Skip to contentThe Woodford Hotel — in the Birthplace of Bourbon — Earns Woodford County’s 2025 Tourism Achievement Award
A restored 1881 landmark in downtown Versailles is giving travelers a reason to stay the night in the very county where Dr. James Crow refined modern bourbon — putting Woodford County on the map as a destination, not a drive-through.
The Woodford County Chamber of Commerce has named The Woodford Hotel the recipient of its 2025 Tourism Achievement Award, presented by Woodford Tourism at the Chamber’s annual Awards Luncheon in Versailles. The honor recognizes a business that has measurably strengthened Woodford County as a travel destination — and few have done more to keep visitors in Versailles overnight than the boutique hotel at 112 North Main Street.
The Woodford Hotel is a historic boutique hotel in the heart of downtown Versailles, Kentucky, with eight bourbon-themed suites and a private event space inside the restored 1881 Hotel Woodford building. Each suite is a full-kitchen retreat, and the property sits within easy reach of the distilleries, horse farms, and downtown shops and restaurants that define the Bluegrass.
A landmark brought back to life
The building at 112 North Main first opened its doors to travelers in the 19th century, when the original Hotel Woodford anchored Versailles’ Main Street. After decades out of service, owners Eric and Kristen Carrico restored the Italianate landmark and reopened it as The Woodford Hotel in 2022 — preserving the original architecture, tall windows, and downtown character while adding the comforts modern guests expect.
The result is a property that feels like Versailles itself: historic, walkable, and quietly confident. Guests step out the front door into a downtown of locally owned restaurants, shops, and bourbon bars, with the surrounding distillery country just minutes away.
Eight suites, eight bourbon stories
Each of the hotel’s eight suites is named and designed around a distillery or a figure from Kentucky’s distilling history. The Old Crow suite nods to James C. Crow, the Scottish-born chemist whose 19th-century work in Woodford County helped shape the way bourbon is made to this day — a legacy still alive at Glenns Creek Distilling, which operates on the historic Old Crow site just outside Versailles.
The suites span the second and third floors of the historic building. Each suite features a full kitchen or kitchenette, a comfortable sitting area, and design details that carry the bourbon theme without losing the warmth of a downtown stay.
The best base for the Bourbon Trail and horse country
Location is The Woodford Hotel’s calling card. The property sits roughly a mile from Woodford Reserve Distillery and just minutes from Castle & Key and Glenns Creek Distilling, with Bluegrass Distillers at Elkwood Farm a short drive away in nearby Midway — placing guests in the heart of Woodford County’s distillery country. Keeneland and Lexington’s horse country are less than 20 minutes away, making the hotel a natural home base during race meets, sales, and farm visits.
That combination — walkable downtown, closest boutique stay to Woodford Reserve, and a short drive to Keeneland — is exactly what keeps bourbon and horse-country travelers in Woodford County overnight rather than passing through on a day trip from Lexington or Louisville.
Staying in the Birthplace of Bourbon
Woodford County calls itself the Birthplace of Bourbon™ — and the claim is built on documented history, not marketing. In the early-to-mid 1800s, Dr. James C. Crow, a Scottish-trained physician and chemist, brought scientific rigor to whiskey-making here in Woodford County — refining the consistent, repeatable methods, including the sour mash process, that turned frontier whiskey into modern bourbon. He did that work at the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery, today’s Woodford Reserve, and his name lives on at the Old Crow distillery site, now home to Glenns Creek Distilling. Crow is buried just up the road in the Versailles Cemetery.
That heritage runs straight through The Woodford Hotel. Its Old Crow suite carries Crow’s name, and the hotel sits minutes from the very grounds where he changed bourbon forever — making it, quite literally, a place to sleep in the birthplace of bourbon. For travelers who want to understand where their glass comes from, there is no more fitting home base.
Built for groups and gatherings
Beyond individual stays, The Woodford Hotel offers a private event space and whole-hotel buyouts for small groups — a fit for bourbon clubs, corporate retreats, milestone celebrations, and family gatherings that want the run of a historic property in the middle of distillery country. The full-kitchen suites and central downtown location make it well suited to groups traveling together for a long weekend on the trail.
Why it earned the award
Tourism achievement, in a county like Woodford, comes down to a simple question: does a business give visitors a reason to stay? By restoring a downtown landmark and turning it into a destination in its own right, The Woodford Hotel has done exactly that — drawing bourbon travelers, horse-country visitors, and weekend guests into Versailles and keeping them downtown after the distilleries close.
“The Woodford Hotel represents the very best of what tourism can do for a small community,” said Emily Downey, Director of Woodford Chamber and Tourism. “Eric and Kristen took a piece of Versailles history and turned it into a reason for people to spend the night, eat downtown, and experience Woodford County the way we know it. That’s exactly the kind of investment this award is meant to celebrate.”
“We’re honored by this recognition,” said Eric Carrico, who owns and operates the hotel with his wife, Kristen. “Our goal from the start was to give bourbon and horse-country travelers a real reason to stay in Versailles — and to do it in a building that’s been part of this town for more than a century. This award belongs to downtown Versailles as much as it does to us.”
Plan your stay
The Woodford Hotel is located at 112 North Main Street, Versailles, Kentucky, in the heart of downtown Woodford County. To learn more or book directly, visit woodfordhotelky.com.