Step inside this 1850s Gothic Revival bed and breakfast with 10 beds and nine bathrooms in St. Matthews

St. Matthews is home to several important and historic Jefferson County properties. One such home is an 8,400-square-foot, yellow and green Gothic Revival-style home at 401 S. Hubbards Lane. The 10-bedroom, nine-bathroom county landmark was built in 1853 and is listed National Register of Historic Places. Today it is known as the Inn in Woodhavena bed and breakfast owned by Mark Lansing and Jeremy Couture.

Looking for stable seasons

Lansing and Couture had been living in Florida for almost two decades when the northern residents decided it was time to move a little closer to home.

“We both grew up in extreme seasons,” Couture said, “so we were looking for moderate seasons.”

The couple considered moving to Chattanooga, Asheville and Lexington before falling in love with Louisville.

“We chose Louisville, and then we found this house,” Couture said of the property built by a prominent Kentucky farmer named Theodore Brown.

“He built this house in the Gothic style, which was quite rare in America in the 1850s,” Couture explains. “The style was typically reserved for churches, so this is one of probably only a dozen Gothic houses built in this style in the United States in the 1850s, (and) it is probably the best preserved of all the houses still standing stand up.”

Preserving a piece of history

In its 171-year history, the house has not seen many hands. Lansing and Couture are only the fifth owners, and they have done everything they can to maintain the historic integrity while creating practical spaces for guests to enjoy.

The house still has the original floor, grand staircase, plaster beams and roses, to name a few. The windows are also in their original stained glass condition.

“We’re fortunate that we still have all the original shutters,” Couture said, adding that it involved quite a bit of restoration work. “We removed all the shutters, sanded them… and put them back together so they function.”

He and Lansing also took razor blades to the windows to scrape off numerous layers of paint, allowing every first-floor window to open for the first time in more than 50 years.

“The house itself is just an incredible piece of architecture,” Couture added, explaining that wooden pins and beams were used in the walls instead of steel. “The result is that the entire house expands and contracts at the same rate due to temperature changes, meaning the integrity of the house is never compromised. As a result, we have no cracks in our walls due to house settling.”

With such a solid foundation, no major structural changes were needed to the house. Many of the changes Couture and Lansing made, such as removing the pink wallpaper in the dining room, were aesthetic changes to better accommodate their guests.

“Our goal is to modernize it without modernizing,” Couture said, “to keep it historic but functional and comfortable, and to make it more gender neutral.”

Better bed and breakfast

Other changes to the dining room included installing a darker, matching wallpaper; hanging framed vintage hunting photos; with a darker chandelier; and paint the ceiling.

“We applied a semi-gloss to the beams, but a flat color with the same color on the inside of the drawer, so it shows differentiation without having an additional color,” explains Couture. “We really try to take into account all the details we put into the house.”

The dining room is one of many common areas where guests can gather when not spending time in one of the eight guest rooms. This includes four in the main house; three in the carriage house, also built in 1853; and one in the cottage, the third building on the property which was built in 1998 in the style of the main house and coach house.

Couture and Lansing have worked on several projects in the three buildings since purchasing the property nearly four years ago. There is still a little more to do, but they are happy with how far they have come and are happy to share this with everyone who comes through their doors.

“When you own an old house like that, you don’t really own it — you’re more of a caretaker until the next person comes along and loves it,” Couture said. “It just gives us a good feeling to make the house shine again. … Mark (and I) have had to test boundaries and patience more than once to get things done, (and) it hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been worth it.”

Do you know a house that would make a great House of the Week? Email writer Lennie Omalza at [email protected] or Lifestyle Editor Kathryn Gregory at [email protected].

nuts and bolts

Owners: Mark Lansing and Jeremy Couture, the property’s innkeepers.

At home: This 10-bedroom, nine-bathroom, 8,400-square-foot Gothic Revival-style home in St. Matthews was built in 1853.

Distinctive elements: Masonry of three bays, common brick bond; projecting central bay with gable with inner nave and a bay window; recessed entrance with Tudor arch and label molding; first floor openings with quatrefoil tracery; the second floor and side windows have tracery with quatrefoil motif and label molding above; two interior chimneys with a quatrefoil shape; a chimney with a cloverleaf; single-storey verandas, supported by chamfered posts with Tudor arches and a balustrade connecting the posts and the balcony above; stone water table; One and a half storey coach house with center facade decorated with drip edge, center passage with round arch and brick chimney on the inside; octagonal dome in the center of the roof; the third building on the built site is a wooden slatted cottage built in 1998 in the style of the main house and coach house; walls are of horsehair plaster and lathe; core walls are timber mortise and beam, with locally made brick on the outside; two original staircases to the second floor, including one spiral staircase; 3 meter long doors; 14 foot ceilings; nine fireplaces (five working); original 96-inch stained glass windows with original shutters; original, 171-year-old wood floors; full basement with brick floors, brick arches and 8-foot ceilings; nearly 2,500 square feet of outdoor decks, porches and patios; a piece of land of half an acre.

Applause! Applause! Jeremy Couture would like to thank Josh Suiter of the St. Matthews Chamber of Commerce for referrals; Rob Price at Valley Maintenance; all the people who help maintain and operate the house and the B&B on a daily basis, especially Judith Beach, Sara Salazar, her husband Julio and Jill O’Hare; also Ron Jolly, Louis Straub and the Independence Bank team; and last but not least his partner Mark Lansing.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Inside the 1850s Gothic Revival Inn at Woodhaven in St. Matthews