The state of Pennsylvania is considered the birthplace of America, as it’s where the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence were debated, drafted, and signed, meaning it’s only natural that it’s filled with rich (and often overlooked) Black history.
From the Harriet Tubman Memorial Statue in Bristol, Pennsylvania, along the edge of the Delaware River, to Bethel A.M.E Church, nestled in the heart of Amish Country, where visitors can attend the “Living the Experience” event for a firsthand glimpse into the City of Lancaster’s involvement in the Underground Railroad, and Dennis Farm, initially settled by the family of Prince Perkins, free African Americans who moved to Pennsylvania’s northeastern region from Connecticut in 1973, the deep (and often sinister) history of Black people is alive and well in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
It’s imperative to look back to advance, which is precisely what the founders of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns are doing with their various locations in the U.S., and in this case, their establishments located in the Pennsylvania locations of Philadelphia and the Poconos Mountains.
“For a long time, our community didn’t really go to bed and breakfasts because most of them were … in the countryside, in areas where we don’t typically live and maybe not even travel,” Monique Greenwood, the co-owner of Awkwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns alongside her husband, Glenn Pogue, told Blavity in an interview.
The couple opened the business after falling in love with inns following their first stay at a bed and breakfast during the early 1990s.
Greenwood continued, “We opened our first location 30 years ago in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and Brooklyn is where we are. And so now we had that exposure. We also opened in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, so we were in major cities, whereas most B&B’s are in small towns. And so I think there was a new awareness. I would also say that Airbnb came into the marketplace kind of a disruptor, but it did introduce the entire travel population to a different way to stay. So it wasn’t only about hotels anymore, and so I think that also put the traditional bed and breakfast on the map within our community as well.”
More than just a name
From its inception 30 years ago, Awkwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns intentionally curated a safe space, a home away from home for people of color, Greenwood said before explaining that Awkwaaba is a Ghanaian word that means welcome.
“I purposely decorated it with a blend of Victoriana and Africana, if you will,” Greenwood revealed. “We have lots of touches from the continent throughout the space built in 1860, so I know that it has always reflected our community in its decor, and we’ve always been celebratory of our guests. … Even our breakfast that we serve has Southern flavor, if you will. We can do chicken and waffles, and we can do grits and those kinds of things. So, you know, we kind of created a niche for ourselves 30 years ago, and then, as I said, as we started to expand, we opened in other cities.”
Taking up space in the Poconos Mountains
Continued love and commitment to culture led Awkwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns to the Poconos 13 years ago, and, as they say, the rest is history.
Greenwood shared that they were approached by a man who had attended a spiritual retreat at what was known previously as the Hillside Manor, located on Frutchey Road in Marshalls Creek, Pennsylvania. The property’s significance in the history of the Poconos Mountains includes being a sanctuary for Black and Jewish guests during a time when the doors of many establishments weren’t welcoming to those communities.
“At the time, [Hillside Manor was] the oldest continually operating Black-owned resort in the country. He would go every year, and this particular year, when he went, he could see that they appeared to be in trouble,” Greenwood reflected. “Things, just maintenance-wise, things looked a little tattered. He spoke with the owner, who was Sonny, the son of the founders, Judge Murray and his wife, and then he confided that yes, they were in trouble financially and that the banks were looking to foreclose, and this brother didn’t want to see that happen.”
The man, a Wharton School of Business MBA graduate, was looking to compile a team of investors to save Hillside Manor and keep it within the Black community. Hence, he booked a stay at the Awkwaaba Brooklyn location to pitch the idea to Greenwood and Pogue.
The story moved Greenwood, but not enough to think about investing, as she felt stretched at the time. So he asked if the Awkwaaba team would lend their “know-how” as a form of sweat equity.
“He said, ‘You’ll be the managing partner,'” Greenwood explained. “And I said, ‘Oh, well, that I can do.’ And in the process of doing my due diligence for that, because we had a meeting the next week, I told my friend and next-door neighbor about it.”
After reviewing comparable properties on the market to the historic Hillside Manor, Greenwood said she got a hot flash and felt as if it was meant for her. But just because the feeling washed over her doesn’t mean making it the place it is today was an easy feat.
Overcoming challenges
After having to look at the property from the windows because the realtor wouldn’t show it to her without first seeing her bank records, which she knew at the time would be a dealbreaker, Greenwood ultimately went on to connect with someone who knew the realtor, thus landing her an appointment to see it up close and personal.
“It is in Wayne County, which is part of the Poconos. My town is called Bethany, and the estate used to belong to the founders of the Woolworth company. So the Five and Dime Woolworths, and, you know, it was quite significant. It is still quite significant to know that there was a time when me and my mom, and my grandmom and her mom could not sit at the counter at Woolworths. And Woolworth’s lunch counter is really the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement,” Greenwood shared. “When the students down in North Carolina, A&T did sit-ins, staged a sit-in at the counter at Woolworths, and that created the lunch counter boycotts all across the country.”
She added, “It’s not lost on me, and I remind my guests too that they are, you know, we’re all up in a mansion where the Woolworths wouldn’t allow us to sit at their counter. So this shows some progress. … It’s ours now, and we feel very proud of that fact.”
The Awkwaaba Bed and Breakfast Inn Poconos location is a 25,000-square-foot mansion with a separate 10,000-square-foot recreational facility on 22 acres. The property is home to English gardens, fire pits, walking paths, tennis courts, and basketball courts.
“Our rec center has an in-ground heat, Olympic-sized pool, huge gym, and basically what we do every day is create a space where it almost feels like a familiar reunion because folks come, many times, as strangers, and they certainly leave as friends,” Greenwood gleamed.
Reflecting on her proudest moment of it all
In a town composed of fewer than 1% of people of any color, Greenwood has a firsthand account of what it means to enter markets that weren’t occupied by people who looked like her.
“I kind of knew that it would be important for the locals to know who we are, who I am, coming into their community, and know that I’m there to increase, and I’m there to add to quality of life and all of those things,” she concluded. “The first thing we did is we had a big open house with, you know, live band playing and food and just lots of joy, and invited everybody in the town to come up and take a tour and see what we had done. So I think that was helpful.”
“I’m most proud when I stand back, and I look out over the whole estate, and I see Black folks playing tennis, and I see somebody walking the paths, and I see somebody at the firepit smoking a cigar and having a brandy, and then I see the women on the balcony, just coming out of the spa in their robes, and I see people coming from the pool. … I can’t even describe what that feels like to have a space like this and create a space like this for those kinds of memories to be created,” Greenwood commented. “It’s my paycheck. That’s what I live for.”
