PARK CITY — For Karin Baldwin-Carroll, restoring what is now The Grand Victorian Inn was a dream 21 years in the making. 

Karin and her husband, Gary Carroll, spent 4 1/2 months restoring the building with a 130-year history. On Wednesday, the Carrolls had a ribbon-cutting event for the bed and breakfast and cafe at 5 Old Dixie Highway in Park City. 

The inn has been open since Aug. 3, but a grand opening will be Sept. 24, Baldwin-Carroll said. The inn’s restaurant, the Mammoth Railway Cafe, opened a week and a half before the ribbon-cutting event. 

“It’s neat to take something that was in poor condition and bring it back to something that’s useful,” Gary Carroll said at the event, which drew several community members. 

The couple didn’t have much success opening bed and breakfast locations in Arizona and California until they moved to Glasgow, where they operate Hall Place and the Main Street Bed and Breakfast. The inn in Park City features 11 rentable rooms and bike trails that begin in the building’s yard and connect to Mammoth Cave National Park, Baldwin-Carroll said in a later interview. The couple would like to add a bike rental service in the future, as well as cottages.

“I think it’ll help the community,” she said. 

The Grand Victorian Inn dates to 1885, when it was owned by the Renfro family and was used as a hotel for Mammoth Cave tourists. Back then, tourists would come in on the railroad, which sits right in front of the bed and breakfast, and take stagecoaches to Mammoth Cave. 

In 1905, the Renfro Hotel became the Mentz Hotel and later the Fishback Hotel, Baldwin-Carroll said. From 1946 to 1952, the building became the Baulch Junior School for Boys. Later, the building was a nursing home for six years before it became a personal home, Baldwin-Carroll said. 

The Carrolls officially took over the building from the city in March, and although the building was structurally sound, it needed a lot of work. The couple added new siding, wiring and plumbing. 

Baldwin-Carroll, who likes to decorate, said they bought all the decorations locally. The interior of the building features a servant staircase and objects that take visitors back to another time, such as shaving sinks in the hallway with old razors, Vaseline jars and soap boxes.  

“Personally, I feel like my vision’s been fulfilled on a grand level,” Baldwin-Carroll said.

For Clyde Martin of Glasgow, attending the ribbon-cutting event and being back in the building brings back old memories. Martin remembers when he was about 6 years old and his family worked as tenant farmers. Now 87, Martin remembers when Mrs. Fishback gave him a dime every Saturday, which he used to buy ice cream. 

“I think it’s one of the best things that Park City’s had in the past couple years,” Martin said of the historic building. 

While staying true to its past, staff are also trying to bring the building into the present by launching the Mammoth Railway Cafe. 

Head chef James Sowders said the restaurant has a creative take on sandwiches and salads, using locally grown food. In the future, the cafe wants to offer daily lunch and dinner specials, he said. The cafe’s hours are from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. 

Sowders, who went through a difficult divorce that he said left him in a dark place, said working at the restaurant makes him feel like he’s back on the right path as a Christian. He hopes the cafe and bed and breakfast will bring back business so “this community can flourish again.” 

“I would love to see this community restored back to the way it was.”

— Follow Daily News WKU, county schools and general assignment reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter at twitter.com/aaron_mudd bgdn or visit bgdailynews.com.