KFC’s red-and-white buckets, stamped with the face of the chicken empire’s white-suited founder, are so familiar that it’s hard to imagine that back in the 1930s, Harland Sanders was selling his fried poultry out of a gas station. Today, more than 30,000 Kentucky Fried Chicken locations worldwide batter wings, thighs, and tenders in Sanders’s secret blend of herbs and spices, but it’s not the only restaurant bearing his stamp.
In 1968, after selling KFC, Sanders and his wife opened the Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in a building adjacent to their home, the historic mansion Blackwood Hall. They operated it until they sold the whole estate to their close family friends, the Settle family, in 1974. The Settles have preserved the Sanders’ handwritten recipes, kitchen tools, personal effects, letters, business records, and photographs since that sale—plus kept the Claudia Sanders Dinner House open and serving—for more than fifty years.
But now, all of it is headed to auction this week, from memorabilia to the family mansion and fully operating restaurant, and the Settles are hopeful for a new owner who will continue to preserve the restaurant’s legacy, and that of the entire collection.
Below, step inside the two properties—both up for sealed bid offers—and see some of the items up for sale.
Colonel Harland Sanders and his wife, Claudia, moved into a nineteenth-century estate in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in 1959, and lived and worked there for twenty-five years.
Originally the Sanders added an office building to the estate grounds, but in 1968 the couple converted it into a restaurant where they served homestyle Southern fare like country ham, fried green tomatoes, and of course, fried chicken. Today, the restaurant is still open and welcoming guests, operated by the Settle family.
In the later decades of his life, Colonel Sanders cultivated a careful public image—always decked out in a white suit, spectacles, and his signature goatee. This is the clip-on bow tie that often accompanied his classic ensemble.
Colonel Sanders started out pan-frying his chicken, but for roadside diners, that method took too long, so he rigged a domestic pressure cooker to accept hot oil and cut his frying time down. Early experimentation was dangerous, but it allowed him to build the KFC empire. (He nicknamed his favorite pressure cooker Bertha.) The auction has four pressure cookers up for sale.
In his personal planner, Sanders scribbled down observations, details of his travel and meals and day-to-day life, and notes from business meetings, offering a window into the business mogul’s everyday thinking.
Blackwood Hall and the restaurant, seen from above on the three-acre estate. As the Settle family said in a Facebook post: “Our greatest hope is to find new owners who will love the brand, honor its history, care for our incredible team, and continue serving the community that has supported us for generations.”
Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil. The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter, covering all aspects of the South, and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation. She lives on Johns Island, South Carolina.