Topo Pino sits on the Maine–New Hampshire border, at the edge of the White Mountains — a place that has always rewarded those who pay attention to it.

In the early 1900s, Janet McKenzie Hill came here with an idea. A culinary pioneer and editor of The Boston Cooking School Magazine, Hill purchased the property, named it Topo Pino, and established a Summer School of Cookery — teaching women to cook seasonally and with care, surrounded by the landscape of the White Mountains.

More than half a century ago, Topo Pino became part of our family. Lucy’s father — “Doc,” a World War II veteran and Princeton graduate — discovered a small advertisement in the back of Yankee Magazine in 1967 and saw something worth preserving.

Doc passed away shortly before Caitlin was born, but the place remained a constant: a family home shaped by summers, gatherings, gardens, meals, and the rhythms of the seasons.

In 2017, we brought the Topo Pino name back to life. What began with hand-poured candles grew into something larger — objects, paper, garden, photography, Field Notes, and ideas for living closely with the seasons.

We thought we were carrying forward a place and a history. Along the way, we began creating something of our own.

We are Lucy and Caitlin — mother and daughter, and the stewards of Topo Pino.