The Lodge at St Edward State Park

St. Edward State Park is an unusual thing: more than 300 acres of lakeside forest, feeling for all the world like a far-flung rural escape, yet situated very much within the greater Seattle metropolitan area. And the Lodge at St. Edward State Park is equally unusual: a one-time seminary designed by an eminent local architect, now renovated and transformed into a historically aware and uniquely atmospheric luxury boutique hotel.

The rooms come decorated with murals based on the original architectural blueprints, as well as nature photographs and furnishings that are a stylistic nod to — and a substantial upgrade from — the building’s monastic past. The rooms are quite literally twice the size of the old quarters, each one combining a pair of seminary students’ bedrooms. And the views are almost uniformly pastoral, looking out into the park’s plentiful green space.

There’s a proper hotel spa, and the on-site activities range from miles of hiking and biking trails to an in-house art gallery. And the common spaces are no less impressive than the rooms, from Father Mulligan’s Heritage Bar and the subterranean Tonsorium Bar, occupying the seminary’s old barbershop, to Cedar + Elm, serving seasonal Pacific Northwest fare in a sunny and grand double-height dining room.