Winchester VictorianLovingly restored home in the Thomson Historic District

It’s not unusual for Paul Wood and Ken Goode to get a friendly knock at their door from curious people who have fond memories of their home from the time when it was duplex.

“Because this had been a rental split into two units, we get people coming by from time to time with stories about how they used to visit so and so here,” Ken said.

“Or they’ve come back to Winchester from out of town after living here in the 1950s or 60s and want see what the house looks now,” Paul said.

Paul and Ken draw satisfaction from how the toil they put into restoration has turned the home into a showplace.

The four bedroom, two bath, 3805 square foot Victorian straddles the corner of South Maple and College Street in the Thomson Historic District of downtown Winchester. The home is in good company surrounded by dozens of fine old homes built between 1890 and 1910 by developer H.P. Thomson.

The National Register of Historic Places refers to their 1896 home as the Lee Baldwin House. “He was the original owner, a jeweler with a shop in town,” Ken said. “His brother who was also a jeweler built a house three doors up.”

When Paul and Ken found the home 22 years ago, the spacious foyer with oak parquet you see today had been walled off as a bedroom and was covered with two layers of carpet and padding.

Many of the home’s seven wooden fireplace mantels had been painted over. Some vintage tile hearths were painted over as well. Dental tools were used to meticulously pick our paint from crevices in the mantels.

“We were stripping off seven to ten layers of paint in some cases,” Ken said. “It was on thick. A red layer, a black layer, multiple colors.”

Sometimes choices made when the house was a rental worked in their favor. “We picked tens of thousands of staples out of the floors before were able to refinish,” Ken said. “But we were fortunate, because the carpeting helped save these floors.”

Ken credits Paul with having the carpentry and remodeling skills that meant that they could do most the work themselves.

“I’ve always had a deep love for old homes and for repurposing things” Paul said. “Even before it was trendy, I was taking salvage items and reworking them.”

A case in point is the wet bar in their great room. “The three upper cabinets I got at an auction when they were gutting an old school.” Paul said. The wet bar also serves to keep guests back from the cook area when entertaining.

Similarly, the base of the marble kitchen island employs an old five panel door flipped on its side.

When Paul and Ken first moved to Kentucky from Long Beach, California, they looked all over the Bluegrass and settled on Winchester because it “seemed like home.” They mention good things happening downtown: Leeds Theatre, new restaurants, a new distillery, a microbrewery, the Pioneer Festival and the Beer Cheese Festival.

Locals may recognize Paul and Ken as the owners of Bentley Murray Antiques, or of the Café Collage before that. “We’ve had a vested interest in Winchester and the town has been good to us,” Ken said.

“It’s hard for Paul and me to put the house on the market,” Ken said. “But with just the two of us, it’s a little bit too big now and we’re downsizing. More than likely we’ll stay local.”

This week’s feature home is listed with Christine McDonald of Milestone Realty Consultants. To see more images of the home, visit the Homeseller gallery at Kentucky.com.

This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Winchester VictorianLovingly restored home in the Thomson Historic District."