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History and Beauty
Lexington, Kentucky, and The Gratz Park Inn
By Patti Nickell
is located. Walk into the cozy lobby, with its rose-colored wall fabrics, natural wood floors, period furnishings, fireplace and colorful floral arrangements, and you might imagine yourself in the sitting room of an elegant mansion.
You would certainly never guess that this beautiful inn once housed the first medical clinic west of the Alleghenies, and that in the early 1900s, the inn's laundry room was the county morgue. It was converted to an inn in 1987 and completely restored in 19th-century style to exemplify the Southern grace and charm for which Lexington is known.
The Gratz Park Inn's 44 guest rooms provide a peaceful retreat for discriminating guests who are in town for the spring and fall Thoroughbred racing seasons or the summer yearling sales at Keeneland. Each room is individually decorated with antique reproduction furniture, including mahogany four-poster beds in most rooms and paintings showcasing regional artists.
Two large VIP suites – the Governor's Suite and Presidential Suite – directly across the corridor from each other are mirror images except that one is designed to appeal to ladies (painted vivid daffodil yellow) and the other is decidedly masculine (in shades of hunter and moss green). Among the amenities offered in all the rooms and suites are Gilchrist & Soames toiletries, fresh flowers and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies placed by the bed each night at turndown.
After a day spent touring Ashland, the palatial estate of Henry Clay; the painstakingly restored Mary Todd Lincoln House; or Waveland, an antebellum plantation built by an ancestor of Daniel Boone, there is no better place to relax over a traditional Kentucky mint julep than the inn's cozy bar. With lots of dark wood paneling and a fireplace that is always lit in the winter, the bar resembles an English gentlemen's club.