It's amazing how an overnight sleeping accommodation can be anything from a KOA campground to a swank hotel to an old time inn. I traveled to Brandenburg, Meade County Kentucky, to stay at Doe Run Inn, which was originally built as a mill in 1790-two years before Kentucky became a state. Doe Run Inn has a restaurant too and it is situated on a pretty spring-fed creek.
Doe Run Inn is a three-story, two-part building made of native limestone. The taller and older section was completed in 1790 and the lower section was completed by 1821. It was first called Stevenson's Mill and had to compete with over a half dozen other mills on Doe Run Creek.
The structure eventually saw service as a barn, and then by 1900 was reborn as Sulfur Wells Hotel where folks came for the healing properties of the sulfur water. By 1947 new owners found a winning combination of traditional restaurant and hotel and called it Doe Run Hotel. Curtis and Lucille Brown started a line of family ownership in 1958 that continues today with the grand niece of Lucille Brown-Cherie and Ken Whitman.
When I arrived at Doe Run Inn, I bypassed the Sunday buffet traffic, drawn to the stream which flows over a low falls and under a footbridge. On the other grassy side there are benches for peaceful contemplation and that is exactly how I spent a half hour. Eventually I wandered inside to check in and sit down in the screened porch in back for some hearty country food. I managed to eat four plates of the all-you-can-eat buffet.
Walking inside the inn is a very sensorial experience with old hand-hewn beams, 24-inch thick stonewall window ledges and plenty of antiques throughout the halls and rooms. The downstairs lobby utilizes a number of relics from the mill days as functional furniture. The couch end tables were once reduction roller stands and the main wooden counter served to sift flour. The center wooden coffee table was the mill wheel cover. Downstairs, where there are many more dining tables, one can see the plume and gears for the mill operation which did not have an exterior water wheel.
After dinner I hiked to see the upper falls, which is a bit higher than the little falls by the inn. I also walked to the lower falls, which is impressive, cascading perhaps some 20 feet or more. This lower falls was an electrical power station in years gone by. Blue herons took flight from sleepy waters and I returned to finish the evening rocking on the outdoor guest porch, watching hummingbirds zoom to and from hanging feeders. This is the one single thing I most enjoyed at Doe Run Inn-the quiet ambiance, stream gurgling in the background, water catching bits of sunlight.
A remodeling in 1991 brought recycled log cabin walls to an extension to the 1790 stone section. Inside, part of that area houses a hallway with restrooms; the hallway shows off historic framed photos. Back off the parking lot is another log structure which dates to 1860; the Browns lived there for 26 years. Doe Run Inn has plenty of modern conveniences with TV and VCR downstairs, wireless high speed Internet and bathrooms in most of the 11 rooms. They operate all year except Dec. 24 and 25. Contact Ken and Cherie for questions and reservations at (270) 422-2982. Or visit them online at www.doeruninn.com.
Enjoy the changing season this September in your drives through beautiful Kentucky. Be happy and take a few day trips to somewhere new.
To get there
To get to Doe Run Inn from Lexington, you can take Interstate 64 West to exit 19A to the Gene Snyder Freeway. Follow the highway for 25 miles take the exit toward Fort Knox. Turn left on the Dixie Highway. After nearly 13 miles, turn right at the traffic light at Kentucky Hwy 1638. After nine miles, take a left at Kentucky Hwy 448. Drive south for 1.3 miles and look for the sign at Coleman Lane to Doe Run Inn Road. The drive should be about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Doe Run Inn is located at 500 Doe Run Hotel Road, Brandenburg, KY, 40108.