Boxwood, the antebellum home on Bowling Green’s State Street, has a rich past. Now it may have a promising future.

The two-story, 3,682-square-foot home and its adjacent carriage house sold at auction in March, and the new owners are vowing to preserve the historic property that has been called the city’s “House of Dignity.”

Eric Aldridge, president of Southern Kentucky Granite and a magistrate serving on Warren Fiscal Court, purchased the property from the James D. Skaggs Estate for $511,500.

Although Aldridge, his wife, Ellen Aldridge, and their nine children plan to continue living in their rural homestead on John Alford Road, the new Boxwood owners have already begun working to restore the home.

“Our heart’s desire is for the history of the house to be preserved,” Eric Aldridge said. “Whatever we do is going to honor the history and give us the ability to share it with others.”

Ellen Aldridge is on board with her husband’s plans for a home she had her eye on for years.

“We would drive by this house coming home from church, and I always admired it,” she said. “When it was listed for sale, we walked through it and talked about how grand it could be at Christmas.”

When Boxwood went up for auction, the Aldridges’ interest in owning it quickly ramped up.

“Eric said he was going to go to the auction and see what it sells for,” Ellen Aldridge recalled. “He calls me and says, ‘We own Boxwood now.’ When I told the kids, they went ‘really!’ I couldn’t hear anything in the house over all the screaming, shouting and jumping.

“We had read the history (of Boxwood), but owning it was probably never really on my mind. But here we are.”

Where the Aldridges are is at a place where they are working closely with the Landmark Trust historic preservation nonprofit to ensure any renovations to the property are as accurate and appropriate as possible.

Landmark President Nick Rabold, who has advised the Aldridges on possible changes to the grounds and to the interior of the home, said he is pleased to have preservation-minded owners for Boxwood.

“This house, in my opinion, is of extreme architectural importance,” Rabold said. “Construction may have begun as early as 1837, and wasn’t completed until 1843.

“That length of time signals the amount of work it took to build it. Everything was done with hand tools.”

Preserving such buildings is never guaranteed, so Rabold has been happy to help the Aldridges plan their renovations.

“I could not be prouder of what the Aldridges are doing here,” Rabold said. “They have the character and spirit to do this correctly, in a way that is not only beautiful but meaningful.”

Having a preservation-minded owner can save historic structures like Boxwood from being used in inappropriate ways, Rabold explained.

“Bowling Green has historic zoning ordinances, but there’s no way to prevent a building like Boxwood from being turned into a bunch of apartments,” he said. “It’s zoned to be apartments.

“Thank God someone with the foresight and funds to do it properly got it.”

The Aldridges will be the latest in a long line of Boxwood owners. Rabold said the Colonial-style home was built by John B. Clark and later owned by Ben Grider, Pleasant J. Potter and then Sallie Willis.

O.V. Clark and his wife, Susie Lee Robertson Clark, purchased the property and made some changes in the 1930s that included adding the carriage house.

The Clarks ushered in what Rabold calls “sort of the heyday” for Boxwood.

“Bowling Green society used to be really grand,” Rabold said. “Boxwood was the beating heart of that society.”

Now the Aldridges are hoping to keep that heart beating through some internal renovations that will restore Boxwood to that 1930s feel and some landscaping on the 0.6-acre lot that will include magnolias in the back garden and other plants appropriate to the period.

“We’re trying to be as historically correct as we can and honor the original Clark remodel,” Eric Aldridge said.

Plans beyond the remodel, though, are still taking shape.

“We’ve tossed around several ideas,” said Ellen Aldridge. “Renting the carriage house, using the house for meeting space or as an Airbnb. We’ve talked about doing small events here.”

The Aldridges already have one event – the spring wedding of a nephew – planned for Boxwood. Others may be needed, Rabold points out, for the property to be sustainable.

“People must be realistic about historic structures,” Rabold said. “They’re extremely expensive buildings to maintain. There needs to be some stream of income that can prop them up and ensure their longevity.”

Longevity factors into Eric Aldridge’s plans for Boxwood.

“We’re going to be stewards of this property for a period of time,” he said. “We want to pass it off better than we found it, and we found it in exceptional condition.”

But don’t expect to see Boxwood on the market again anytime soon.

“I’m going to hand it off to the next generation,” Eric Aldridge said. “We have no plans to sell it until far in the future.”