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Akwaaba
Mansion (Brooklyn, NY), Akwaaba
by the Sea (Cape May, NJ), Akwaaba at Buttonwood
Manor (Cape May, NJ), Akwaaba
D.C. (Washington, D.C.), and Akwaaba in the Bayou
(New Orleans, LA) are a collection of upscale bed and
breakfast inns owned and operated by husband and wife
team Glenn Pogue and Monique Greenwood. Monique and
Glenn fell in love with the idea of inns when they stayed
at their first bed and breakfast back in the early '90s.
As guests, they enjoyed the hominess and comfort of
the bed and breakfast experience. Monique quickly discovered
that innkeeping combined all of her personal passions
– architecture and interior decorating, entertaining
and meeting new people, and helping others create wonderful,
lasting memories.
The Idea
While driving down a block one day
in her Brooklyn community, Monique had a brainstorm
- "why not create a bed-and-breakfast right here
in our own neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant?"
Glenn agreed that Brooklyn – which would be the
fourth largest city in the country if it were a city
unto itself – had no major hotels at the time,
and their bed and breakfast idea just might work!
Brooklyn's Akwaaba Mansion opens in 1995
Their dream house was a dilapidated
mansion that the kids in the neighborhood called "the
haunted house." Friends and neighbors looked at the
couple as if they had three eyes when they announced
their plans to purchase the 1860s mansion, return it
to its original grandeur, and operate it as an upscale
inn. And they did have three eyes – the
third eye is the eye of vision: the ability to see the
possibility. In 1995, Akwaaba Mansion opened to rave
reviews. Guests come from near and far to stay in the
elegant mansion offering unpretentious ease.
Monique and Glenn are the fifth owners of the Italianate structure,
which features original details, such as 14-foot ceilings, ornate fireplaces,
intricate parquet wood floors and gaslight fixtures, along with modern
conveniences, such as a private baths in each guestroom with oversized
Jacuzzi tubs. The original owners from 1860 were wealthy beer barrens.
Monique and Glenn purchased the home from the Lilly family, a working-class
African-American family who lived there for over 50 years after the
parents and their eight young adult children pooled their money together
to buy it as the family home.
Monique and Glenn completed extensive restoration of the property,
including wood stripping and sanding, painstaking interior and exterior
painting, all new mechanicals, four new bathrooms, a state-of-the-art
kitchen and a huge paved courtyard where they've had dinners for
more than 100 guests. The entire process was documented by the popular
HGTV series "Restore America."
Let's do it again: Akwaaba by the
Sea launches in 2002
It was Cape May, New Jersey, where
Monique and Glenn first stayed at a bed and breakfast.
The quaint town with the beautiful beach and great restaurants
and shops became an annual pilgrimage, especially at
Christmastime. On the beach in 2002, Monique had an ah-ha
moment and decided to reprioritize her life. It was her
40th birthday and she was the successful editor-in-chief
of Essence magazine. She was also a wife and the mother
of an eight-year-old daughter, a budding book author,
co-owner with her husband of Akwaaba Café, a 72-seat
restaurant down the street from the Brooklyn inn, and
landlord with Glenn of 13 residential apartments and
six commercial spaces. Something had to give. On the
beach that day, Monique decided she would return home
and resign from her job at Essence. But before she left
Cape May, (and while she still had an Essence paystub!),
Monique met with a realtor to look at small cottages that she and Glenn might
buy as a summer house and one day retire to. The realtor suggested that they
buy a bed and breakfast instead, since they were already in the business and
Cape May is the East Coast capital of inns. That was too tempting of a proposition,
says Monique, for a workaholic who, at that point, had only been in recovery
for two days!
The couple purchased the Annabel Lee Guest House, a quaint
six-room inn in May 2002. The day after closing, they were
welcoming guests, but they took most of the summer to redecorate
and reopen the next season as Akwaaba by the Sea. Built
in 1850, the Victorian gingerbread is a cozy retreat four
blocks from the beach.
...and again: Akwaaba D.C. Opens
Its Doors - October 2003
Both Glenn and Monique were
born in Washington, D.C., and have great affection
for the city. The two decided to return home in October
2003, when they purchased The Brenton Bed and Breakfast,
an existing eight-room inn in an elegant five-story,
townhouse mansion in Dupont Circle. Located in the heart
of the city in walking distance to the White House, historic
U Street, Connecticut Avenue shops, and the trendy
neighborhoods of Adams Morgan and Georgetown, The Brenton
is now Akwaaba D.C., a grand inn decorated with a literary
theme. Monique tapped into her love of books when creating
guestrooms named after authors like Langston Hughes and
Toni Morrison, or favorite genres, including romance
and science fiction. The brownstone, built in the 1890s,
boasts elaborate woodwork, ornate fireplaces and countless
original architectural details. "Bringing Akwaaba D.C. to life
is a wonderful love story," says Monique, author of the best-selling book "Having
What Matters."
One for each season: Akwaaba
in the Bayou Opens in New Orleans
As Glenn and Monique began planning
for an early retirement, they fantasized about spending
each season in a different city they love. With private
residences in each of their inns, they reasoned New
York was the perfect place to spend the fall. Washington,
D.C., with its cherry blossoms, is ideal in the spring.
And the cool breezes of the Jersey shore make Cape May
the choice for summer. So where would they winter? The
couple considered looking for a bed and breakfast in
Florida, but the music, food, architecture and energy
of New Orleans won them over, so they purchased the
beautifully appointed McCarty Park Guest House in the
artsy Bywater section of the city, just five minutes
from the famed French Quarter. The tropical gardens,
in-ground heated swimming pool, outdoor hot tub and
double porches made the 1890s inn with six guest rooms
and two guest cottages simply irresistible. After Monique
worked her decorating magic, the couple held their grand
opening July 4th, 2005. Monique and Glenn have an affinity
for opening businesses on this holiday as a personal
declaration of independence from working for others.
The opening party was a blast, as many of Monique’s
friends and former co-workers were in NOLA for the annual
Essence Music Festival. But one month later, an unexpected,
unwelcomed guest came to visit—Katrina. While
the couple was blessed that their inn did not flood,
the hurricane brought an abrupt stop to tourism before
Akwaaba in the Bayou could get off the ground. Now that
guests can come back to New Orleans and “fall
in love with it all over again,” Akwaaba in the
Bayou welcomes guests for popular New Orleans events
and is open for group stays year-round.
Coming full circle in 2006:
Monique and Glenn purchase the first
inn they ever stayed in
In the spring of 2006, when Monique
was preparing Akwaaba by the Sea for the opening of
a new season, she noticed the real estate agent who
sold them their inn walking up the steps to the Buttonwood
Manor Bed and Breakfast across the street. Her antennas
immediately went up, and she called over for the agent
to stop by before he left the block. Sure enough, the
owners of the Buttonwood were ready to retire and were
motivated sellers. Monique and Glenn had always loved
the inn for sentimental reasons—it was where they
had their first bed and breakfast experience—and
they were always awed by its imposing perch on the oversized
corner lot. Six weeks later, on Memorial Day weekend,
Buttonwood Manor became the fifth inn in the Akwaaba
collection.
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