One Night in Kohler’s Old Company Town, Now a Luxury Resort and Spa

Welcome to One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.

In the early 1900s, Walter J. Kohler, president (and son of the founder) of the namesake manufacturing company, commissioned the Olmsted Brothers—a firm established by the sons of prolific landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted—with developing a planned community for Kohler Co. in Wisconsin’s Sheboygan County. One of the earliest resulting buildings in the village was a dormitory for single, male European immigrants who staffed the factory, complete with a pub, barbershop, and bowling alley, educational spaces where inhabitants were offered English lessons, plus a social calendar that encouraged community get-togethers over picnics, concerts, and sporting events.

In 1981, the Kohler family turned the former workers’ quarters into a hotel called The American Club, now part of a larger vacation destination with multiple lodging options, golf courses, restaurants, and a five-star spa. True to Kohler’s plumbing legacy, the spa is known for hydrotherapy and offers treatments that showcase the company’s latest designs and products. For design enthusiasts, visiting the spa can check off two boxes: self-care and shopping for your next home renovation. This particularly interesting marriage of offerings was perfect for my friend Alexis, a spa aficionado who recently moved to Chicago—and, I should mention, is a biomedical engineer with a PhD from Johns Hopkins, who specializes in skin and immunity. In early January, she asked if I was free to check out the facility just two-and-a-half hours north of her new home. I reached out to Kohler Waters Spa about whether they’d host a journalist visit, and they invited us for a one-night stay with two complimentary hydrotherapy treatments of our choice. Needless to say, I was going to be in good hands.

Friday

1:30 pm: We exit I-43 and drive along the semifrozen Sheboygan River, floating chunks of ice clinging to the riverbed. We pull into the Blackwolf Run Restaurant parking lot and step out, immediately catching the inviting whiff of a wood-burning fireplace. We walk past some slender birches toward the restaurant.

We are seated across from the fireplace next to a window overlooking a golf course and picturesque ice-skating rink, where children glide around in delight. Our servers greet us with tea mugs, freshly heated and warm to the touch. We eat roasted veggies and pesto-crusted mahi-mahi with homemade caraway sourdough on the side. An antler chandelier hangs above us while classics by Joni Mitchell and other Americana singer-songwriters softly play in the background, giving the whole experience a woodsy frontiersman feel.

As we wrap up our meal, we ask our servers about drink recommendations for dinner that evening. With a chuckle, they tell us about Wisconsin’s version of the old-fashioned cocktail, which features the typical muddled sugar and bitters, but with brandy and a surprise splash of Sierra Mist. It sounds like a genuine must-try to me.

3 p.m.: We drive a mile or so to The American Club for check-in. For a roughly five-square-mile town, Kohler requires a considerable amount of driving, with each of its facilities about a mile apart. There’s a free shuttle for guests to get from place to place, but right now, we have all of our belongings.

The receptionist informs us we are staying at the neighboring Carriage House, which is the preferred location for those with spa reservations, since it shares a building. I am momentarily wistful that we have to leave the immaculate American Club lobby, with its rich wood carpentry, thick, red floral rugs, and tufts of evergreen garland. I feel instantly better when I’m told we’ll be returning later for our dinner reservation at The Wisconsin Room, which is located just off the lobby through what appears to be a fire-lit library and reading room, complete with a baby grand piano.

3:30 p.m.: It turns out I had nothing to lament. The Carriage House is just as inviting, with a fire roaring inside its elegant lobby. The decor is slightly more midcentury modern here, though a handsome wooden mantel frames the fireplace and ties in the classic American motifs from next door. Just off the lobby is a spacious breakfast nook with black-and-white checkered tile. We’re told a full continental breakfast will be served there starting at 6 a.m.

The bellhop wheels our things and shows us to our room. Right away, I amuse myself with the skylight shade just inside the room’s entryway, a novel detail that tickles my intrigue for both its practicality and sophistication. The Carriage House feels like a medieval castle, our room the queen’s sleeping quarters. Part of turndown service, I learn, is closing the skylight shade before bed. So of course, I have to try it myself.

Our room features Kohler’s latest fixtures, all in a French Gold finish, and even includes a third sink—two in the bathroom and one in the main area—so that one guest can refresh themselves while the other is soaking in the spacious tub. Speaking of the tub, Alexis is thrilled by the Diptyque products lining it.

4 p.m.: She has some work to do, so I head to the nearby Kohler Design Center, a public showroom housed in a former recreation hall for the company town’s residents. Upon first sight, the well-lit, 36,000-square-foot building feels like a collaboration between Ikea and Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, but for adults with refined taste. Inside, the amicable product consultants orient me with the center’s layout. They encourage me to start on the lower floor, where visitors can walk through relics of Kohler family history. I linger at the love letters between Herbert Vollrath Kohler, another son of Kohler’s founder, and his wife, Ruth DeYoung, who was a successful journalist and women’s editor of the Chicago Tribune when the couple got married in 1937. (Their union took place ten years after Kohler began releasing bath and kitchen fixtures in now iconic colorways, some of which were revived from the archive last year as part of an exclusive collection.)

I spend some time on the third-floor mezzanine, which features a 20-design showroom of kitchen and bathroom layouts by partner creators like Ziling Wang, Pushpa Kumari, and Justina Blakeney. The main level has a sales floor for Kohler’s inventory—including, yes, the brand’s latest smart toilet model, Numi 2.0, which opens via motion sensor, plays music, and triggers an automatic splash guard when flushing.

5 p.m.: It’s time for the main event: spa check-in. Alexis and I are greeted by an upbeat receptionist holding a tray of ashwagandha-passionflower tea and warm towels. We sit in the all-white lobby, feeling calm thanks to its vibey mood lighting, while the staff prepares. Minutes later, we follow them through a tour of the spa. As we walk past the communal pool, with its splashing waterfall and serene overhead fresco, I’m starting to feel more and more like we’re entering a Roman bathhouse.

On our way to the treatment rooms, our guide notes the sauna and steam rooms (both heated to 120 degrees Fahrenheit), the 65-degree cold plunge, and 104-degree whirlpool. Remembering we have 7 p.m. dinner reservations right after our 50-minute treatments, Alexis and I glance at each other and telepathically communicate what the other already knows: we’re going to need more time. We ask the receptionist if we can push our dinner reservations back a few hours so we can properly (and leisurely) cycle through the spa facilities. We’re told yes, and that doing so will help with our lymphatic systems and blood flow. These benefits seem totally worth putting off the satisfaction of a steak dinner.

5:30 p.m.: We are ushered to our respective treatment rooms. I get the Fire and Ice treatment, a signature Kohler offering developed by Haley, one of the spa’s estheticians, apparently designed to stimulate the immune system and improve metabolism. It involves lying below a custom Kohler Vichy shower (imagine a long metal bar with five or six showerheads) and rinsing hot water over the skin while being massaged with a combination of exfoliation treatments and peppermint-infused ice. I also receive a carrot-oil facial, which is divine. I feel a little like the Tin Man when he first enters Emerald City, but my expert esthetician keeps me engaged with stories about the history of hydrotherapy. Apparently, the cryptic Dr. Kellogg, who both popularized cornflakes cereal and managed the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, became an early American advocate for hydrotherapy after observing animals sit in freezing-cold water for minutes at a time and speculating on the ways that temperature changes can promote health.

6:30 p.m.: My esthetician shows me the rest of the treatment rooms, each with a different tub from Kohler’s product line. I can’t wait to come back one day and try the Infinity Stillness bath, which has therapeutic lights and a cascading waterfall that fills up from the bottom. In the Acoustic Room, a tub from Kohler’s VibrAcoustic line plays music you can hear underwater. The River Room features a tub that is big enough for two people. 

My friend and I luxuriate in the common area baths, drying ourselves as needed with towels that feel like literal clouds. We cycle through the hot tub–sauna–steam room–cold plunge regimen about three times.

A receptionist pops in to kindly remind us of our 9 p.m. dinner reservation in 30 minutes, so we snap to it. We shower, dress, and head outside, walking past snowy pines lit with so many twinkling lights it’s like they’ve been dipped in glitter. We enter The Wisconsin Room, where my Wisconsin-style old-fashioned awaits.

9 p.m.: Plot twist—I don’t get the Wisconsin-style old-fashioned. Another menu item catches my eye, a similar libation known to Kohler villagers as A Cow and 14 Chickens. It’s a flavorful take on the 0ld-fashioned made with brandy, cherry juice, and rhubarb bitters. I recognize the origin of its name from my earlier conversation with the servers at lunch. They told me that the first Kohler bathtub ever "sold" (bartered) went for the price of 14 chickens and a single cow. As they described it, the "tub" was just a pig-feeding trough with legs—a humble reminder that even the most successful companies start small. I sip the tart, syrupy cocktail and feel inspired. Maybe I could run a $16.2 billion family business one day, I muse, the brandy emboldening my ego.

Saturday

6:30 a.m.: I wake up and meditate in the tub. (I normally meditate in bed every morning, but I definitely would’ve overslept had I tried to do so in the warm down comforter and thickest, coziest duvet I’ve ever felt.) About 10 minutes into my meditation, I hear my friend exclaim, "It’s snowy!" I rush to the windows like a child and see that outside, white-dusted pines border a residential cul-de-sac lined with Cape Cod-style homes. They look, in the sparkly winter morning, like gingerbread houses. Later, we’ll learn from a shuttle bus driver that the Kohler family sold homes to its employees through the nonprofit Kohler Building and Loan Association, a form of corporate welfare that was, at times, controversial, but implemented to encourage worker loyalty. The housing program spanned from 1916 to the 1960s, and the variety of homes in Kohler reflect the evolving styles during that time frame.

7:15 a.m.: I grab fruit from the continental breakfast and walk the snowy three quarters of a mile to the gym, declining the hotel’s complimentary shuttle. The fresh powder crunches under my sneakers.

At the gym, I do a quick weightlifting session. There are several weight racks and even heel wedges to help with squat mobility. (Of Destination Kohler’s many five-star details, this is one of my favorites.) Through a window, I notice the lap pool. Still early, the water is motionless. The crisp, white tile and winter-green accents are calming. I could stay here forever.

9 a.m.: I take the complementary three-minute shuttle to Yoga On The Lake, a friendly boutique yoga studio within the Kohler village. I meet back up with Alexis, and we enjoy a 60-minute vinyasa class. After, as we’re putting our shoes on, we bump into one of our estheticians and a friendly product consultant from the design studio. They both say hello and give us a sincere hug before we head out.

Before the shuttle returns to bring us back to The Carriage House for checkout, I pop into the studio’s bathroom to use the Eir smart toilet, a sophisticated white sculpture with a Sunrise Gold accent band on the rim. It has a seat warmer, a night-light and a choose-your-own-adventure bidet function, the likes of which made quite a splash upon their unveiling at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show. You can select the "spiral" water pattern or "massage." I choose "spiral." 

After all, when in Rome, it’s best to loo as the Romans loo.

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Top image: Courtesy Kohler Waters Spa

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