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    Hip Austin Hostel

    World traveler fulfills dream by opening hip new hostel in Austin Victorian mansion

    Shelley Seale
    Oct 18, 2015 | 3:56 pm

    The story of Matt Kepnes' life is the stuff dreams are made of. From world traveler to co-owner of a beautiful new Austin hostel, Kepnes had no idea how his life journey would unfold.

    Growing up in Boston, his family didn't travel much. Kepnes was 23 when he took his first trip overseas — after which he settled into the life of a typical college graduate. He got a job with the standard American "two weeks a year" of vacation time.

    For his first vacation, Kepnes went to Costa Rica. That trip sparked a passion for travel, and he was hooked. However, he was now on the corporate America grind, and didn't know how to get out or travel longer. But in 2005, he went on another vacation to Thailand that changed his life.

    In Chiang Mai, he met five backpackers who were living life on the road, very inexpensively, and Kepnes realized that one didn't need to be rich to travel: that, in fact, long-term travel was often far less expensive than the two-week vacations, and he could find ways of making money on the road.

    Thus, Kepnes began living the dream that haunts so many of us. He quit his cubicle job and, after finishing his MBA degree, set off in July 2006 for an adventure around the world. He started a blog — one of the ways he makes money while traveling — and has become quite well-known as "Nomadic Matt."

    "I've been traveling the world because I realized that I could," Kepnes says. "Traveling wasn't just for the rich. A guy like me could make my way around the world, pretty easily actually. And I could do it for less money than it cost to live at home and go to my boring desk job all day. Once I figured that out, all I wanted to do was explore."

    After six years of traveling solo, Kepnes started feeling like he wanted a better balance in his nomadic life.

    "While floating around the world is great, I started to long for some roots," he says. "2012 was an internal struggle between knowing I was ready to settle in one place and my desire to hold on to my backpacker lifestyle. I never regret the solo travel I’ve done in the past and never felt alone or bored during those years, but what I want from my life now doesn’t involve any more late nights on the backpacker trail."

    Toward the end of that year, Kepnes made New York City his home base and leased his first apartment in years. He still traveled for eight to 10 months out of the year, including to Austin for South by Southwest.

    "I love the vibe (and warmth) of the city. The music, the food, the people. I love everything about Austin. It's a really awesome city that's on the move and changing."

    But it seems that Kepnes is someone who never does anything just a little bit. While he transferred his home base from New York to Austin — "I want a city without winter with more access to the outdoors" — he took it a step further. With his friend Brent Underwood as a business partner, Nomadic Matt opened a hostel in Austin.

    HK Austin, located in a historic 1892 Victorian mansion on the thriving east side, is a co-living space with a creative and collaborative environment. "After having stayed in probably close to a thousand hostels since I started traveling, I’ve seen what makes a good (and bad) hostel … and I’ve also seen what makes for a truly mind-blowing one," Kepnes says. "I’ve been wanting to help make a world-class hostel that gives travelers an amazing experience and a good night’s sleep for years."

    Underwood previously ran a hostel in Brooklyn for three years and made the perfect business partner. He is also a traveler, having experienced many hostels in 20 different countries. "I fell in love with the atmosphere and energy within a hostel and really wanted to recreate it back home," says Underwood. "I think the most important part of a hostel is fostering an atmosphere where everyone is comfortable and able to enjoy the city they are visiting."

    Opened in August 2015, HK Austin offers two six-bed dorm rooms and a private double room, all with brand-new comfy mattresses and access to amazing showers. The bunk rooms go for $34 per person per night, while the private room is an inexpensive $64 per night total. The HK space features a beautiful old-fashioned porch, a large indoor common space, Wi-Fi, laundry facilities, a modern kitchen, on-site secured parking, and events for guests.

    "I love fulfilling dreams of mine and this has been a 10-year-long dream that has finally come to fruition," says Kepnes. "I'm also excited to create something psychical that contributes to the traveling community. I'm a lover of hostels and travelers, so this is a passion project for me."

    But don't think that Nomadic Matt is going to give up his vagabonding lifestyle anytime soon. "I'll spend a few months in Austin, but I'm not quitting traveling anytime soon. I'm hosting a group tour in Europe next week, I'll be traveling in Southeast Asia in November, and in the Philippines over Christmas."

    HK Austin is located in the heart of East Austin.

    HK Austin hostel
    Photo courtesy of HK Austin/Brent Underwood
    HK Austin is located in the heart of East Austin.
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    Preservation efforts

    South Texas mission makes list of America’s most endangered historic places

    Associated Press
    May 21, 2026 | 4:00 pm
    Ruidosa Church
    Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church
    El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, Texas is considered an endangered place.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic South Texas mission joins the Stonewall National Monument, the President's House Site, and the Women's Rights National Historic Park among 11 sites on this year's annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

    The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, May 20, marks America's 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

    “We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places ... that not all Americans routinely think about," Quillen told The Associated Press.

    The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

    At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas, and President's House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

    “We want to save these places," Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important."

    For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

    The 11 sites are:

    Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus
    The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property. (The nonprofit has posted an official statement and more information about the border wall here.) Ruidosa is in far west Texas, roughly 35 miles northwest of Presidio and 46 miles southwest of Marfa, near the rugged Chinati Mountains.

    El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus A historic photograph of El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus.Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

    Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel
    The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

    Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center
    Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

    California: Angel Island Immigration Station
    It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

    Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House
    Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

    Michigan: Detroit Association of Women's Clubs
    Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

    New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape
    The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

    Seneca Falls, New York: Women's Rights National Historical Park
    The park tells the story of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women's rights.

    New York: Stonewall National Monument
    The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag's removal at the Manhattan site.

    After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

    Philadelphia: The President's House Site
    The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

    Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield
    The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.

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