Before Kentucky was a state, before Pisgah Pike had a name, something was being built on this land.
this land has a story.
farm history
Three-thousand years. One piece of land.
The property that became Reverie Farm has been continuously inhabited, farmed, and cared for for over two centuries, and traveled through for thousands of years before that. The farm sits on the intersection of Pisgah Pike and Old Frankfort Pike—a road that predates Kentucky statehood and was named one of America's National Scenic Byways in 2021. What follows is the history of this land, as best as we have been able to piece it together.
The Hopewell People
1,000 B.C. — 500 a.d.
The nomadic Hopewell tribe traversed this land as part of a trading network stretching from southern Ohio into Central Kentucky. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Iroquois nations also frequented the banks of Elkhorn Creek along what is now Old Frankfort Pike.
The First Settlers
1780s
The Harris family were the first to build a home here. Old Frankfort Pike is built; Woodford County is established.
The Woolridge Era
1888 — 1899
The Wooldridge family owned the property before selling to W.T. Wiglesworth, who renamed it Faywood—a combination of Fayette and Woodford Counties. The name held for nearly 100 years.
George L. Bagby
1934
A Broadway composer and celebrated tenor, Bagby organized the prestigious Bagby Foundation concerts at New York's Waldorf Astoria. At Faywood he added a ballroom and built the spring-fed lake that still supplies water to the farm.
A Governor in Residence
MID-20TH CENTURY
The Faywood Mansion was home for a period to Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn, elected in 1967.
Hopewell Farm
1997
The Trontz family purchased the property and transformed it into a Thoroughbred operation, restoring the 18th-century stone wall and constructing the horse barns that remain on the farm today.
A New Chapter
2013
The property was divided and sold. The parcel now known as Reverie was purchased by Nat Rea and coined Regis Farms. John Durr was hired as farm manager.
Bonne Chance Farm
2015
Nat Rea sold to Brazilian owners Gilberto Sayão da Silva and Paulo Fernando de Oliveira, and the farm became the North American division of Bonne Chance Farm. The land was maintained with the same careful stewardship it had always known.
Reverie Farm
2025
Curtis and Beth Harrell purchased the property and named it Reverie Farm. John Durr stayed on. They intend to be here a long time, to keep the herd small, and to care for this land the way it has always deserved. The story continues.
The Williams Family
1795
After Harrison Harris's death in 1795, the land passed to the Williams family, who farmed it for nearly a century. The family cemetery remains on the property.
