Bed & Breakfast..

 

 ..in the Foothills of the Smoky Mountains

For Reservations Call:

(865) 980-5623

The Chilhowee Inn gets its name from the Chilhowee Mountain range, in which the town of Walland is located.  This range of rolling mountains border the Tennessee side of The Great Smoky Mountains.

The Inn was named by Mrs. Rachel Fisher, wife of the builder, Mr. A. J. Fisher who was also Superintendant of the tannery.

Established in 1903 by the Schlosser Leather Company,  or “tannery”, the Chilhowee Inn was originally constructed as a 5 room cottage to house executives visiting the tannery.  Sleeping quarters were in the attic, where you can see the dormers.  This was at the last stop on the Knoxville-Augusta line of the Southern Railway System.

Original Chilhowee Inn

The pictures below & left, show the first addition to the Chilhowee Inn.  There were 8 rooms on each floor of the addition, with a hallway down the center(16 guest rooms plus the cottage).  Staircases were located outside on either end.  The addition was connected to the original cottage by a “dog trot” (covered porch).  If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see 6 insulators and wiring on the right of the picture.  Yes, the Chilhowee Inn had electricity from its beginning.  This was DC current, with the generating plant located 2 miles downstream on the Little River.

All of the original structure still exists today.   (Rooms are larger, and the staircase is inside)

Even after automobiles became available, train, horse, or mule was the best way to travel in the mountains.   The first motor vehicles did not have fuel pumps.  Gasoline was fed to the engine by gravity, not a good thing when traveling up steep grades.

Fording was the only way across the Little River to Walland, from the RR depot.  Some locals made a little extra money by carrying visitors across the river in their wagons or buggies. 

A view of Walland, Tennessee today, with the Smoky Mountains in the background.  Gone is the tannery & the railroad, but the beauty of these mountains remain.  This photo was taken from the mountain behind the Chilhowee Inn.

The Walland Depot is now part of the Little River Railroad Museum display in Townsend.

The Little River Railroad Co. takes the last load of logs out of The Great Smoky Mountains, before becoming a national park.

 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was dedicated in 1940.  Original proposal for the park included the towns Townsend and Walland within its boundary.

For most of its history, the Chilhowee Inn has served visitors to this area with a place to stay and get a good meal.  It was once used as a boarding house for teachers during the school year, rent paid for by the tannery.  This allowed for a 9 month school year in Walland.

The Chilhowee Inn entered its “golden age” in the 1930’s.  The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1940 brought even more visitors to the mountains.  It continued to operate as an inn for visitors, but also became nationally renowned for its excellent meals.  People visiting the new national park, would carry their experiences back home, and write ups of the Chilhowee Inn began to appear in many national publications of the times.  Local organizations, and those in surrounding counties, came to the Chilhowee Inn for their annual meetings and dinners.

Final Note

Above left, is the covered railroad bridge which was the only vehicle bridge across the Little River into Walland, at this time.  Below left, is a picture of Walland, Tennessee c.1910.  The large group of buildings in the center is the tannery, which was destroyed by fire in the 1930’s.  Lower right is the Walland Depot, last stop on a spur of the Knoxville-Augusta line of the Southern Railway, and the starting point for the Little River Railroad.  US Hwy 321 follows the old railroad bed from Maryville.  A turnaround for the train was located across the river at the tannery.  The Great Smoky Mountains are in the background.

Another view of Walland , c.1910, with the Chilhowee Mountains in the background.   In the center left you can see the covered railroad bridge, and right behind it — the Chilhowee Inn.

The Chilhowee Inn ceased being open to the public c.1970.  It spent 20 years sitting vacant and deteriorating, until purchased by the Pullias family in 2005.  Since moving in, John, Carolyn, their son Tom, along with family and friends, have worked to bring the structure and grounds back to what it is today.  The Chilhowee Inn re-opened as a Bed & Breakfast on February 1, 2008.  The restoration is far from over, but the Chilhowee Inn is ready once again to serve visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Come and experience a part of East Tennessee history, and enjoy our hospitality.

July 8, 2008