By ROBIN STANTON GERROW
BG Independent News
When a house has been around since 1895, it has a lot of history. That history is exactly what Shaun Reeves and Heidi Bisbee hope to embody in the new Lincoln House Inn in downtown Bowling Green.
The house at 325 N. Main St., built by prominent Bowling Green residents Dr. J.C. Lincoln and his wife Nettie, has been everything from a private home to a fraternity house, but Reeves and Bisbee want to pay respect to both the Lincolns and the building with their new venture.
“The Lincoln House will host two types of businesses,” Reeves said. “There will be the part where you can come in as a guest and have an overnight stay, and we’ll have it available for event rentals, but we will also be hosting a variety of classes that will use a membership model. There will be a monthly fee that will allow members to attend up to three classes along with discounts on rentals.”
While classes won’t start until November, the first rooms will be available in late October. The public will have a chance to tour the “before” interior of the home 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Aug. 2 and Aug. 3, and again during the Black Swamp Arts Festival. A community Halloween party is planned for Oct. 25 for the grand opening.
Restoring the building has been an act of love for both women and has involved a great deal of sweat equity to preserve the home’s historic nature. Their plan is to start with three guest rooms and add two more later. All will have private bathrooms.
“We aim to integrate the property’s history into its use as an inn,” Bisbee said. “For instance, there will be rooms named after Dr. Lincoln and Nettie, as well as a room commemorating the Shakespeare Roundtable, a group Nettie co-founded. We have a lot of artifacts in the house, as well. We’re trying to bring the history back and want to have items that people can interact with.”
According to Reeves, the building’s previous owner took significant steps toward the restoration.
“Notably, at one time it housed a fraternity with up to 40 residents at a time,” she said. “Ivan and Joyce Stearns, who purchased it later, also rented out the upper floors to various groups, including another fraternity, and later, to people experiencing homelessness in the winter. When Mary Perkinson, the most recent owner prior to my purchasing the house, bought it, it needed significant repairs like converting a room full of urinals into usable bathrooms. She undertook major renovations such as new windows, electrical and plumbing.”
Reeves bought the house in 2023 and had a longer-term plan to turn it into an inn, but when her previous business closed, she moved up the timeline. Both local business owners, she and Bisbee took the leap in working as partners for the first time to bring about the historic inn.
“I didn’t want to do this by myself,” Reeves said. “It’s a lot. Heidi has great connections, and I knew we could work together.”
“As local, female business owners, we both have connections, some different and some the same,” Bisbee said. “I feel like we are both respected in the community and have skills that complement each other.
“Community support is going to be vital for the ongoing restoration efforts, and we have plans to preserve the house’s historical character,” Bisbee continued. “When you are preserving a house from the 1890s there is always something that needs work, but we want to showcase the house because she is a beauty.”
“On the sign, it’s the Lincoln House Inn,” Reeves said. “But we know it was the wife that made it a home, so we call it Nettie’s Place.”
