(New to VRBO, but I’ve been hosting for more than two years. Many reviews available online.) Private entrance through garden leads to your own peaceful patio and 1300-square-foot apartment. Enter through sun-filled study. Tall, glass-paned double doors open to huge open-plan living and dining room. From the living room, two more sets of French doors lead to a bedroom at one corner and the kitchenette/laundry room at another. Full bathroom with tub/shower. Furnished entirely in genuine mid-century modern, craftsman, art deco, and art nouveau pieces. The host is real, too, living on the premises and providing any help you need.
The building is a local landmark known as the Chocolate Factory. Built in the 1890s it housed chocolatier Hopewell Dainties. During the Great Depression the WPA repurposed it to produce shirts and employ Hopewell’s women. Later the factory made what were delicately termed “personal massage devices”. Hmmm. In the 1980s Seward Johnson, founder of Grounds for Sculpture, used the building for his school of sculpture. Artists-in-residence beautifully redesigned it as live-work space. Your apartment has aesthetic interest throughout: high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and tall original windows, all refurbished to open up. Warm in winter. Cool in summer. You will be comfortable.
Excellent WiFi service throughout the apartment. Kitchenette has a refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, Nespresso machine, and electric kettle. Also included are vintage silverware, glassware and dishes, linen napkins, corkscrew, can opener, and serving tray. Host provides coffee, teas, sweeteners, real cream, spring water, and, of course, chocolate. (Please note there is no stove or conventional oven.) Full-size clothes washer, dryer, detergent, and bleach are within the apartment and offered at no charge. Bedroom has top-quality queen-size bed. (Guests often comment on how comfortable it is.) All linens are 100% cotton.
Location is near the center of famously friendly Hopewell Borough. The New York Times dubbed Hopewell “Vermont in New Jersey”. The town is ringed by preserved fields, forest, and wetlands, including the Watershed Institute, the Sourland Preserve, and the Quarry swimming hole. Walk to restaurants, galleries, boutiques, antique stores, and multiple parks and hiking trails. Princeton, its university, and trains to New York City and Philadelphia are just seven miles away. Lambertville and New Hope are just a ten-mile drive. TCNJ is also ten miles away. Guests enjoy on-site parking for one large vehicle or two small. Street parking directly in front of the building is unlimited except during heavy snowfall. On-site Tesla charging available.
