For Sale: Tennessee Inn Where Andrew Jackson Slept
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Sept. 9, 2009
The old brick house in Farragut, Tenn., may not look like much today, but it caught President Andrew Jackson's eye in in 1825, when he rented a room there. Once known as the Campbell Station Inn and now a private home, the c. 1810 building is located on a busy main road in a prime location. And it's now for sale.
"One of our fears is that someone will tear it down," says Farragut Mayor Ralph McGill. "We obviously want to save it because it's one of the treasures of the town, and we could make it into a tourist site."
Listed at $1.875 million since June, the 2.26-acre property could be rezoned for commercial use, which could put the house in the way of new development.
"The question is, how can we include the house in any future development and attract a [preservation-oriented] developer?" says Kim Trent, executive director of the nonprofit Knox Heritage, which is working with the city to find a way to protect the Campbell Station Inn.
"We think it's the only house in Knox County where a sitting president stayed overnight," Trent says.
McGill says the "best outcome" would be to turn the house into a museum at its original location. If not, he says, the town could to move it to a lot behind the town hall, about a mile away, and restore it there as a museum.
"Our funds are limited," McGill says. "We have a lot of ideas where this all might be going, but at this point we're just in limbo."
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