Exploring the Charming Town of Dandridge, Tennessee: A Journey through Time & A Local Drug Store

[Music] thank you hello everyone it's John Ward with Appalachian Channel and I'm here in Historic downtown Dandridge Tennessee one of the oldest cities in Tennessee and I'm here with Bob Jernigan he's a Jefferson County a historian been the historian since 2006 and he has an insurance agency right here in town and he just loves his chocolate going in his office he's got pictures of the old the old city back in the day all on his walls and everywhere and it's going to take us on a walking tour and show us some of the interesting places and tell us the histories of some of these buildings or what they were all the way back in the early 1800s sure you ready to go ready to go let's go well John we're standing now at the main intersection in downtown Dandridge downtown Dandridge is a National Historic District and it's an interesting mix of businesses and shops and a few places to eat and it is a working historic district it's not just shops it is actually working we have a functioning Courthouse right here beside us where they still hold Court one of the oldest court houses to still hope for in the state of Tennessee across the street we've got the Vance building that has been the Cornerstone of business since the 1820s when that was built by John Roper across the intersection we've got the old gas General Store buildings now occupied by Martha's Market you might want to go in there and interview them at Martha's Market the next building going down the street is the old Bank building the two-story brick building with the purple awning is the old original Bank building now it's Tracy's Treasures Lakeside Treasures we get along down the street you're going to see one of the original doctor's offices in town it's the blue Blue Roof and the yellow siding building that was Dr gallion's doctor's office that dyke is in the background the dikes saved the historic district in 1942 when TVA built Douglas Dam and formed the Douglas Reservoir and the last two buildings before you get to the dike are two of our early taverns Dandridge has four four of its original taverns Still Standing not occupied as taverns anymore but they were original taverns and the brick one is to now our town hall the blue building on the left is the shepherd Inn they'll be having lunches there today on Thursday let's go on down the street here this whole block burned in January of 1911. the whole block burned down so these buildings were built after that period And I particularly want to point out the Tennessee Bible drugstore in the middle there it was built in 1911 in Tennessee Bible drugs we still have an original sit down soda fountain drugstore a Dying Breed these days and and they have great homemade food in the tens of Bible drugstore you can go in and get your prescription filled and get a milkshake or a Bible Burger to eat for lunch let's go in and check them out and see what's going on in there Bob yeah yeah they didn't wash the pants but it was a zipper on yeah hello hello how are you doing today I'm doing well how are you we've been wonderful we always have done good and we can come to Historic towns like this we're glad to have you so can you tell us a little history about the drugstore of course so this drugstore was started 1911 by Dr Tinsley and then he brought in Dr Bible which was a pharmacist they ran this store for years and years all I've ever heard is amazing amazing things about both of those man dog bible took care of this entire town which I'm sure Bob jarnagin can tell you all about that he was he was the one to come to when you weren't feeling well or had any questions and it's been sold twice since then and still ran everything original everything on these walls have been here since 1911. thanks added on throughout the years and we're fortunate enough to keep it going yeah so you you own it now I do own it now I bought it last year my husband and I bought this store and the building and we're just very lucky to keep this going we love it we love the tradition we love the hometown feel where'd y'all move from we're just from Newport just about 15 minutes up the road yeah so was you pretty excited when you found this was for sale yes yeah I was I was very excited this is what I wanted it's just a it's like little town of Mayberry here yes absolutely I see y'all still do the food and I guess that's been going on we sure do it was open it sure is yeah it's a homemade chili today it's still the recipe from I believe it was dog Bible's wife so the tradition just keeps going over there how about that so Bob you've been you've lived here your entire life so far that you said you grew up here you grew up here tell us about coming here when you was a teenager oh man I've been coming here since I was a kid uh the the uh there was a little store on the corner where I bought my uh models you know you could build build little cars and models and these and you come over here and get milkshakes and ice cream and hamburgers and they have lunch specials but I've been eating lunch here and getting milkshakes at four o'clock in the afternoon most of my life and you know things haven't changed much the decor and and the service we get here hasn't changed much I asked Peggy down here at the end one day I said Peggy on a typical lunch day what percentage of people are local that come in here and she said Bob she said probably 80 of the people are visitors to Dandridge only 20 of the local people if even that much so the visitors like to come to Tennessee Bible drugstore and have their lunch hey John Here Comes Here Comes our County mayor Mark Potts how you doing hey John John's doing some filming he has a YouTube channel and uh it's mainly on visitors that might want to come to Dandridge and I told them in Tennessee bottle drug stores got to be on that list got to be on that list yeah you haven't been to dangerous if you haven't been defensive best burger in town milkshakes and the most important features that they have hey Peggy down there at the end yeah yeah so he knows everybody in greets everybody thank you Mark you're welcome how long have you had a business in downtown uh my grandfather had the bank in this row of buildings and he started that insurance agency in the bank in 1920. so we're over 100 years old really yeah and where we're headed next across the street was the gas General Store originally and and with Martha's Market they've kept the look and the feel of the old General Store that the gases had here for many many years this is where I used to come to get my shoes and some of my clothes was in the old gas General Store those old floors original Pine Floors look at those the only way to get that wood today is Salvage we don't grow that anymore grandson John plan for this store when when they open it up as Martha's Mark was make it kind of like a Mass General Store and we have in the back it's closed today we have a little coffee shop or sandwich shop back here in the back [Music] right back well great vision thank you so much yes yes we did talk about that okay how are you doing today Donald I'm doing great how about you good we're gonna walk down the street but I'll get back in touch with you about coming back and doing just a video on the story that'll be great I would love that thank you so much thanks for thinking about us John the next shop we're going to come to come we're going down uh Main Street now is Tracy's Lakeside Treasures this building was built in 1855 as a Bank building it was the Second Bank in Dandridge the bank of Jefferson uh was organized here and the old bank vault is still back in there it's it's a beautiful door with uh all kinds of scroll work and things on it but uh you think they'll show it to us I'll bet you we can get a look at it if you'd like to go in let's see if they let us take a look at that that's interesting hello welcome in hey we're doing a little video okay and and I wanted to show him the the old bike door the doors can open but he right now John that they use it that's the old bank vault room where they where they kept their Securities and their Cashers back in there uh before this counter was here we could swing that door open you could see the front of it you'll see a little bit of inside there's the name on it right there well that's neat the old Bank the old bank vault uh uh so this this operated as as a bank uh through the early mid mid part of the 1800s there's a bank building mid to late 1800s probably been on several different businesses since then I guess there's been quite a few businesses come and go in this in in this particular building John here here's my insurance office building uh my grandfather started HB Jernigan and Company Insurance in 1920. he was the mayor of Dandridge for 40 years H.B jarnagin senior was and he built this building in 1950 to move the insurance business out of the local bank the Jefferson County Bank into its own building he brought my father in after World War II and set him up in here in this building and turned Insurance business over to my father so I'm the third generation of jarnigans to run the HP journagan Insurance Agency here in Dandridge well that's a good history with your family here next building we've got this yellow building this is a a doctor this was Dr gallions uh Physicians when he was originally built in 1882 and you see the date up on the top it's easy for me to remember the construction date on this one it is now a private residence but it's been a lot of offices and shops through its history beautiful this house decorated for fall they do a great job of of seasonal changes of plants and flowers back in the back here next thing you're going to see is a big stage that this town has built it's being used every Thursday evening right now for music on the town and there will be a band come tonight and set up on this stage and everybody will bring their lawn chairs and sit out there by the dike and listen to some free music on September 30th on Saturday we'll close this street down in the Scott's Irish music fest will be held it'll be an all day long event and there'll be music on that stage all day long the bagpipes will be playing and and uh there'll be all kinds of vendors and and uh booths set up up and down Main Street for the Scots Irish music festival it's well attended and the people that like the Scots Irish heritage will come to this one our next building is our one of our original average in town it was built in early 1820s by John fayne it is now the Dandridge Town Hall this property was bought by TVA in 1942 when they needed to set up shop in danders to build that diet the million dollar diet that saved the town of Dandridge from the Waters of Douglas Lake during the during the midst of World War II in 42 when TPA was trying to get extra power to fuel the war effort they had to send power to to uh to uh Alcoa you know for aluminum production and the government was secretly building Oak Ridge and developing the Manhattan Project but they couldn't talk anything about it and the power developed from this dam was being sent down to Oak Ridge during the wartime effort so this is a comes all the way over to the bridge I think uh the damage goes over near the bridge and goes you know there's a parking lot up at the other end okay there's a good shot John up on top of the dike if you go up there later looking back at the store District you get to see a lot of the buildings so that would be a nice shot okay there and I know that I asked you before when I last time when I was here I was interested in this Pump Station over here and I thought that was to uh pump out water from the lake that might have ran over here but that's not the case the purpose of this pump house and Pump Station over here is TVA saved the town of damage the government did by building this diet because it keeps the lake water out of downtown damage but what happens to all the the Springs there's seven Big Springs down here Dan just one of the reasons it became an early town and was chosen as a county seat for Jefferson County is there's a big water supply that water all comes in on this side of the dike and the storm water does so TPA has to deal with that they have to gather the water back here and pump it through the dike back into the lake neighbor looking good [Music] we're going to see Tavern number two of the four original taverns in downtown Dandridge this is the shepherd Inn it started out as a two-story log cabin up on the corner and in 1823 Shadrach Inman and I've already mentioned him as having the in the General Store up there whereas now Martha's Market he bought the property and developed it through the years into this wonderful end it's probably best known of the four ends or taverns and down and down Dandridge there was a time when my shepherd who his name is attached to it now sir Sunday lunches here that people drove from files away to come here on Sunday after church to have her country ham and fried chicken all country a family style set out on the big tables and you come in and fix your own plate and you know this building this building became a private residence for a few generations of people but it's come back to its roots again the Everett family has bought this property and they've done lovingly restored this old end building and is now bed and breakfast and so it's really back to its original Roots as a Tavern or ordinary in downtown damage I think it's open so we can start having lunch today it's Thursday so I think we're free to walk in and take a look around for a minute this is my shepherd's original Dinner Bell she would go out at noon on the front porch and ring that Bell and people around town would close their doors and come down here and have lunch how about that and that's her original Dinner Bell foreign so this will be a sitting room for the guests to stay at the end I guess yeah so yeah it's one of the only TVs that they have is right is in this room so you if you need watch TV this is where you come to watch TV the this is the main part or we have a nice piano in here uh sometimes we have somebody playing playing piano music during lunch we've got a big sun Port that was added on in 1919 uh look at the really pretty pressed tin ceilings in here uh different rooms have different styles of seedlings but that's that's original construction this stair this doorway see how thick that door that's the wall because it's a hand you log in there this is the exterior door of the original Log Cabin I told you this front corner is a two-story log cabin and you see how thick the door well the window wells are that's because the hand used logs are still back in these walls yeah Jim Everett is is the owner of the shepherd Inn Jim and Karen Everett have lovingly restored stored this building John and and like I mentioned before it brought it back to its roots of of bed and breakfast would be a modern version of what was a Tavern when it was built John in the Heyday of the shepherd Inn before the lake was built and the Dyke was built the the people that were coming here would be standing on this porch and looking down that little cut and Valley to the French Broad River and watching the steamboats applying the Waters of the French Broad there was a Steamboat Landing just down the the draw there and most of the early shipping of Jefferson County took place out of Dandridge on the French Broad River and we got the visitor center here I don't think it's open today I don't believe you didn't look like it but it looks like it he may be back later he may have gone to lunch so that's an interesting old building there too yeah that that was that original the building was originally built as the coach house and it went with the uh uh they call it the Hitman Tavern today but it was built by John Fein and John built that because because there was a route a part of the stagecoach route that went out of Knoxville and we were one day's ride from Knoxville so there was a big need for overnight lodging at these taverns like where I'm standing now and the the stagecoach office operated out of what is now the visitor center but the stagecoach from Knoxville going up the Upper East Tennessee up into Virginia and all the way to Washington City uh came down Main Street advantage here's something very interesting that almost all businesses had a set of these upping blocks or mounting blocks where they you would get up and down off your horse or your or your Carriage would pull in and they would step out of the carriage and use these as the steps probably the nicest set of upping blocks you're going to see around Jefferson County is that set right there now notice we got some brick pavers here at one time was the roads maybe brick pavers the the the not the roads but the sidewalks that had been dirt at one time they they did the sidewalks in Brick and this is probably the only remaining piece of brick sidewalk that we have in the in the historic district in Dandridge most all of them have been replaced with concrete although they do put a brick pattern in it to make it look like it but they needed a smoother surface than the old original cobble's brick hey John you know when people come to a Old Town National Historic District I always want to see a log cabin and most of them have been either replaced or they've been weatherboarded over but now we have a really nice example here of an original Log Cabin now it's not on its original site it was from a farm on the French Broad River bottoms and in 1942 every building that was going to be under Douglas Lake had to be either moved or torn down and the man that was living back there in the White House tore down some log structures from the river bottom farm and rebuilt this into his garage apartment he could park his car in the bottom and he had an apartment or Burt Fitz it was the man who had it reconstructed and he wrote articles for the Knoxville News Sentinel called strolling or strolling with Bert and probably wrote a lot of those articles right up there in that in that office upstairs well and the main Town Spring was in his backyard right back here I'll take you back and show you the main spring it's Davy Crockett would have taken a draw of water from this spring in 1806 when he came to the courthouse to get his marriage bond and get married to Polly Finley Davy Crockett grew up in Jefferson County was married in Jefferson County his first two sons were born here in Jefferson County and this is the water where he would have gotten a drink when he would have been in town his fuel flows crystal clear and cool today this one never dries up some of the upper Springs will dry up in the In the Heat of the summer this one is always always flowing clear and cool now is this public access or what is this property right here private properties owned by Jim and Karen Everett from the end where we just we were just talking to Jim at the end they bought this property they bought the house here which is built in 1845 by Shadrach Inman at the end up there he bought he built this for his daughter Elizabeth who was getting married to William Bradford and so we're actually on their property but they welcome uh visitors or local people to come back here and enjoy the spring and the property back here it hasn't always been that way some some former residences didn't want people back here in the early days people may have gone 20 25 miles on Horseback or horse and buggy to and from church and they they would have arrived thirsty and come here to the spring and get their drink so Flint the Native Americans that's been shipped by hand the Native Americans use this spot this spring and it's probably why the town originally grew up here was the Native Americans probably already had it cleared as a campsite for thousands of years now this spring has an important story but Legend behind it the Scots Irish built the first churches in East Tennessee area they were the Presbyterian churches all the way down the Shenandoah Valley as the migration path went Westward and this and this and it followed the Great Indian war path Trail through which goes through Jefferson County and so the Scots Irish built the churches but you know what else the Scott Towers like to do they like to brew whiskey don't they and so it's a legend says that one of the reasons this was chosen as the county seat for the newly formed Jefferson County in 1792 is that there was a Scotch Irish whiskey still operated on this spring back here and the Commissioners when they met up there in Reverend Henderson's lower meeting house actually came down in the spring Spring House and the the still house and got us samples and took it up to the meeting to pass it around and sampled it and were very favorably impressed with the quality of water and whiskey that it made and David Cross [Music] rifles when he left Jefferson County and it is on display that same rifle in the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville and our Courthouse museum has an exact replica of Davy Crockett's rifle that came from this mcquistan fella right here what about that so what years did Davy Crockett live here was he born here no he was born in Limestone on the Nola Chucky River in Greene County and his father moved here and built a Tavern in Jefferson County it's in Hamilton County today but until 1857 when Hamilton was born it was Jefferson County and he built a Tavern there I don't know the year but Crockett was married here in 1806 and then when he left to go to Middle Tennessee when he pulled up roots from from East Tennessee and went to middle Tennessee I don't have those dates but I could get them for you we were here last year in the fall and we took some pictures and I don't know if I still have them on file the trees were beautiful yeah but y'all lost a couple of trees lost a big Maple in the storm last month so this is one of the older spots in the town right here just telling me I think I tell you what John if if if the town of Dandridge had a Taproot this is where it'd go down this is the beginning spot for the town of Dandridge and probably most of Jefferson County David started out as just a little Western outpost on the banks of the French Broad River and the first building that was built in this area was Reverend Henderson's lower Meeting House the Scott's Irish built a Presbyterian Church in 1785 when it was the State of Franklin time frame and it was right here in this graveyard in fact the the members of the church were buried in the yard of the church that's why we call this a graveyard instead of a cemetery and the church was right back here in 1792 in Jefferson County was formed named after Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson they needed to pick a county seat the commissioners of the newly elected commissioners of the county met in one of those meetings in the log church building back here Reverend Henderson's lower meeting house and this is the spot they decided on for their county seat and if they named it you know we didn't want to go down in history as Reverend Henderson's lower meeting house we need an appropriate name and this tells us a lot about the character in the caliber of the early settlers of this area they honored a woman in 1793 with the name of this town our first first lady of our country Martha Dandridge custis Washington her maiden name of Danvers they picked is the name of their new town and it's the only town in the country named Dandridge how about that so we're going to be coming back and uh going to trying to do some of the individual tours and try to get with you that you come back and must film some more be glad to do it anytime John appreciate your time today Bob enjoyed it bye-bye see y'all next time [Music]

Channel: The Appalachian Channel

Views: 376,998

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Id: lOS9HJcOqtY

Length: 26min 54sec (1614 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2023