By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Hays’ newer downtown business has now opened, offering day spa services in downtown Hays from a historic location.
Owners Caroline Beilman and Vanessa Schumacher consider the Brickhouse Day Spa, 706 Main, to be a welcome addition to the downtown area, bringing a variety of beauty and health services to the downtown area.
“I worked on both the medical side and the day spa side,” Beilman said. “I really wanted an environment where I could still pamper people, but give them the results I got from working medically.”
The location currently offers facials, massages, and skin treatments provided by Beilman and a small staff including two licensed cosmologists and a massage therapist, as well as nails, pedicures, and eyelashes.
“I think that’s a big part of it,” Beilman said. “To have a very good staff. And we have a small staff, which is also good, because it makes the environment very relaxing.
“It’s nice and relaxing here, it’s never really busy or crazy,” she added. “And I think that’s what people want in a spa environment.”
They also offer hydrotherapy on site, which she says complements their other services.
“It really relaxes you,” Beilman said. “It’s not like being in a hot tub – it’s more of a thermal message.”
They also have steam showers on site.
“It’s about bringing a quality spa to the Hays area,” said Schumacher.
“A lot of places where you’re going to get a facial or a massage or whatever, you have to add suction cups or hot stones, or whatever, you have to add all of those things,” said Beilman. . “Compared to here… whatever they need that will benefit them to come out of here feeling better will be included in the treatment.”
She said that personalized treatment enables clients to receive services that work for them.
“What works for Sally may not work for Sarah, because everyone’s skin is different,” Beilman said. “That’s why my main passion is skin care and skin care. It’s the driving force behind it.”
She said that with her own location, she is not locked into a particular product, but can instead do a skin scan and use their services to create positive results.
“It’s fun going to be pampered, but it’s also nice to get results,” Beilman said.
While the business was a longtime dream for owners, it took the pandemic to make the spa a reality.
“We kind of started joking about having this dream of opening something like this together,” Schumacher said, as she and Beilman were stuck in a 14-day quarantine.
Meanwhile, she asked Beilman about a building in downtown Hays that might be of interest to her if this were to happen.
She identified Hill’s building.
“So she went back to work and I started making phone calls,” Schumacher said.
In the end, she would contact the owner and he agreed to sell the building, one of the few empty spaces available downtown.
“It’s pretty funny to think about it now,” said Schumacher. “I can only imagine getting that phone call from me.”
With a deed in hand and the realization that their dream could come true, they began work to revitalize the historic building, built in 1926.
“It was originally the first take-out grocery store when Hill built it,” Schumacher said.
She said their research indicated it remained a grocery store for around 20 years, before becoming home to several cafes and ultimately a screen printing workshop, which had closed in recent years.
“It took a lot of digging to find the historical information on this,” Schumacher said.
During the renovation, the owners – along with their loved ones – worked to create a modern space that would meet the needs of the business.
“They really are the brains behind it all,” said Schumacher, “as well as our designer, Emily Knowles of Emily Knowles Design. She came up with the concept and made the space work for us.”
During the early stages of the renovation, the interior brick stood out, so they pushed Knowles to incorporate it into the design.
It would also change the identity of the company.
“We asked Emily to rethink everything so that we could keep the brick exposed,” said Schumacher. “And we renamed ourselves because that wasn’t the original name.”
“We got everything we wanted and it all fits together perfectly,” Beilman said.
Being part of the downtown community is also part of the company’s identity, and Schumacher said the response so far has been incredible.
“As a member of the Bricks, we’re part of this really cool community of business owners and everyone has been so nice and so nice,” she said. “It was a burst of kindness and positivity.”
The Brickhouse Day Spa is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday, Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To learn more about the spa, visit their website brickhousedayspa.com
They also maintain a presence on social media, including Facebook.
