Whitehall

The garden in May was beautiful. Large Iris and Peonies. Walk around , there is a grotto and a trellised walk . Lovely.

I recently visited Whitehall for a Maker's Mark Alice in Wonderland themed event, and it was awesome. The property is so beautiful!

What I saw of the mansion was very elaborately and authentically decorated, and it definitely looks great for a formal party or wedding. I didn't have a chance to see much of the gardens, as it was dark when I visited, but the photographs I have seen make them look very beautiful.

I would definitely attend another event here, or even just visit to see the gardens in the warmer months. I have no large parties planned, but I think this is definitely a venue to check out if you're in the market for something like that.

Whitehall might be easy to miss unless you're seeking a special locale for an event or wedding. The lovely, historic house and its gardens are tucked back of Lexington Rd among the seminaries and residential neighborhoods. We sat out to explore its annual, peony celebration between thunder showers yesterday.

We didn't visit the impressive house on this trip (they offer paid, guided tours). The gardens are free for visitors to wander and there are several places to sit  and enjoy the natural beauty inside this well-manicured, but petite garden.

We didn't stay for the guided, garden tour or plant sale, but I've been told that both are very popular. Besides two, avid gardeners and a photographer, we had the peonies to ourselves. Although our visit was short, we loved exploring the gorgeous peonies at Whitehall. Looking forward to a tour next time!

Whitehall is a local Louisville place that I had always wanted to visit.  You know those places -- local gems that you pass all the time and think, "I need to check that place out." But come the weekend, your calendar is full enough that you can't squeeze it in.  

I finally squeezed it in recently and am so glad that I did.  The Jefferson County Master Gardener Association had a talk about the woodland garden at Whitehall, followed by a tour of the gardens and later, a tour of the house.  The talk was held on the first floor of the mansion. It was apparent as soon as I entered that Whitehall has been well-maintained and decorated tastefully to retain its old charm while remaining inviting.  

After the talk, we wandered through the woodland garden.  It features all types of greenery, more ferns than I knew could thrive in the area, and even the appearance of a bunny hopping through as we wandered.  It was shady and cool despite the rising temperatures that morning.  

If you do visit Whithall, make sure to visit the perennial garden.  It's a manicured garden with all varieties of colorful flowers in decorative urns that will make you feel like you're on an Old World estate where Cathy and Heathcliff may be hiding around any corner.  In my dreams I have a home with a garden like that in the back, but in reality I'll just have to visit Whitehall's again to get my botanical fix!

Such a beautiful location to go and visit as a tourist. One of my favorite activities while in town is to visit the old gorgeous homes, and since we had never been to Whitehall it was first on our list. Actually, since we didn't have much time with all of our other activities it was the ONLY home on our list.

The whole home is beautiful, as we got the tour we found out that William Hume Logan Jr took much care and love to decorate his beautiful mansion and held many parties there.

As a matter of fact my favorite room in he home is his bedroom. It is warm and just makes you feel like he is there, welcoming you. Such a positive inviting room, it made me want to stay there for a bit.

Since we were the only people there, once the tour was over our most sweet tour guide let us hang around and take more pictures.

When we finally wandered out to the grounds, they are spectacular! Again, everything about this beautiful home just has warm and positive Ch'i.

We were visiting Louisville and wanted to check out some historic sights in the area.  Whitehall is a beautiful old Louisville home, originally built in about 1855, and we decided to come take a tour of the house and grounds.

Whitehall is not terribly large, but the rooms have been nicely kept up and there is plenty of period furniture and decor on display.  Our guide, a local college student, was very gracious and welcoming.  We arrived in the middle of an ongoing tour and she happily included us, then went back to cover the areas we'd missed afterward.  She was very enthusiastic about the house and took the time to point out her favorite objects and fill us in on the history of the various owners.  It's a beautiful home, well worth visiting.  The gardens were a little smaller than I'd hoped, but pretty enough to walk through and admire.  The whole experience here took about half an hour, just enough time to see everything I wanted to see without boring my husband to tears.  I was really glad we'd made the time to see Whitehall.

Admission is $5 per person.  I believe there is parking behind the house, or you can take a cab from downtown, like we did.  Whitehall is a bit out of the way, but located in a really gorgeous residential neighborhood that is pretty to admire as you drive through to Whitehall.

Nice property nestled in a historic neighborhood, BUT party planners BEWARE: this property has a 70-decibel sound restriction monitored by built-in microphones along the perimeter of the property. Whitehall requires that your band and/or DJ route their main sound output into their automated sound compressor/limiter, and back out to the band/DJ amplifiers. As a result, you cannot produce dance music loud enough to inspire a great dance party. 70dB is unreasonably quiet for reception entertainment, primarily because bass from subwoofers travels far and hits the decibel limit extremely quickly. If you must have your party here, have it INSIDE the house. Do NOT use the event tent in the backyard, your dance party will be too quiet (and suffer because of it!) On principal, musicians should boycott events held in the tent, or break the rules (unplug the line) and hope the neighbors don't call the cops.

Can't stress enough that this is a really big deal, and should be a total dealbreaker for party planners and future brides. The Whitehall staff puts the decibel restriction in the event contract and may try to pass it off as insignificant. Bass travels more than you think. Unless you're OK with quiet slow dances all night, please take this advice seriously - for the sake of your dance party!

Decibels are exponential:
Volume of a face-to-face conversation = 60dB
Vacuum Cleaner = 70dB (2x louder than 60dB)
Lawn Mower = 90dB (4x louder than 70dB)
Dance Club volume = 120dB (32x louder than 70dB)
Rock Concert volume = 130dB (2x louder than Dance Club)
Plane at takeoff = 140dB (2x louder than Rock Concert)

I can understand a strict cutoff time (like 10 or 11PM) due to city noise ordinances, but an overly conservative decibel limit at a rented event space is a huge pet peeve of mine. You should always let your dance party be all it can be!

This is a spectacular place to hold an event. I came to a private wine tasting in April and was pretty blown away. Gorgeous old mansion, nicely private, set back off of Lexington Road. Plenty of parking beside and behind the house.

It was a lot of fun to wander around the house and look at all the neat rooms, with fancy old wallpaper, antique furniture, even incredible mirrors and lamps. And don't forget to look up for the chandeliers! I would guess there were about 50 of us and we didn't even need the upstairs. And we took a little peak at the beautiful grounds before we left. Even at night time they were lovely. Something Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil about it. Can't wait to go back!

Whitehall was absolutely amazing!
We had our wedding there on 8/23/14. They give you so much freedom within their venue it was great. We were able to move around furniture, access the entire home and our guests loved it. The home is beautiful and has plenty of space for guests (we had about 150). The gardens were gorgeous and even though it rained our guests still had a wonderful time. We had our ceremony outside, our cocktail hour inside, and our reception outside. Everything was setup perfectly.
Merrill and Anne helped me so much in all the months leading up to the event. They were very quick to respond to my questions and very helpful. They are open to meeting with you whenever you need to. They were just awesome and our day was spectacular. I am so happy we went with Whitehall.

I married the most amazing woman in the universe at this glorious historic home (so call me biased). The house itself still has the majority of it's original features and decor, but the selling point is the immaculate gardens on the property. Do not miss the hydrangea area in the formal gardens or the gigantic elephant ears at the back of the property. The building manager, grounds keep and garden staff are all exceptional. I HIGHLY recommend this place for any formal event, or even a casual visit.