The Listing Life: Inside Colonel Sanders’ Former Home, The Original KFC Headquarters, And The Wild Secret Recipe Drama
Yes, this is technically a real estate story. It is also a story involving fried chicken, a mansion in a restaurant parking lot, a disputed secret recipe, and one of the most recognizable entrepreneurs in American history.
Some real estate assignments come with a difficult appraisal. This one comes with a 160-year-old mansion, an operating restaurant, a registered trademark, Colonel Sanders’ personal belongings, and a handwritten recipe containing exactly 11 herbs and spices.
At the center of it all is eXp Realty agent and auctioneer Jonathan Klunk, who has spent the past five years helping the owners of the Claudia Sanders Dinner House and Blackwood Hall prepare for a sale unlike anything Kentucky has seen before.
Jonathan recently sat down to share the details of the listing and the incredible history hidden inside this famous estate.
A Historic Time Capsule
An estate of this calibre doesn’t have neighborhood comps to benchmark against. Between the 25,000 sqft restaurant with a dining room that seats 700 people, an enormous 4,000 sqft kitchen, and its connection to one of the most recognizable figures in American food history, there was no obvious formula for determining its value.
That’s why it’s hitting the market through a sealed bid auction. Along with the 25,000 sqft facility, the offering includes approximately three commercial acres, Colonel Sanders’ former home, the operating business, furniture, commercial equipment, intellectual property, trademark rights, and decades of goodwill.
Then there is the memorabilia.
More than 100 personal artifacts connected to Colonel Sanders are being offered separately through a live auction with worldwide online bidding. The collection includes his working planner, engraved pressure cooker, commercial stove, carving knives, Masonic jewelry, watches, business documents, and his original Kentucky Colonel certificate.
The memorabilia auction begins July 28. Sealed bids for the historic property and operating business are due July 31.
A Real Estate Goldmine
By late 1963, Sanders had grown KFC to more than 600 franchised locations. The following year, he decided to sell Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million. But seven years later, he watched those exact same buyers flip the franchise for a staggering $285 million.
That $283 million difference would later influence how Sanders selected the next owners of his Shelbyville property.
Furious over the massive financial disparity, the Colonel vowed to tightly control his next venture. Following the KFC sale, Colonel and Claudia Sanders opened the restaurant that would become the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. The restaurant, which is still open today, makes all of its food from scratch, including green beans with ham, and incredible creamed spinach.
Jonathan already has thoughts about what a new owner could do with the Claudia Sanders name. The real opportunity, he believes, may be waiting in the grocery store freezer aisle.
The restaurant’s yeast rolls could sit beside Sister Schubert’s. Its creamed spinach could become a heat-and-serve side. Its fried chicken seasoning, desserts, and other recipes could become a complete line of Claudia Sanders products.
“If they can find a way to can those green beans, that would be better than any canned green bean that’s out there right now,” he said.
Jonathan believes that brand potential could eventually become more valuable than the restaurant operation itself.
The building also contains multiple dining rooms, banquet facilities, a gift shop, and a sweeping staircase leading to a second-floor lounge and balcony.
There is also an unused second-floor bar and lounge overlooking the restaurant’s dramatic staircase.
“That’s 25% to 40% more upside for the next owners if they establish a nicely curated bar program,” he said.
There’s also a mansion right there in the parking lot – Blackwood Hall. That property also offers possibilities far beyond its current use. Blackwood Hall could potentially become a boutique inn, bed-and-breakfast, executive retreat, museum, or bourbon tourism destination. It is also eligible for consideration for the National Register of Historic Places, which could open the door to historic rehabilitation tax credits, subject to the necessary approvals.
Yes, There Is a Mansion in the Parking Lot
Before there was Claudia Sanders Dinner House, there was Blackwood Hall. Built in 1866, the home became the residence of Colonel Sanders and his wife, Claudia, after they moved to Shelbyville in 1959.
With 5,462 sqft, the house has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, 16 rooms, and four fireplaces. The house also includes a library, sunroom, den, enclosed porch, and a wood-paneled first-floor office that Jonathan Klunk would happily claim for himself.
“If the home had a personality,” Jonathan said, “I think it would be Southern and sassy, but a little bit old too.”
Inside Blackwood Hall is an enormous commercial range that stretches approximately eight feet across the kitchen. It is the same type of equipment early KFC restaurants used in the 1950s.
Beside it sits a carving surface that makes the average cutting board look like a drink coaster.
“It was a piece of furniture behind him, not one that you just put on a table,” Jonathan Klunk said. “It was the whole table.”
While Blackwood Hall was Sanders' permanent residence, the property also became a base of operations for the rapidly expanding Kentucky Fried Chicken business. It’s also where some of KFC’s earliest franchise training happened.
Franchise owners traveled to Shelbyville, signed the guest book, and sometimes stayed overnight at Blackwood Hall. The next day, Colonel Sanders taught them how to carve, bread, and pressure-fry the chicken.
Claudia handled the other half of the lesson.
“She would go up and put on her big antebellum gown and come down and serve everybody, and teach them the skill of hospitality as well,” Jonathan said.
Where Colonel Sanders focused on food quality, Claudia showed operators how guests should be treated. Together, they created an early version of franchise training inside their home.
Today, Jonathan calls the kitchen “the Colonel’s classroom.” It remains so well preserved that he believes the entire room could become a museum exhibit.
“You know how they have Julia Child’s kitchen in the Smithsonian?” he asked. “Honestly, it looks very much today like it did back then. It is a time capsule.”
The auction collection even includes the Colonel’s engraved carving knives and a pressure cooker bearing his name. According to Jonathan, other pressure cookers associated with Sanders have sold for upward of $100,000.
This one, he says, was the one the Colonel actually used.
Listing Aesthetic Breakdown
Style Vibe: Southern and sassy with preserved 1866 character.
Favorite Design Moment: The restaurant’s sweeping staircase leading to the second-floor lounge and balcony.
Palette: Warm wood tones, traditional brick and historic Southern finishes.
Room We’d Move Into Today: The wood-paneled office on the first floor of Blackwood Hall.
“You Don’t Want That Restaurant. You Want My Restaurant.”
The story of how Tommy and Cherry Settle became the property’s next owners begins at a KFC conference in Miami.
Cherry worked for KFC and delivered daily training sessions on hospitality and restaurant operations at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Colonel Sanders reportedly sat in the front row for every presentation.
The two developed a friendship. When Cherry and her then-fiancé wanted to purchase a KFC franchise in Virginia, she approached Sanders about helping them finance it.
His answer changed their lives.
“He said, ‘You don’t want that restaurant. You want my restaurant,’” Jonathan revealed.
Cherry didn’t even know the Shelbyville restaurant existed.
The couple traveled to Kentucky and spent the next several months effectively auditioning for the opportunity. Sanders wanted to make sure they could operate the business and protect what he and Claudia had created.
“He had just been burned by selling KFC for $2 million,” Jonathan said. “He was like, ‘This isn’t going to happen again. I’m going to choose who’s going to take over this.’”
Tommy and Cherry purchased Blackwood Hall and the Claudia Sanders Dinner House directly from Colonel and Claudia Sanders on August 1, 1974.
The relationship extended far beyond a business transaction.
Cherry’s father had died when she was young, so Colonel Sanders walked her down the aisle at her wedding. Both of the Settles’ children were born in Blackwood Hall. The Colonel remained involved in the family’s life, and the collection includes a photograph of him wearing a party hat at their son Tommy’s fifth birthday celebration.
When the families changed possession of the property, the move happened almost simultaneously. The Sanderses left Blackwood Hall as the Settles moved in. Both families were downsizing, so many of Sanders' belongings remained in the house.
Those items became the foundation of the collection now going to auction.
The Planner That Caused a Lot of Drama
The most talked-about item in the auction is a leather-bound 1964 working planner.
Its pages document pieces of Colonel Sanders’ everyday life: where he ate, what he paid, how much he tipped, which Delta flight he took and when he expected to return home. There are meetings, television appearances, store openings, contacts, and recipes.
Then there is the handwritten list in the back. It contains exactly 11 herbs and spices, complete with proportions.
The Settles found the planner while sorting boxes in the basement and attempted to have the recipe authenticated. KFC responded with a lawsuit in 2001. After examining the list, the company dropped the case and maintained that the recipe was nowhere close to its closely guarded original recipe.
According to Jonathan, KFC said the handwritten mixture was intended for stuffing. The auction team decided to test that theory.
“We made the stuffing recipe, and it was gross,” Jonathan laughed.
The recipe is also similar to the seasoning used at the Claudia Sanders Dinner House, according to Jonathan. KFC still says it is not the recipe locked inside its vault, and the auction team is making no promises.
Still, there are 11 ingredients. There was a lawsuit. Now, someone gets to buy the planner and decide what they believe.
“I think the lore is interesting enough that we can all just believe that it is and let somebody have that bragging right after they purchase it,” Jonathan said.
The planner may receive the most attention, but the auction includes pieces from nearly every corner of Sanders’ personal and professional life.
There is his original Kentucky Colonel certificate, the document behind a title many people mistakenly assume came from military service. A Kentucky Colonel commission is an honorary distinction awarded by the governor of Kentucky.
Sanders was also a Freemason, and the collection contains bolo ties, gold rings and other pieces featuring Masonic imagery. There are watches that still work, a personal briefcase, photographs, letters from the White House, his bow tie and suspenders, a cash register and records featuring the Colonel’s mandolin band and Christmas album.
That Christmas album may be especially interesting to international collectors. KFC has become a major Christmas tradition in Japan, where customers make reservations, order holiday meals in advance, and line up for fried chicken throughout the season.
But for Jonathan, he was most fascinated by the paperwork found inside file folders and briefcases. Among the documents is a proposed business agreement covered in Sanders’ handwritten edits.
“He was crossing through things and making changes,” Jonathan said. “To me, that’s a lot more interesting than having a copy of the finalized version of the contract. This tells you exactly what he thinks.”
This Was Never Going to Be a Typical Listing
Jonathan first became involved with Blackwood Hall and the Claudia Sanders Dinner House approximately five years ago.
When the family decided the time was right to revisit the sale, Jonathan returned with a new skill set. After participating in four successful auctions for previous clients, he had followed his instincts and become a licensed auctioneer.
That allowed him to approach the property as both an eXp Realty agent and an auctioneer. The two roles require an understanding of real estate transactions, bidder psychology, storytelling and how to create urgency around an asset that cannot be valued using conventional neighborhood comparisons.
“Auction is full of stories,” Jonathan said. “That’s what sells the most, the interesting stories.”
Marketing the Property
The memorabilia will be sold through a live, globally syndicated auction here on July 28. The real estate, operating business and intellectual property are being handled separately through a confidential sealed-bid auction.
Buyers have until 11:59 p.m. ET on July 31 to submit their strongest offers. The sellers can accept, counter or reject any submission.
For Jonathan, the format provides a way to discover what the complete offering is worth. There is no easy comparison for a 160-year-old mansion packaged with a 25,000 sqft restaurant, commercial acreage, an operating business and a historic brand.
“It is difficult to appraise. It is unique. It has a small buyer pool,” Jonathan said.
The auction also gave the team a new way to relaunch a property that had already attracted widespread media attention. By combining the listing with the Colonel Sanders artifact collection, they created a story capable of reaching potential buyers and collectors around the world.
For the property’s original marketing campaign, Jonathan wore a white suit and black tie while posing with a piece of fried chicken.
That sense of humor is part of his listing strategy.
“You have to be the evangelist and the storyteller for these properties and get as many eyeballs on it as possible,” he said. “You can’t just count on the listing description to do that for you.”
Jonathan believes a distinctive listing gives agents permission to be creative, especially when the property already has a story people want to share.
“If I’m not having fun, I don’t want to do it,” he said. “Life is too hard. You don’t have to be so serious.”
The Claudia Sanders Dinner House remains open throughout the sale process. The Settles hope its next owner will continue serving the Colonel’s recipes, welcome guests like family and find new ways to grow the brand they have protected for more than five decades.
By August 1, the estate may have its next steward. Until then, dinner is still being served, bidders are studying the Colonel’s planner, and one of Kentucky’s most unusual listings is preparing for its next chapter.
Interested in learning more? Get Connected with Jonathan Klunk:
Phone: (502) 410-8181
Email: jonathan@gokeysource.com
Instagram
References in this release to KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the Colonel Sanders story are historical and descriptive only. Neither eXp Realty nor AGNT, Inc. are affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by YUM! Brands, Inc. or KFC, and no such affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement should be inferred.
eXp Realty and AGNT, Inc. make no representations or warranties regarding the property, the operating business, the artifacts, or the outcome of the auction. The sealed-bid real estate auction and the memorabilia auction are subject to the applicable auction terms and conditions available at ClaudiaSandersAuction.com.
