The Colonial Hotel

08/29/2026

06/15/2026

Sweet Lick K**b, Irvine. 😍

05/27/2026

Who is your favorite mural artist in Irvine/Ravenna/Estill County?

05/05/2026

Did you know that a 40s-era Ford Woody Deluxe like this one averages about $80,000 on the collector's market?!!! The 30s-era Woodies can fetch over $100,000! 😮

05/02/2026

The Citizen Voice & Times was an Estill County institution for almost 5 decades. We are thinking about naming the bourbon and wine bar “The Citizen”. Thoughts?

05/02/2026

“Keep your hogs off the street. The ordinance will hereafter be strictly enforced.” 🤣🤣🤣

05/02/2026

Here’s a photo dump of some photos that I took today from old newspapers in the hotel, some dating back to 1927. (Check out the one with the old car being loaded onto a ferry in 1924 to cross the Kentucky River near Cow Creek - back before the Irvine bridge existed.)

05/02/2026

In the spirit of the running of the horses tomorrow, I thought I would post this photo that I found today in an old newspaper at the hotel. The article’s caption says, “AN INNOVATOR - - Mrs. Coleman Benton was winner of the walking horse class in one of the county fairs held here in the 20s. Mrs. Benton was an innovator in riding astride and has been, until recent years, an active and expert equestrian. The fair in which she rode for competition was a revival effort and was her last time to show in competition. Her husband, Coleman Benton, was a noted judge of horses and operated a livery stable for a number of years here. The Bentons now live in West Irvine.”

04/30/2026

For nearly 50 years the Citizen Voice & Times published a weekly newspaper serving Estill County, Kentucky operating in the former Colonial Hotel building on S. Court Street in downtown Irvine. The final publication was on December 29th, 2022.

My wife and I purchased the building from Teresa Hatfield-Barger and are in the process of restoring the building as a boutique hotel, keeping the former name, the Colonial Hotel.

We would like to thank Teresa for trusting us with a building in which she spent much of her life. We hope you will be proud of the final result, and we can’t wait to show it to you, hopefully in 2027. 🙏