Mentelle Park, Lexington, Kentucky

The listing for this snowy and charming home in Lexington, Kentucky assures us that we will love this adorable Victorian bungalow. Granted, it's adorable, but it's not a Victorian bungalow.

It does have ties to the Victorian era, though, thanks to a fellow named Waldemarde Mentelle, Jr. who had friends in high places. (Mentelle Park is named for his family. Waldemarde is a name that is totally due for a resurgence, although it does sound a bit like a Harry Potter villain.)

Waldemarde did have an adorable Victorian bungalow. It looked like this:

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He also hobnobbed with prominent Kentuckians Mary Todd Lincoln and Henry Clay, and if it weren't for that hobnobbing, this 1920 cottage might not have been built.  More on that in a bit. Let's get to the adorable first.

The cottage has diamond pane windows, polished hardwood floors, and a cozy, formal living room.

It reminded me of this living room...

{Will Fisher}

...or this living room, if you want to play up the Victorian Collector theme:

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The living room is small...

...but is open to this pretty dining room with its "projecting parlor bay":

Down the hall is the kitchen:

If it were mine, I'd go for a more timeless with a touch of historic look. (With maybe some old Lexington brick for the floors?)

{Isler Homes}

The kitchen overlooks this sunny breakfast room...

...which leads to the laundry room:

I'm not sure what or where this room is, but it has cute storage potential:

Here is the hall that leads from the kitchen to the bedrooms. There are three bedrooms (two downstairs and one upstairs) and three bathrooms in 2,033 square feet.

The roomy attic bedroom overlooks both the front and back yards.

Back in the day, that 2 car garage might have housed a beauty like this:

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Note that the limestone pillar behind the the car reads Mentelle Park. It's one of four placed at the ends of the neighborhood when it was established in 1906.

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Today's Google street view looks like this:

The cottage is in the left foreground below, and you can see the tree-lined median.

Here's a slightly older view of the house (again, on the left):

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The Mentelles of Mentelle Park were an interesting family. They were French immigrants who settled in Lexington in 1798. They tried a little bit of everything to be successful, including hemp farming and horse doctoring, but what really worked for them was schooling. Mary Todd was one of their students at Mrs. Mentelle's School for Young Ladies from 1832 to 1836. 

It also helped that neighbor Henry Clay, the Great Compromise senator (his Ashland estate is about half a mile away) gave them tracts of land that ultimately became the Mentelle Park neighborhood. 

It's those connections that turn this 1920 cottage into a proper (and adorable)Victorian bungalow, no matter what the National Register of Historic Places says. 

The house already has a pending offer, but the listing is here.