and design-forward hospitality concept with a one-of-a-kind, Nordic-inspired wellness offering creating a new destination in Maine for travelers and locals alike.
“Having been born and raised in Maine, we felt passionate about continuing to elevate the hospitality offering in Portland through a focus on design and holistic wellbeing. We are thrilled to collaborate with Post Company, and our Maine-based architectural and development team, to create a destination that will complement Portland’s vibrant restaurants, artistic culture and the natural beauty of the region,” said Tony DeLois, Co-Founder and COO of Uncommon Hospitality.
The Hotel
The Longfellow was designed with a residential feel in mind, with nods to Portland’s historic West End architecture and character. Post Company’s interiors underscore paired-back minimalism with gestures of materiality related to Maine’s distinctive environment. The design ethos plays into the idea that Portland can be a place of rugged elements, but the hotel provides an immediate ambiance for relaxation and restoration once a guest walks through the front door.
The lobby at The Longfellow serves as the heart of the hotel with a communal lounge featuring casual seating and an intimate bar, handcrafted by local millworkers. The bar is a focal point of the lobby experience at The Longfellow and is meant to be a welcoming entry and gathering place for the entire property.
The boutique property will feature 48 rooms with 44 king rooms and four suites. Several of the rooms boast French balconies or bay windows, and The Longfellow will also offer pet-friendly rooms. The interiors will blend contemporary elements juxtaposed with nods to more traditional features like the moldings, ceiling medallions and wide-plank, hardwood floors. The lobby and bar spaces were inspired by salon décor with calming lime washed walls, bespoke furniture that invites relaxation and conversation, complimented by intricate mosaic tile flooring.
“This is Post Company's first hotel project in Maine, a state we’re incredibly fond of, personally spending much of my salad days Down East. We couldn't be more excited to help bring The Longfellow to life and celebrate the pristine bounty and dynamism of this state. Maine is known for its rugged coastline, historic and quaint towns and cities and salt-of-the earth personae,” said Partner at Post Company Jou-Yie Chou. “Our design for The Longfellow is intended to provide a convivial setting that invites guests and locals alike to relax, rejuvenate and celebrate together amongst friends.”
The food and beverage offering at The Longfellow will be curated by local purveyors and will include the Twinflower Café and Five of Clubs, a European style lobby bar. Twinflower will be a wellness focused café serving clean and wholesome breakfast and lunch offerings, as well as espresso drinks and fresh juices. The café and bar will be operated by Siobhán & Mike Sindoni, owners of the acclaimed Wayside Tavern, located in The Francis Hotel. In the evening Five of Clubs will focus on classic cocktails, local seafood and charcuterie.
Asteria, a Wellness Spa
Asteria is unlike any wellness offering in Maine. Inspired by Nordic spa traditions and focusing on full body and mind wellness, the spa will offer carefully selected sauna, massage, and meditation experiences. When entering the spa reception, a shift in the aesthetic is present, creating a space of transition. The 1,800 square foot space comprises two massage treatment rooms which can combine to offer couples treatments; two private infrared sauna experience rooms with halo therapy; and a meditation room with state-of-the-art Mind-Sync Harmonic Sleep Loungers.
The private sauna experience rooms offer the freedom to cycle through the heat in the infrared sauna, which boasts benefits including relaxation, pain relief and better sleep, and the cold plunge of the experiential shower, with time to relax in a private area in between. The meditation room will feature Mind-Sync Harmonic Sleep Loungers which marry sound wave therapy with perfect Zero Gravity positioning to achieve unprecedented levels of relaxation and theta sleep states. The Longfellow will be the only hotel in Maine to offer a spa with this combination of mindfully inspired treatments.
Asteria will feature products from OSEA, which comprise nutrient-dense, vegan formulas created to nourish skin and spark the senses. The street-level spa reception will also feature a retail boutique highlighting both OSEA products and hand-crafted items by Maine producers and artisans. Asteria will donate a portion of proceeds to local nonprofit, Full Plates Full Potential, to help ensure food security for children and youth in Maine.
Portland’s West End
Located in Portland’s historic West End, the hotel is among some of the most striking Victorian and Italianate architecture in the Northeast dating back to the early 19th century. The neighborhood is rich in history, with a unique collection of cultural attractions, restaurants and shops and a walkable connection to other parts of the city including the Old Port, East End, and Arts District.
“We love that more people have been discovering Maine, and we wanted to provide a beautifully designed, wellness-focused hotel to serve as the ultimate home base for those exploring the area. The smaller size of our hotel will allow us to provide personalized service and introduce our guests to all the things we love about this dynamic city,” said Nate DeLois, Co-Founder and CFO of Uncommon Hospitality. “We can’t wait to open our doors to travelers and locals, and are proud to have The Longfellow be part of Portland’s continued vibrancy as a creative getaway for generations to come.”
The Longfellow development team includes Uncommon Hospitality, Post Company, Portland- based architect, David Lloyd, and his team at Archetype Architects, Terradyn Consultants, civil engineers, and Allied-Cook, construction managers. Reservations are anticipated to be available for booking beginning in Spring 2023. For more information on the upcoming debut of The Longfellow, please visit longfellowhotel.com and follow along on Instagram at @longfellowhotel
Image credit: Leonardo R. Merlos
