Walking Horse Hotel | |
---|---|
General information | |
Address | 101 Spring Street |
Town or city | Wartrace, Tennessee 37183 |
Country | United States |
Named for | Tennessee Walking Horses, a breed the Wartrace area is known for producing |
Renovated | 2007 |
Owner | Joe Peters |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | Seven |
Website | |
walkinghorsehotel | |
Restaurant information | |
Owner(s) | Joe Peters |
Previous owner(s) | Floyd Carothers |
Chef | Jason Thompson |
Seating capacity | 75 |
Reservations | Encouraged |
Walking Horse Hotel | |
Coordinates | 35°31′38″N86°20′4″W / 35.52722°N 86.33444°W |
Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
Built | 1917 |
NRHP reference No. | 84003262 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 19, 1984 |
The Walking Horse Hotel is a hotel on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located in downtown Wartrace, Tennessee, and is a part of the Wartrace Historic District. The hotel is in business as such, and also contains the Strolling Jim Restaurant, named for the original owner's World Grand Championship-winning show horse.
The Walking Horse Hotel was first built in 1917 as a railroad hotel, and was named the Hotel Overall. [2] In 1933, the Hotel Overall was purchased by Floyd and Olive Carothers. [3] In the late 1930s, it was the base for a group of horse trainers, who eventually created the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, an annual horse show held for the first time in 1939. Because of this, the name was changed to the Walking Horse Hotel. [4]
The first winner of the Celebration, Strolling Jim, who was owned and trained by Floyd Carothers, is buried behind the hotel. [5] [6]
Since 2015, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Museum has had a framed portrait of Strolling Jim on display. [5] Floyd Carothers died in 1944, [7] but the hotel was owned and operated by Olive Carothers until 1958.
The building was sold several times, then renovated in 1995 and reopened as the Hotel Overall. It was closed several years later, renovated again by current owner Joe Peters, and reopened in 2007 with the Walking Horse name. [3] True to its history, the hotel retains many Walking Horse-related artifacts, particularly in the Strolling Jim Restaurant. [8]
The hotel was renovated in 2007, and now includes the Chais Music Lounge, named for the owner's late wife, and the Strolling Jim Restaurant, which serves three meals a day. [9] [10] The hotel has seven rooms available for rent.
Every fall from late September to Halloween, the Walking Horse Hotel is open to the public as a haunted attraction. [11] It is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Floyd Carothers, and in 1995 some guests reported seeing the ghost of Strolling Jim "prancing" around by his old stables behind the hotel.
Paranormal activity is supposed to have dropped, however, after Olive Carothers, Floyd's widow, died in 1991. [12]
In May 2016, the second floor of the hotel caught fire. It and the third floor sustained smoke and water damage but were mostly unharmed. [13]
The Walking Horse Hotel was featured on an episode of My Ghost Story . The segment was titled "Dead Horse Walking". It aired on the Travel Channel in 2012.
The hotel was also showcased as a haunted location on Haunted Live in 2018 as the Tennessee Wraith Chasers investigated the hotel live with viewers through social media. The episode aired on the Travel Channel.
Shelbyville is a city in and the county seat of Bedford County, Tennessee. The town was laid out in 1810 and incorporated in 1819. Shelbyville had a population of 20,335 residents at the 2010 census. The town is a hub of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry and has been nicknamed "The Walking Horse Capital of the World".
Wartrace is a town in Bedford County, Tennessee. The population was 653 at the 2020 census. It is located northeast of Shelbyville. The downtown area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wartrace Historic District.
The Former Chicago Historical Society Building is a historic landmark located at 632 N. Dearborn Street on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets near downtown Chicago. Built in 1892, the granite-clad building is a prime example of Henry Ives Cobb's Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. Henry Cobb designed this home for Walter Loomis Newberry, founder of the Newberry Library in Chicago. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, under the name, Old Chicago Historical Society Building.
The Driskill, a Romanesque-style building completed in 1886, is the oldest operating hotel in Austin, Texas, United States, and one of the best-known hotels in Texas generally. The Driskill was conceived and built by Col. Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his fortune constructing "the finest hotel south of St. Louis".
The Hermosa Inn is a small boutique hotel located in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley near 32nd Street and Camelback Road. Though not as well known as some of the larger resort hotels in Phoenix, the Hermosa Inn has been highly rated by AAA and Fodor's.
The Heathman Hotel, in Portland, Oregon, United States, was originally built as the New Heathman Hotel and opened in 1927. It is among the last remaining historical Portland hotels such as the Benson Hotel, Imperial Hotel, and Governor Hotel. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, as the New Heathman Hotel.
The Old Talbott Tavern, also known as the Old Stone Tavern, a historic tavern built in 1779, is located in the Bardstown Historic District of Bardstown, Kentucky, across from the historic Nelson County Courthouse. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 30, 1973.
The Green Park Inn is a historic hotel located on the Eastern Continental Divide in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The hotel was built in the 1880s and operated continuously until May 24, 2009, reopening after change of ownership and renovation on October 29, 2010.
The Crescent Hotel is a historic hotel at 75 Prospect Avenue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is billed as "America's most haunted hotel" and offers a ghost tour for a fee. The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Cavalier Hotel is a historic hotel building at 4200 Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The seven-story building was designed by Neff and Thompson with a Y-shaped floor plan and was completed in 1927. Most of its hotel rooms featured views of the Atlantic Ocean, and all had private bathrooms. The hotel also featured dining facilities and opportunities for shopping, as well as amenities such as swimming pools that are now common features of modern hotels.
The Read House Hotel is a historic hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, founded in 1872. The 141-room main building dates to 1926, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for Hamilton County. The 100-room rear wing was added in 1962, originally as a motel.
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration (TWHNC), sometimes known as the Celebration, is the largest horse show for the Tennessee Walking Horse breed, and has been held annually in or near Shelbyville, Tennessee since its inception in 1939. The Celebration was conceived by Henry Davis, a horse trainer who along with several other horsemen, felt the Shelbyville area should have a festival or annual event. Although the Celebration was originally held in Wartrace, Tennessee, it moved to Shelbyville, the seat of Bedford County, a few years later. The Celebration spans 11 days and nights in late August and early September annually, and finishes with the crowning of the World Grand Champion Tennessee Walker on the Saturday night before Labor Day. The TWHNC draws an estimated 2,000 horses and 250,000 spectators to Shelbyville each year.
Strolling Jim (1936–1957) was the first Tennessee Walking Horse to become World Grand Champion of his breed. Since Strolling Jim's death, a restaurant, street, and an annual ultramarathon in his hometown of Wartrace, Tennessee have been named after him.
The Wartrace Historic District is an area on the National Register of Historic Places. It covers an area in downtown Wartrace, Tennessee ranging roughly from Spring Street, from Coffey to Main Streets, from Vine Street from Broad to McKinley Streets, and Knob Circle Road from Main to McKinley Streets.
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Museum is the only museum dedicated entirely to the Tennessee Walking Horse. It is located in downtown Wartrace, Tennessee, and contains exhibits on all aspects of the Walking Horse industry.
Steve Hill was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer. He is one of only three horse trainers to win the breed's World Grand Championship four times, and trained the first three-time winner.
Floyd Carothers was an American horse trainer from Wartrace, Tennessee. Carothers trained Strolling Jim, the first Tennessee Walking Horse to become World Grand Champion of his breed. He also trained the third World Grand Champion, Melody Maid.
The horse industry in Tennessee is the 6th largest in the United States, and over 3 million acres of Tennessee farmland are used for horse-related activities. The most popular breed in the state is the Tennessee Walking Horse - developed by crossing Thoroughbred, Morgan, Saddlebred, and Standardbred horses in the 19th and 20th centuries - and it became an official state symbol in 2000.
The Thomas House Hotel, formerly the Cloyd Brothers Hotel is a historic hotel on East Main Street in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1927, Thomas House is one of three hotels remaining from the early-20th century resort boom at Red Boiling Springs. In 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places along with the other two hotels, the Donoho Hotel and Counts Hotel.
The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Restaurant in the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is a registered national historic landmark, built in the early 19th century by Juan Bandini and later purchased by Albert Seeley to serve as a stagecoach hotel. In 2010, restorations and added fine dining restaurant revived the hotel to its 1870s charm, making it again a focal point of the original downtown area.