“THE BIGGEST EYESORE” on South Main Street, according to former Versailles Mayor Brian Traugott… and he was right. This photo was taken of the old Woodford Sun building in August 2024, a few weeks before the work of cleaning the 135-year-old brick facade and painting the equally old woodwork began. (Photo by Jennifer Chandler)
BILL PHELPS, left, and WINFREY ADKINS, from the Woodford County Historical Society, peer into the abandoned elevator shaft in the old Woodford Sun space, which now houses the break room/kitchen, restrooms and three offices. (Photo by Jennifer Chandler)
THE LOT THE WOODFORD SUN now sits on was the stable for the Lexington-Versailles Stagecoach Company, a primary means of public transportation between the towns in the 19th Century. The coaches ran several times a day, and so stables were a necessity. Atchison and Daniel Bowmar purchased the lot and built the two-story Woodford Sun building, where the Sun has remained in continuous operation since. The adjacent two-story building is still here. The Good Bite occupies the right half and Poor Man’s Paradise the left half. The Sun owned the Good Bite half from the 1960s until it was sold in 2026 to the Coyle brothers, (Woodford Sun archives)
A NEW RECEPTION AREA welcomes visitors to The Woodford Sun’s new space. A part of the original 1891 press and a type chest are all that’s left of the physical printing press and process from when the Sun started operations in the building in 1891. The hand-painted “The Woodford Sun” is the original design of Toss Chandler, which was able to be duplicated by the wife of the original sign painter. (Photo by Jennifer Chandler)
THE BACK ROOM of The Woodford Sun, which used to contain an abandoned elevator shaft and served as a storage space for several generations of the Chandler family, is pictured fully remodeled as a staff break room and kitchen. The Sun’s archives, which contain papers dating back to 1870, were moved to the mezzanine, which is located above the new staff area. (Photo by Lucie Chandler)
“I’ll tell you the biggest eyesore on Main Street,” said former Versailles Mayor Brian Traugott at a city council meeting after the Sun criticized a proposed arch over Court Street three years ago. “It’s The Woodford Sun building. My Lord, you all still haven’t removed the painted ‘WCHS’ from the 2019 homecoming parade on your storefront window!”
Brian was right.
The Sun had become an eyesore, and it wasn’t limited to just what could be seen from the outside. The inside was a mess and a de facto dump. The linoleum floors were stained beyond belief, the original press remained moored to the floor in the back, the second floor hadn’t been used in well over a decade with papers and antique office supplies everywhere, the refrigerator was circa 1975, and the smells . . . lordy. We even had a piece of tin molding fall off the façade onto the sidewalk.
First opened to the public in 1891, the brand, spanking new Woodford Sun building was formerly the location of the stables for the Lexington-Versailles Stage Coach Company. The new building was a jewel of downtown Versailles; however, by 2024 it had indeed become an eyesore.
Thanks to the decision of then-owner and publisher Ben Chandler and the talents of his wife Jennifer, two-thirds of the Woodford Sun’s building space was sold in order to preserve the remaining one-third now occupied by the Sun.
As a result, the newspaper now has a smaller, modern, efficient and, if we may say so, beautiful new space, with a very nice residential space above it.
However, it was quite a journey.
Beginning in August 2024, the Sun squeezed the entire operation of the paper into what is now The Good Bite space. It was a looong year. Steaming hot in the summer. Freezing in the winter. A 40-year-old carpet that was un-cleanable. Squirrels and raccoons making homes inside the walls and the earthen-floor basement. And lots of leaks, including a geyser that erupted when bathroom pipes froze, soon leading to mushrooms growing from the nearby carpet. Yuck!
That space is now gorgeous, thanks to Matthew Coyle, who, along with his brothers, purchased the building from Ben, and Russell Booker, the proprietor of The Good Bite.
So, now, Versailles has three new jewels on South Main Street: The Woodford Sun, The Good Bite and the sophisticated Enchanting Bridal store owned by Meleah Hysell, which went into the other half of the Woodford Sun building, after being sold to 100 Proof Properties out of Frankfort. It, too, has a nice apartment on the second floor.
The transformation of the space where the Sun is now housed is hard to appreciate had you not been in it before. The front quarter was used as office space and a conference room, with dusty blinds covering the street-front windows.
Now, there is a well-lit, open reception area with the last remnant of the original press and a printer’s chest where typeset letters were stored. A framed photo of the block where the Sun was built, dating to 1887, hangs in the lobby, along with an original poster celebrating Woodford County’s bicentennial that was painted by Toss Chandler, an accomplished local artist and mother of then publisher Ben Chandler.
The conference room is furnished with the conference table and chairs donated by retired local lawyer Whitney Dunlap. This is where the Sun’s many awards are on display, along with a safe used by the Sun for decades, having been donated long ago by the president of the then United Bank. Making the conference room truly special, though, are several photographs taken by our sports editor and professional photographer Bill Caine.
The rest of the space is offices, a kitchen-break area, two restrooms and a space where decades of original Suns are archived.
I asked Jennifer to write about her experience of managing this major project. In addition to describing the conditions outlined above, this is what she told me.
“When Ben decided that, in order to save one building, he would need to sell the other two, we knew we would first have to clean all three buildings out. It was a nightmare! Thankfully, Winfrey Adkins, Bill Phelps and Roy Lancaster helped with this Herculean task. We couldn’t have done it without them. Numerous file cabinets containing Jim Curtis’ photos were hauled away by the Woodford County Historical Society, and the rest was sold or thrown out. Slowly, the buildings were emptied, and we were ready to begin the rehab.”
The auction of Chandler and Sun ephemera brought about $4,000. On a side note, a terrific portrait of a young Albert B. “Happy” Chandler Sr., taken during his time in the U.S. Senate in the 1940s, was sold at auction and now hangs in the Amsden Bourbon Bar on Court Street.
“After just over one and a half years of intensive work, we now have a building to be proud of,” said Jennifer. “It was a bit of a struggle to get here, but The Woodford Sun building once again provides our staff with office space they deserve, allowing them to continue to bring you the news you deserve.”