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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - June 2003 by Katherine Tandy Brown Something
to Crow About
But instead of the Civil War spitfire and her long-lost Rhett as hostess and host, vivacious Linda Brousseau and her enterprising Cajun husband, Andre, offer warm greetings to guests who visit for a surprisingly varied number of reasons all year long. Truly a family enterprise, the Old Crow Inn Winery includes a bed and breakfast run by daughter Mignon, a vineyard and winery begun and managed by Andre and daughter Dominique, and artist Linda’s pottery studio, which birthed the family’s cottage industry of candle making. As its façade implies, the home itself is a haven for history buffs. Begun in 1780, the Crow-Barbee House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest stone house west of the Allegheny Mountains. That year, Transylvania University (then Seminary) began in its “old stone kitchen” (now a popular guest-gathering spot, where a ghost once made a brief appearance), moved across town to a building with gun ports for fighting Indians, and finally landed nearby in Lexington in the 1800s. The Brousseaus delight in telling the tales of the six families who’ve lived here, from John Crow, who claimed and improved the property in 1776, to James Wright, killed by Indians before he could move in, to Revolutionary War General Thomas Barbee, a visionary whose younger brothers helped create Centre College and the Kentucky School for the Deaf. In the mid-1900s, owner Mary Adams ran an inn and restaurant here.
By the age of five, all five Brousseau children were making candles. All paid for their own cars and college educations – four at Transy – as the business grew into an $80,000 a year endeavor. And the b’n’b took shape. “We built the entire pottery studio in 90 days but it took two and a half years to renovate the wing of the house the b’n’b is in,” says Brousseau, whose favorite housewarming gift was a box of period-appropriate square-cut nails. “It’s 200 years old. I couldn’t go in and just put up plywood. Sometimes it would take six weeks to find a certain kind of wood. You can’t just run to Lowe’s!” With the renovation complete, all three guest rooms – which date from 1798 to 1810 – now have private baths. Walls in the dwelling are of 24-inch-thick limestone and most rafters and floors beams are cherry, with some of the original wooden pegs are still visible. Thirteen fireplaces will warm the chill right out of your cockles. As a bonus, beams from an old smoke room still emit the luscious aroma of country ham in warm weather. Dominique and Andre work an expanding organic garden for fresh produce to supply the b’n’b and local customers, and country breakfasts can include asparagus or spinach casserole, bacon-cheese muffins, and raspberry cheesecake coffeecake, all cooked by Linda and served on a magnificent 12-foot mahogany dining room table. Reserving ahead of time is vital at this friendly hostelry where Vice President Cheney and his entourage holed up during the pre-election debates in 2000. During the winter holiday season, themed trees adorn every room, and Andre dons period costume to become Thomas Barbee, leading weekend house tours as foundation fundraisers. “If you can, imagine a Cajun with an English accent,” he laughs. Someday, the Broussards would like to stage living history weeks with heritage craft demos, reenactors and costumed interpreters who stay in 1700s character, and are busily writing grants to that end. When the land was still part of Virginia, the old Wilderness Road passed right in front of the splendid home, which sheltered many a wayfarer. Nearly every week these days, a knock on the door brings a Barbee or Crow descendant in search of family roots, Linda says, and the Brousseaus act as a kind of genealogical clearinghouse. “A lot of our b’n’b guests come here for its historic aspect,” Andre explains. “A lot come for its pastoral aspect. It’s quiet. We have no television. We have people come here who are really on edge and after a weekend they don’t want to leave.” Folks who want a bit of entertainment can throw a pot at Linda’s studio, hop next door to the Pioneer Playhouse Dinner Theatre, or walk the few blocks to downtown Danville’s Constitution Square, where Kentucky officially became a state. Then there’s the winery. Started in 2000, the Chateau du Vieux Corbeau (“House of Old Crow”) Vineyard and Winery opened last October. Having immersed themselves in “Grape Growing 101,” Andre and Dominique have established two acres of white and red French-hybrid grapes for wine production and red, white and blue American table grapes for eating. They also grow blackberries, raspberries and strawberries for winemaking. Andre, who is chairman of agritourism for the Kentucky Grape and Wine Council, doesn’t plan to grow all his own grapes. With the wane of tobacco in Kentucky creating the need for alternative cash crops, he says, three dozen farmers already have approached him about supplying wine grapes. In addition to Old Crow’s homegrown Vidal Blanc and Norton-Cynthiana, visitors can also taste a selection of wine from Broad Run Vineyards in Louisville at the Brousseaus’ Danville winery, Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Built of limestone, the spacious structure has an underground grape handling facility and a bright, airy upstairs tasting room with lovely views of the vineyard. The walls are splashed with the colorful paintings of Kentucky artist David Farmer, all of which, like the room’s antiques, are for sale. Thanks to the culinary skills of Linda and oldest son Andre, a classically trained chef and computer wizard, the space can be reserved for small dinners, brunches, workshops and special events, including retreats. And thanks to the family’s non-profit, education-promoting Elements Enterprises Foundation, a raft of people come here to do more than relax and sip fruit of the vine. Annually, field trips bring some 2,000 to 3,000 students, from preschool-age through college and adult ed, to explore history, environmental issues, art, tree identification, pottery making, and organic farming. There’s a 200-year-old flowing spring and limestone house on-site. A cadaver dog, one of a team brought in by the Kentucky Heritage Council to find sites at Camp Nelson and Mill Springs Battlefield, recently located an old slave cemetery. “We have some sea fossils that are 450 million years old,” Linda says, “some even Mammoth Cave doesn’t have…It’s so rewarding when you get that one kid out of 200, and you see that light go on behind his eyes. You never know what’s going to connect.” The 27–acre property has a developing nature trail in the “back 40,” where the quiet is likely to be disrupted only by an occasional tussle between a groundhog and a coyote. More than two dozen species of trees and 35 different birds (identified for the National Audubon Society) grace the land. “The back field is full of wildflowers and native grasses,” Linda adds. “We have deer and wild turkeys. It’s like being in the country yet you’re in town.” Future plans call for a screened pavilion behind the winery, says Linda, where guests “can watch the moon rise through the trees” while sipping Kentucky wine. Find out about special afternoon teas and dinners, book a room, or just read the latest fascinating chapter in the lives of the busy Broussards at www.oldcrowinn.com. “Like Wal-Mart,” Andre Brousseau
laughs, “we’re open 24 hours, seven days a week.” Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2003, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2003, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Driving
up to the Old Crow Inn Winery in Danville is akin to arriving at Tara.
Inside a limestone gate, redbud and dogwood trees paint a pink-and-white
Southern springtime welcome around a circular drive. Suddenly, from
behind an enormous Chinquapin oak, four white, stacked-brick columns
appear, gracing the towering Greek-style portico of a seven-bay, asymmetrical
two-story house grand enough for Miss Scarlett herself.
Enter
owner number six. Fresh out of Clemson with a math degree, Andre moved
his family in 1970 to Danville, where he taught full-time at Centre
and part-time at Eastern Kentucky University, Lexington Community College
and Lindsey Wilson College. For Linda, an artist and current member
of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, he built a pottery studio.
With clients such as Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill and state park
gift shops, Elements Pottery & Crafts took off, and in 1977 Andre
stopped teaching to work with his wife and family at home.