Old Deery Inn | |
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| Location | Main St., Blountville, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 36°31′59″N82°19′34″W / 36.53306°N 82.32611°W Coordinates: 36°31′59″N82°19′34″W / 36.53306°N 82.32611°W |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1794 |
| Architectural style | Log dwelling |
| NRHP reference # | 73001838 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 7, 1973 |
The Deery Inn, also known as "The Old Tavern" or "The Mansion House and Store," is a historic building on Main Street in Blountville, Tennessee. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is considered the "centerpiece" of the Blountville local historic district. [1] [2]
Blountville is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,074 at the 2010 census. It is the only Tennessee county seat not to be an incorporated city or town.
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
Deery Inn is a two-story Federal-style building with 19 rooms. [2] [3] The original building was a log structure, built in the 1780s or 1790s, [1] [4] that served travelers passing through the area on the Great Stage Road. [3] [4] William Deery, an Irishman from Ulster, acquired the property in 1801. He expanded the building to include a general store and tavern, with hotel rooms on the second story. [3]
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federalist Era. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design in the United States of the same time period. The style broadly corresponds to the classicism of Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Regency architecture in Britain and to the French Empire style.
A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers.
The Great Stage Road was a stagecoach route between Nashville, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., beginning in the late 18th century.
The building's 19 rooms include a large entrance hall, a gathering room, a dining room, a library, two kitchens, three bathrooms, two attics, a cellar, four bedrooms for the family, and three sleeping rooms for travelers. There are two chimneys. The front of the building has three entrance doors and 13 windows whose glass panes are arranged in a nine-over-six configuration. [3]
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, or chimney effect. The space inside a chimney is called the flue. Chimneys are adjacent to large industrial refineries, fossil fuel combustion facilities or part of buildings, steam locomotives and ships. In the United States, the term 'Smokestack industry' refers to the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels by industrial society including the electric industry during its earliest history. The term smokestack is also used when referring to locomotive chimneys or ship chimneys, and the term funnel can also be used.
Deery prospered as a businessman. In addition to the inn, he owned and operated stores in several East Tennessee communities, a stagecoach line that had eight stagecoaches and 53 teams of horses as of 1821, and a steamboat service between Knoxville and Chattanooga. He died in 1845. [3] [5] Notable people who are recorded as having stayed at the inn in its early history include Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, the Marquis de LaFayette (on his U.S. travels in 1824–25), and Louis Phillipe Orleans, King of France. [3]
East Tennessee comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Marion. East Tennessee is entirely located within the Appalachian Mountains, although the landforms range from densely forested 6,000-foot (1,800 m) mountains to broad river valleys. The region contains the major cities of Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Johnson City, Tennessee's third, fourth, and ninth largest cities, respectively.
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy" and to preserve the Union.
James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. He previously was speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and governor of Tennessee (1839–1841). A protégé of Andrew Jackson, he was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy. Polk is chiefly known for extending the territory of the United States during the Mexican–American War; during his presidency, the United States expanded significantly with the annexation of the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the Mexican Cession following the American victory in the Mexican–American War.
During the Civil War Gideon and Mary Cox Cates leased the property and operated the inn under the name Cates' Hotel. Several surrounding buildings, including the Sullivan County courthouse, were destroyed by fire during the Battle of Blountville, but the inn survived because Cates had used bribery to get the Union and Confederate commanders to spare his inn. [3]
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The most studied and written about episode in U.S. history, the Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 156,823. Its county seat is Blountville.
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply called "courts" or "court buildings". In most of Continental Europe and former non-English-speaking European colonies, the equivalent term is a palace of justice.
Gideon and Mary Cates purchased the property after the Civil War, and owned it until the 1880s. In 1887, the inn was sold to Amanda Pearson, whose family was to own it until 1940. [3] The property was operated as an inn until 1930. [6] At some time during the Pearson family ownership, the inn building housed a post office. [3]
A post office is a public department that provides a customer service to the public and handles their mail needs. Post offices offer mail-related services such as acceptance of letters and parcels; provision of post office boxes; and sale of postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. In addition, many post offices offer additional services: providing and accepting government forms, processing government services and fees, and banking services. The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster.
Virginia Byars Caldwell bought the inn in 1940. She undertook to restore the property to its early 19th-century appearance. She also moved several old log structures onto the back of the property, including a smokehouse, the offices of the King Ironworks, a spring house, and an early law office. [3]
The Old Deery Inn is now owned by the government of Sullivan County. [3] A substantial restoration project was undertaken in 2007. [7] The inn is managed by the Sullivan County Historical Preservation Association and is open for group tours. [3]
