General Store & Cooking School
A number of years ago, in a formerly sleepy village in Columbia County, NY, Matthew White jumpstarted a revitalization effort with his launch of the Hillsdale General Store, a country lifestyle emporium. Passionate about historic preservation, he set his sights on a faltering video shop – a former general store in 1855 – which he transformed by restoring the simple structure and filling it with a curated assortment of high and low, new and old. The HGS building now also houses a beloved farm-to-table eatery (CrossRoads Food Shop), a contemporary art gallery (LABSpace), an artisanal letterpress shop (Foxy & Winston), and White Webb Finds, the designers’ own shop for new and vintage discoveries for sophisticated country living.
Bitten by the restoration bug, Matthew didn’t have to look too far for his next project. Right across the street was a down-on-her-luck Victorian with a crumbling porch and a warren of rooms. After his serious makeover, she is now pretty in pink and houses a stylish kitchen store called HGS Home Chef. In addition to its cookware showrooms, it has two beautiful kitchens and a dining room where James Beard award-winning chefs and noted cookbook authors routinely teach an endless assortment of cooking classes.
Photo credit: Art Gray