Pinecrest Cottage & Gardens

"Pinecrest Cottage - Your Home Away From Home"

Surrounded by 100 year old trees, carefully tended perennial beds and with the ambience of a French country estate, Pinecrest Cottage offers you a place that feels like home the moment you walk in, with all the comforts and none of the demands.

Located on the last 6.5 acres of a 400 acre land grant from Virginia Governor Patrick Henry in the late 1700s, Pinecrest Cottage & Gardens is unique in that it is a separate and private, well appointed guest house, affording guests complete privacy. There is a modern, fully stocked kitchen with every convenience, sun porch, living room with working fireplace, TV/VCR is there for your enjoyment with cable hook-up, large bedroom with king-size bed, cedar closet and full bath. A studio couch in the living room converts to a double bed. Free wireless internet access is also available.

Join us in the winter months and enjoy the magic colors of autumn or the quiet stillness of a winter morning under a blanket of new-fallen snow. Visit in the warmer months and enjoy swimming and tennis, available on the grounds. Year round, you will enjoy Kentucky's scenic beauty and the warmth of southern hospitality.

Pinecrest Cottage & Gardens is located within minutes of the Louisville Zoo, Kentucky Kingdom, Churchill Downs, Kentucky State Fairgrounds and The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University.

Your hosts are active community volunteers. Nancy is on the Board of The Louisville Bach Society and involved in music throughout the community. Allan is an entrepreneur, active Rotarian, both he and Nancy are active in their church.

Guest Comments

"What a find! I will refer others that I work with here! It makes a business trip very bearable..." Long Beach, CA

"Our trip was so much more special because we felt at home away from home. We look forward to another visit soon!" Atlanta, GA

"This is a beautiful location & place to relax, spend time & begin our marriage together! It is truly exquisite." Louisville, KY

"...but no memory will we revisit more than walking your land and coming upon this glorious tree with arms outstretched in a crest, now called Pinecrest. What a glorious site! You turned a business trip into a vacation." Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Pinecrest Cottage is located within minutes of Louisville International Airport, the Kentucky State Fairgrounds and Freedom Hall. Come stay with us - you'll be glad you did!

Pinecrest Cottage, located only 7 minutes from the Louisville International Airport, is an excellent lodging choice for the business traveler.

• Free wireless internet access
• FAX available
• separate phone line
• The cottage is completely private for visiting with a business client or uninterrupted relaxation during a busy convention.

When traveling to other cities on business check out this web site:

Click the link below to view our YouTube Video of PINECREST ROSE GARDEN
YouTube Video

Prior to 1992, there were no flower gardens gracing the grounds at Pinecrest. The 400 acre estate, established before the Civil War, had been reduced to 6.5 acres and stands, today, as an oasis of peacefulness and beauty amid the suburban sprawl.

Redolent with 200 year old trees, 3 ponds, a Japanese garden, a hosta collection featuring over 125 varieties, and numerous perennials, Pinecrest is a mini-arboretum. Perhaps the lovliest garden is one that arose following the loss of two 100 year old trees, a red oak that flattened a rather rare butternut tree, healthy trees that fell victim to a freak, straight-line wind.

With all the shade gone, the newly created hosta garden had to be relocated, and plans were made to celebrate the sun by planting a rose garden. The area was already irrigated, thus, a perfect growing site for what now numbers over 200 standard and mini-rose bushes.

The pleasure devired from the sheer visual aspect of these "American beauties" is surpassed only by the heady fragrance wafting through the air. Ideally located adjacent to the deck surrounding the pool, this garden gives new meaning to the phrase "making lemonade out of lemons"! And we even have a rose named "Oranges n 'Lemons! You have to see it to believe it!

Children are welcome at Pinecrest Cottage & Gardens.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an American writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky, little more than an hour from Louisville. Merton is the author of more than seventy books (including the classic "The Seven Storey Mountain", still in print after more than 50 years) that include poetry, personal journals, collections of letters, social criticism and writings for peace, social justice and ecumenism.

The Thomas Merton Cente's cooperation, a Merton collection became part of the library at Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road. The Center is the official repository of Merton's artistic estate, which includes over 1200 photographs and 800 drawings in addition to his writings. The Center archives over forty thousand Merton-related materials. It is the largest Merton collection in the world, incorporating items translated into twenty-eight languages, two hundred masters and doctoral theses, audiovisual materials, and a growing collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and fabric art depicting Merton. In November 1967, Thomas Merton established the Merton Legacy Trust to administer the literary rights to all of his unpublished manuscripts, journals and art work. The Merton Legacy Trust became irrevocable upon Thomas Merton's death in December 1968.

The Thomas Merton Center is located on the second floor of Bellarmin's new W. L. Lyons Brown Library, which opened in January, 1997. Merton's own drawings and photographs are on display, together with a variety of artistic renderings and photographs of Merton. A special room in the Center, dedicated to Merton's parents, contains a collection of watercolors by Merton's father, Owen.

The Merton Center at Bellarmine University is only five minutes from Pinecrest Cottage and Gardens, and is open from 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. and from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday. For more information, contact Dr. Paul M. Pearson, Director and Archivist at (502)-452-8177, or log onto the site at www.merton.org.