For more information:
• Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, P.O. Box 100, Perryville, KY 40468, (859) 332-2400

Producer, videographer: Ernie Lee Martin

Teatime

Elmwood Inn

It was a private mansion built in the Greek Revival style—all the rage during that antebellum time. During the Civil War, it was a field hospital inundated by the wounded from the bloody Battle of Perryville. In more genteel later days, it was a school for girls, then the private home of a music teacher. And at the time of Kentucky Life’s visit, it was a bed-and-breakfast known as the Elmwood Inn.

As restored and operated by Shelley and Bruce Richardson, the Elmwood became known regionwide for fine hospitality, including formal teas that featured homemade blends of tea and a lavish spread of accompaniments.

In fact, the teas became so popular that eventually they spawned a whole new business: In more recent years, the Richardsons have been concentrating on importing and blending fine teas, running a successful wholesale tea business, and publishing books documenting teas and tea-growing regions around the world. The tearoom served its last customers in July 2004. Having moved into a house next door, the Richardsons then put the historic Elmwood mansion up for sale in late 2006. It’s located on Fourth Street in Perryville.

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For more information:
• Barbourville Tourism Commission, (606) 545-9674

Producer, videographer: Ernie Lee Martin

Hitting the Bricks

Barbourville park

In Barbourville, community elbow grease has turned an eyesore into a playground. An abandoned brick factory and its waste dump were transformed into a park with picnic facilities, water sports, and even a country store.

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For more information:
• Waveland Museum State Historic Site, 225 Waveland Museum Lane, Lexington, KY 40514, (859) 272-3611

Producer: Donna Ross

Another Historic Home

Waveland

Our second historic house for this episode is Waveland, a state-owned historic site in Fayette County. Daniel Boone Bryan, a nephew of pioneer Daniel Boone, established a farm on the site early in the 19th century, growing tobacco and hemp. In 1847, his son Joseph, who had inherited the land when Bryan died two years earlier, turned it into a plantation with a new Greek Revival house—and slave quarters. After the Civil War, the family turned the place into a horse farm, raising standardbreds and racing them at a public racetrack just across the road.

Today, the track is gone, but visitors can still tour the original house and slave quarters, along with a smokehouse and an icehouse from the period. Our profile of Waveland includes a visit during the holiday season, when the house is dressed up for an 1860s Christmas.

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Producer, videographer: Frank Simkonis

Workin’ on the Railroads

Model trains

Shot at a holiday-time exhibit of model trains at the Kentucky Horse Park outside Lexington, the final segment for this episode captures the romance of the rails. Doug Bagby, a member of the Bluegrass Railroad Club, conducts us around an example of an elaborate miniaturized world.

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