I arrived at the WEoodford Reserve Distillery about a half an hour early today for the Academy. Chris was already there and invited me to walk up to see the spring on the other side of the creek. We crossed the iron foot bridge and climbed the 150 year old limestone stairway to see where Oscar Pepper and James Crow got the water to make their whiskey. While up there we decided to climb on up to the Pepper house and take a look. I had never been up there before and did want to see the house so I am glad I made the long climb.
The house was like many other old Kentucky farmhouses - it had a log cabin core and many additions added to the structure over the next 200 years. It is in poor condition. It has been 4 years since tenent lived in the house and Brown-Forman would like to preserve it. There is just one problem - what do they do with it after they sink hundreds of thousands dollars into the structure.
They thought maybe a bed and breakfast, but that would involve additional security and employees to run the place and Brown-Forman really does not want to be in the bed and breakfast business. Using it for meetings would mean creating a better access to the distillery. Those stairs are steep and many of the stones are cracked and loose. They would hate to have to build a bridge across the creek for vehicle access and in bad weather, even an improved stari up that steep hill could be hazardous.
Anybody have any sugestions as to what to do with an old farmhouse?