I’m sitting here watching live news coverage of one of the Lexington area’s most well-known landmarks, known as “The Castle” on Versailles Road, fully involved in flames. Local TV has a preliminary link to this here - perhaps they’ll have photos/video soon.
Sad - I can’t imagine it ever being rebuilt.
Fully engulfed in flames. News is live on Fox 56.
Pretty sad, although it’s almost a fitting ending for this enigma.
Oh no 
I love that castle! We pass it every time we pass through Lexington on the way to my grandmother’s!!!
I just told my mom about it. We used to see it when we were kids, whenever mom drove us to the countryside to pick berries.
I read that it was built by a man who wanted to impress his wife. This was back in the early 70’s. She wasn’t impressed and she dumped him. After that it sat there unused for the next 30 years.
It’s pretty bad, but there’s actually a chance it’s gonna get rebuilt. The guy that bought it was turning it into a bed and breakfast (it was supposed to be open in time for fall Keeneland.) LEX 18 actually sent footage to the Miami NBC affiliate so the owner could see the fire.
Hmmmm, I wonder how much the owner had it insured for…
Just for grins, here is what it looked like from above, via Terraserver.
So sad! I always thought it wa such a neat place, even though I only drove by it a few times and had no idea about the story behind it for a while. That’s the downside to liking state curiosities, they don’t usually last.
It’d be great if it was rebuilt though, but that doesn’t seem very feasible.
That’s sad. I love taking road trips and am always on the lookout for unique sights to see; I came through that area of horse country about this time last year, and made a bit of a detour just to see this castle and take a few pictures of it from the perimeter.
I don’t live terribly far from there (grew up in SW Virginia, now live in Raleigh, NC) and had hopes that I would get to see it opened to the public one day. I hadn’t heard about the plans to make it a B & B. Some of you Kentuckians do us a favor and keep us posted on whether it will be rebuilt or not.
A friend called earlier to tell me about it. That really sucks.
I admit, though, I’ve been ambivalent about it actually opening to the public as a B&B (or whatever they’ve been doing with it). The fact that it just sort of sits there has always been one of the cool things about it.
I leave town, Lynagh’s Club closes, all but one Jozo’s closes, they elect Ernie Fletcher as Governor, and now the castle is burning. Was I the only damn thing holding the state together?
I blame it all on electing Fletcher-it just goes against nature.
Come back DoctorJ, before it’s too late! What’s next? NASCAR at Keeneland? UK winning 10 football games? Diet Ale-8 (no wait, that’s already happened…)??? The HORROR!
Aw, man. I’ve driven past that castle every single time I’ve gone to visit my parents since I left for college. It always either meant I was well and truly on my way, or that I was very nearly home. This sucks ass.
Hey - don’t blame me! I used to go to Lynagh’s and eat at Jozo’s, I contributed to Fletcher’s opponent (now our US rep), and - and - ummm - I didn’t set the castle on fire? :rolleyes:
Sounds like you need to come back - I can’t carry the load myself.
OK, so maybe I am part of the problem… I actually like Diet Ale-8…
Dammit to hell, I had forgotten all about Diet Ale-8. I’m still reeling from when the deposit on the returnable bottles went from ten cents to twenty cents. Can you even get the returnables anymore?
On second thought, I don’t want to know.