Florida honeymooners and Kentucky hospitality - April 2, 2020
When volunteer guide Connie Minch learned that a just-married Florida couple had their honeymoon visit to a Kentucky attraction clipped due to coronavirus-related closings, she sprang into action to open the doors of Ward Hall to them.
According to Connie, a few days following their wedding, the young couple was in Kentucky to visit the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. They toured the ark on March 15, but by the end of the day, gatherings of more than 10 were prohibited and many attractions, including the museum, closed. The next day, the groom called Ward Hall and explained the couple’s dilemma and their shared love of historic homes. They’d seen a brochure about Kentucky’s grandest Greek Revival residence and had one question: Could they tour it?
“Within 15 minutes we were all at Ward Hall and I did a tour for them,” said Connie, noting they followed Gov. Beshear’s guidelines and practiced safe social distancing.
Connie learned the couple had made their call from a honeymoon lunch spent in their car in a Chick-fil-A parking lot – indoor dining having already been closed.
“That didn’t seem very romantic to me,” Connie said. “They were such a lovely couple and they were really having a hard time trying to be on a trip – and a honeymoon trip at that. I told them they’d have a big story to tell their kids one day.”
Connie waived the $7 per person admission fee, giving the couple the tour as a wedding gift. But her act of kindness multiplied on the spot: The honeymooners insisted on paying admission, plus a little extra.
Once home to one of Kentucky’s most colorful characters, flirtatious femme fatale Sallie Ward, Ward Hall hosts Open House tours monthly, April through November; however, in keeping with the governor’s mandatory closures, the April tours have been cancelled. Visit the website for more information about this Georgetown, KY treasure and for tour updates. In the meantime, take a virtual tour – so worth it to see the grand winding staircase and other architectural appointments.
