Elkmont Historic District
Tennessee
Townsend Place, Elkmont Historic District, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Elkmont Historic District is located in the Little River Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Significant for its architecture and its role in helping form the national park, Elkmont was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and was awarded Save America's Treasures status in the late 1990s. In 2004, the Tennessee Preservation Trust listed Elkmont on its annual list of endangered historic places, Ten in Tennessee. Later that summer, the National Trust followed suit, a named Elkmont to its annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Wonderland Hotel, Elkmont Historic District, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
Elkmont is comprised of 72, early-twentieth century cabins, wood-frame structures whose modest simplicity of form and function belies their significant role in the park's formation. The district has been continuously occupied by Anglo-Americans for over 120 years, and utilized by man for logging, agriculture, habitation, and, most recently, recreation. Prior to European settlement, Native Americans inhabited this alluvial valley. In the years before the park's establishment, Elkmont's early dwellings were erected by prominent Tennesseans who were drawn to the Smoky Mountains by the region's great hunting and fishing opportunities. In 1900, lumber interests purchased land and timber and began to log the area's primeval hardwood forests. After two-thirds of the mountains' forests were depleted through logging, community leaders decided that the loss could no longer be tolerated and began advocating for the establishment of a national park. Prominent advocates included Colonel David C. Chapman, chair of the Tennessee Park Commission, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay, and Colonel W.B. Townsend, co-owner of the Little River Lumber Company and the Little River Railroad.
The National Trust has long expressed an interest in Elkmont, and has partnered with the National Park Service in undertaking the complex administrative process that will determine Elkmont's future. National Trust staff have taken an active role, urging park administrative staff to recognize the needs of the historic district as well as the park's natural environment. We believe the retention of a critical mass of buildings and their thoughtful reuse falls well within the Park Service mandate to promote and protect biodiversity, scenic refuge, and the continuum of human activity.
Submitted by Leightron at: November 17, 2009
Having visited Elkmont, I believe it would be in the best interest of the park and its visitors to restore and retain the homes of the historic district. It is an important part of the history of the Smokies and should not be wiped out as if it never existed. I would be more than glad to pay a fee to visit there, if it would help with the upkeep.
Submitted by grana at: September 16, 2009
Please look at the restoration work that has been done at Jekyll Island, Georgia. It is ongoing with federal and state funds available, grants, and the charge of a toll to get on the island all goes to the upkeep of the historic district. I hope that this national treasure can be saved. Once it is gone, it is gone forever and, along with it, the history of that era which is our heritage.