LOCAL COLOR/Home, sweet home
A former tavern and stagecoach stop is not the typical location for a City Hall, but that did not matter to Middletown, Ky., officials when they purchased an 18th-century building for that purpose five years ago. In March, city officials moved into the newly renovated Wetherby House, creating a welcoming, home-like appearance to the city offices and a convenient gathering space for residents.
Located east of Louisville, Middletown is said to have received its name because of its location between Louisville and Shelbyville. The city has grown as a result of its accessibility from interstates, nearby industrial parks, residential subdivisions and the growth of its close neighbors. A few years ago, city officials, began to notice the constraints of their nearly 30-year-old City Hall on Shelbyville Road.
Officials needed a new building that could accommodate their growth, and at the same time, they wanted to preserve a little piece of the town’s history. “[The Wetherby House] has a lot of historical significance for the city, and it’s centrally located in the city,” Middletown Mayor Byron Chapman says. “Those are the things that drove us to really want to renovate it and want to preserve the building. It is a marvelous building, and [we are] not just [owning] it as a building for view [but putting] it to use.”
The Wetherby House was known as Davis Tavern when it was constructed in 1796. The two-story brick building also operated as a hotel and stagecoach shop with a 50-stall horse barn. In the late 1800s, Dr. Luther Paris Wetherby visited the hotel and eventually married the owner’s daughter, raising their children in the historic building. Several generations of the Wetherby Family retained ownership of the 23-room house until 2000, when the city purchased it from the family.
Despite the structure’s good condition, major renovations were needed before the recognizable landmark was open for business. After receiving a $250,000 federal grant, the city was able to fund much of the $310,000 cost for renovations. The old house underwent several restoration projects, including cleaning and sealing the original floors, repainting, installing a new heating and cooling system and updating the electrical wiring. The building’s stone porch was repaired, and an old metal roof, reminiscent of the heydays of the Wetherby House, also was installed. The city also improved the building’s handicapped access to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “We didn’t do anything structurally,” Chapman says. “That’s [one] of the things that we were very careful about, not to take away from the history of the building.”
Surrounding Middletown’s new City Hall, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a five-acre city park complete with a walking trail and gazebo designed for special events. The city’s World War II Memorial also is placed the park. “We were able to finalize our original reasoning for buying [the Wetherby House], to move the City Hall here and create the park as well,” Chapman says.
Most importantly, Chapman says the newly renovated house, which features old sketches of the building throughout, is user-friendly, completely open for community use with meeting and conference rooms. This month, Chapman and other city officials are planning an open-house celebration for Middletown residents to view their new City Hall. “There’s been a lot of people that want to come by and see it since we’ve moved in, just kind of on an unofficial basis,” Chapman says. “I think that’s the thing they’ve liked about it because it is so accessible and so easy to use.”
