This Bardstown family turned a log cabin into one of the Louisville area's most unique Airbnbs

The Hutchins siblings often thought of their ancestors as they ripped through decades' worth of wallpaper and newsprint to expose their family home’s original log cabin walls.

"Do you know how long we spent trying to cover this up," they’d imagine them saying.

Generation after generation had left its mark in layers and layers of the décor. Now the three sisters and two brothers were leaving their own by unearthing the 243-year-old original walls. They believe they’re the eighth generation of their family to own the old farmhouse. The two-story house, which sits just south of Bardstown about a mile from the Willet Distillery, was one of the first in Nelson County and is among the oldest homes in Kentucky.

When their mother died in 2021 and passed the home to them, the siblings never considered selling it. But as it sat empty that first year, the gut-wrenching question kept coming: What were they going to do with it?

At first, when one of the siblings suggested updating the home and listing it as an Airbnb, the idea seemed absurd. The walls had witnessed countless family celebrations, births, marriages and deaths as one generation had faded into the next. The old stories and family lore were as much a part of the house as the old bell out front that once called in workers for supper.

"It was just really difficult for me to imagine people that weren't family staying here," Connie Hutchins McDowell told the Courier Journal. "But as that year went by ... we could see it was just standing here ... getting dusty. It wasn't being cared for."

As their grief softened and dust gathered, the idea of updating the home and giving it a new purpose suddenly seemed less radical for Connie and her siblings John Hutchins, Laura Hutchins Blair, Frank Hutchins and Catherine Hutchins Clements.

"It was therapeutic, coming to terms with our parents being gone and now it’s ours," Laura said. "That was very profound for all of us is that okay, this is a significant responsibility. We're generation eight and we own this now. It's a legacy."

So the hammers came out, and piece by piece, the plaster and paper came down to reveal those original logs.

As children, the Hutchinses had heard so many stories about the generations who’d come before them. Now it was time for the house to tell its side of it all, one bucket of crumbling plaster at a time.

Horsehair and hidden family 'fortune' inside this Bardstown log cabin

If they were going to turn the house into an Airbnb, they needed to add ductwork for heating and cooling, and there were at least three generations' worth of stuff in an old upstairs storage room that needed to be cleaned out.

They sought out contractors and technicians who’d worked with other historic properties in Bardstown. The siblings assumed the original logs were beneath the plaster, but it was anyone’s guess what additions to the home started where.

They learned the logs were made with beechwood, and if they tried staining them in a modern way, they’d likely crack. So they cleaned and polished them with boiled linseed oil.

The chinking, a type of sealant used to fill gaps between the logs in a log home, had held for 243 years, but it was primitive and, frankly, gross. So they wore masks as clouds of dust from the horse hair and mud in the chinking formed around them. Bucket by bucket all the waste left the house, and they hired a professional, who specialized in historic homes, to reseal it.

In the stairwell, leading to the upstairs bedrooms, the layers of wallpaper revealed the original paint inside the house was a shocking shade of teal. When the time came to choose colors, they tried to match that with modern paint. When they ripped out an old closet beneath the stairs to expand the downstairs bathroom, they found chalk markings in a childlike script dating back to 1919 and 1935. They sprayed sealant on it, so future guests couldn’t brush it away.

Buried in the old root cellar they’d came across empty Sterling beer cans. Their grandfather, "Papaw," used to drink them down there because "Mamaw" didn’t like alcohol in the house.

When they found a black box that wouldn’t open in an old garage on the land, they were all convinced some sort of unknown family fortune was trapped inside. It ended up being a treasure in a very different way. Their father used to drive an old Cadillac and he loved listening to music. His 8-Track tapes had been locked in the box and forgotten about for decades.

An elopement, sense of place, and eight generations of family lore

Of course, they’d all heard the family lore about their great grandmother Helane who’d climbed out of the second-story window and rode off on horseback with William Washington Greenwell in 1855. She was just 21 years old when they eloped. They named her childhood bedroom the "Helane and William Washington" room and a small framed note on the bedside table, explaining that to their guests.

About two decades ago, one of the Hutchins’ cousins dug into tax records, marriage licenses, and deeds to trace and preserve as much of the home’s history as she could. The documents add some finer dates and details to the old family legends.

In 1780, Mark Hardin, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, received 400 acres in Nelson County, Kentucky, and a group of families from Maryland left for the frontier. Ignatius Cissell, one of the Hutchins ancestors, was among the first 25 families to make the trek. Documents suggest Hardin built the original cabin, but Cissell’s son and grandson moved into it and built onto it at the turn of that century.

Seven generations later when the Hutchins siblings were growing up in Bardstown, the old farmhouse was their Mamaw and Papaw’s place.

The land for them has always embodied a sense of family.

John would ride his bike to his grandparents to score a bottle of 7-Up or a scoop of ice cream. Laura, the youngest, remembers an antique candy dish filled with brightly colored M&Ms. Sure, sometimes they might have had those treats in their own home, but even so, Frank says they always tasted better at Mamaw and Papaw’s. In the large Catholic family, each of them had a cousin close enough in age to form deep friendships. Friends and relatives would come to call on Sundays, and Mamaw would feed them all.

The home was never fancy. In their younger years, before plumbing was installed, sauntering out to the outhouse in the middle of the night was always an adventure. Even after their grandparents died and their parents moved in, the farmhouse always had window units instead of central air.

Each of them worked in the fields, setting, pulling and stripping the tobacco plants. That’s how the Hutchins put all five children through Catholic school, and eventually, paid off the farm. There’s an old home video of their father tossing the mortgage papers into a fire once the balance cleared.

He was incredibly emotional. The farm was truly theirs.

From historic homestead to unique Louisville area Airbnb

That appreciation for the land came with a deep, almost daunting responsibility when the five siblings inherited the house.

While other farms in Bardstown had divided up and sold off their land, the Hutchins’ parents rented it out to farmers. They gave each child five acres of their own on which to build a house. They all had roots and ties to that land, but now they had the family’s historic homestead, too.

Modernizing and making the home livable again took 14 months from those first swings to the walls to this spring when the Hutchins siblings toasted all their hard work.

"We did it," Laura has said, over and over again. "We really did it."

Many families wouldn’t be able to finish a project like this without arguing, but they waded through all the details and decisions together without fighting. Arguably, the work made them closer.

"It's a tribute to our parents, our grandparents and what they instilled in us as we were growing up," John said.

This summer they invited distant family members and the community in to see the stunning, original cabin walls and cozy warmth of modern amenities. More than 200 people came out to check out what was next for, perhaps, the oldest house in town.

In those grief-filled months before they started renovating, the siblings had some fear they were making the wrong decision. But as people packed in and laughter rang out across the yard, that worry faded.

"Wouldn’t our parents be happy that all these people are enjoying this," Catherine told the others. "I think they’d be more than happy. I think they’re smiling down on us."

'Beautiful historic farmhouse' rental in Bardstown

As they read the dos and don’ts of making a space appropriate for Airbnb guests, they learned that family photos and legacy were frowned upon.

They decided to ignore that.

Instead, they honored the generations before them with portraits going all the way up the staircase, in chronological order. For their ancestors that predated cameras, they had plaques printed with each of their names. Most of the furniture that belonged to their parents and grandparents wasn’t usable, so they sourced period-appropriate pieces from Useful Things Antiques and Collectable.

They named it "The Hutch," a nod to their father’s nickname.

And while they were outfitting the space for strangers to rent, they blocked out dates so they could still spend Christmas morning, and other occasions there. Even though they’d decided to share it, it's still their family home.

When the reviews started rolling in on Airbnb, every concern they’d had about sharing this special place, seemed as far away as the first Hutchins, who settled on the property.

"The idea of having strangers being in the house was what the problem was, at first," Frank said. "But when you read the reviews on Airbnb, you realize that everyone that stayed so far has had the same depth of respect we have for it."

The words of encouragement from their guests are as warm as the old farmhouse.

"Beautiful historic farmhouse in extremely peaceful surroundings but just a quick drive to downtown Bardstown and all the attractions," David from Louisville wrote. "Thank you for sharing your family’s charming home. Loved the original interior exposed wood walls."

Estee from Atlanta called it "such a perfect, homey farmhouse in an absolutely idyllic location."

Alex from Lexington said it was a beautiful and peaceful place for a weekend getaway.

"You can tell the pride the family has taken in restoring this incredible family home," he wrote in his review. "They kept the character of the original log cabin while adding modern comforts and amenities."

That character goes well beyond those beechwood walls.

There are family stories about how their great-grandfather John Alonzo Hutchins would help horses and buggies ford the nearby stream before Highway 49 carried cars over it. There are other tales about two-weeklong card games where men would camp on the property, and make spirits and gamble for days.

When The Hutch belonged to their grandparents, that old farmhouse was where friends and family came to call on Sunday afternoons.

Mamaw always opened the doors. That’s just how the world was back then.

And in a very different way, that’s precisely what this eighth generation is doing now.

The people who stay with them aren’t strangers at all.

They’re guests in the family home.

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky family turned log cabin into unique airbnb in Louisville area