TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/974613
nyone who visits Kentucky soon learns that Kentuckians are proud people. Proud of their history and their culture; their horses, bourbon and basketball. So when the opportunity arose last summer for four born-and-bred Kentuckians to purchase one of the area's most recognizable--albeit most mysterious--landmarks and throw it wide open to the public, they were only doing what came naturally to them when they jumped at the chance. That landmark is The Kentucky Castle, which sits just off Versailles Road about four miles from Keeneland near the Woodford/Fayette county line. Kentuckians know it's there–most have driven past it probably hundreds of times– but until now few have known what exactly is behind the gates. "Driving by this place probably 100 times and never coming in, it was definitely an exciting opportunity," said Danny Bramer, one of four friends who banded together to buy The Kentucky Castle last July. "When my partners and I grew up here, this place was like an enigma. No one ever got in, no one knew what it was about." What we knew about the Castle before Bramer and his partners took over is that it was built by Rex Martin and his wife Caroline Bogaert Martin beginning in 1969. It was apparently unfinished, however, before the Martins' marriage ended