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Hale Springs Inn celebrates grand opening

Published August 26th, 2009 | 1 Comments

Janelle Burdette admires the renovations at the Hale Springs Inn with Joyce Simon, Brenda Seymour and Faye Kern during the grand opening on Wednesday. Photo by Erica Yoon.

ROGERSVILLE — Although the hotel opened last month, and the kitchen opened two weeks ago, it wasn’t really official until Wednesday’s grand opening when the ribbon was cut.

The 185-year-old Hale Springs Inn — closed for the past decade after operating continuously since its construction in 1824 — is officially back in business.

State and local dignitaries congregated Wednesday in the dining room of what has been described as the crown jewel of Rogersville’s historic downtown district.

Many of those same people were in that same dining room in March 2004 when Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely awarded the first of two TDOT tourism grants utilized to help pay for the inn renovation. No one could have predicted then the ribbon cutting would be more than five years in the future.

The setbacks have been well-documented. Funding shortages. Architect delays. Trouble meeting the requirements of the fire marshal. The list goes on. And then in February 2008, the collapse of the rear wall on the 1870 addition.

But despite all the delays, Tennessee Assistant Commissioner of Tourism Phyllis Qualls-Brooks said the final result was worth the wait. Qualls-Brooks filled in as keynote speaker at Wednesday’s ceremony for Commissioner Sarah Whitaker, who was unable to attend due to a recent injury.

“This property is testimony to preserving the past for future generations by recognizing its culture and its history, and yes, having economic growth,” said Qualls-Brooks. “This inn brings renewed community pride, it stimulates the local economy and serves as a tourism attraction. ... You’ve talked about the setbacks you’ve had in developing this. I just want to remind you that a setback is a setup for success. This is testimony to it.”

Although many of those setbacks were mentioned Wednesday, the main focus was on the future success of the inn now that the renovation is complete. And every speaker took time to credit the multitude of people at the local and state level who have pushed the project forward since 1983 when the Rogersville Heritage Association bought the building.

Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens was still Rogersville’s state representative when talk of the project began. He gave much credit to the bipartisan efforts of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Nicely, former state Sen. Mike Williams, state Rep. Mike Harrison and state Sen. Mike Faulk.

Earlier this year, Harrison and Faulk managed to pass a bill in Nashville distributing sales tax revenue generated by the inn toward the debt used to help finance its renovation.

But Givens said the contributions of the late Carl Netherland-Brown shouldn’t be forgotten.

In the early 1980s, then-owner Netherland-Brown renovated the inn and kept it open until 1998, when his declining health forced him to retire.

Givens said Netherland-Brown would have been thrilled by the final outcome of this latest renovation.

“I’m just in awe of this facility and what all has been done,” Givens said. “I keep saying that over and over, but this is just really remarkable. It has been a long wait and a long time coming, but I think we’re there now.”

There were many people to credit at the local level, not the least of which were the RHA board of directors, which took the gamble and bought the property. It’s still a big gamble because now that the paint has dried, the facility must make enough money to pay the mortgage.

RHA President Dr. Eddie Abernathy thanked those who supported the renovation including Mayor Jim Sells and his board, City Attorney Bill Phillips, local bankers, Chamber of Commerce Director Nancy Barker and the First Tennessee Development District, to name a few.

He recalled standing outside the inn last winter after the rear wall collapsed thinking, “What are we going to do now?”

“Thank God we had insurance,” Abernathy said.

“We didn’t know this day would ever get here, and it finally did,” Abernathy added. “We’ve been working at this for many, many years, and it’s been such a long time. We’re just so excited and thrilled, and you don’t know how happy we are to have you all here today for this great moment.

“Somehow we came upon the idea at the Heritage board that we didn’t want this to go away, and we didn’t want to turn it into office buildings. We didn’t know what to do with it, so to protect it we decided to buy it. If we’d known back then what it would take to get this open, I’m not sure we would have done it. But, since the day is here, yeah it’s OK now. It was worth it.”

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Does anyone else think it seems strange that they would announce a grand opening after it happened and not before? Looks like there was a couple dozen people that attended, most being the members of the Heritage Association.

I can only imagine how many people might have showed up if this business grand opening had actually been announced to the public rather than be a secret and private affair, but perhaps that would have ruined it by making it hard to find a parking spot.

Jeremiah Jones | 8/27/2009 - 3:12 AM - ( Comment

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