Montvale Springs is a location in
Blount County, Tennessee
Blount County is a County (United States), county located in the East Tennessee Grand Divisions of Tennessee, Grand Division of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 135,280. The count ...
, United States, that was once the site of a fashionable resort hotel, and is now a summer camp.
Early years
It is said that
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...
, later president of the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...
, discovered the springs that gave the resort its name.
The vicinity of Montvale Springs was used as the locale for the novel by Charles W. Todd, ''Woodville; Or Anchoret Reclaimed'' (1832).
In 1832 the local entrepreneur
Daniel Davis Foute bought of land on
Chilhowee Mountain
Chilhowee Mountain is the name of two non-contiguous ridges in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The ridges run in a northeastern to southwestern direction. The northern section is at the outer edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, stretching from the ...
, including a black sulphur spring, and built a ten-room log hotel. Foute used Cherokee laborers to build roads to connect the hotel to turnpikes to Georgia and North Carolina. He planted vineyards and orchards.
The hotel was first advertised in 1832.
It was described as a "resort hotel and spa".
The two story building was "pretentious rustic" in style.
The hotel attracted a wealthy clientele from throughout the
Cumberland Valley
The Cumberland Valley is a northern constituent valley of the Great Appalachian Valley, within the Atlantic Seaboard watershed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Appalachian Trail crosses through the valley.
Geography
The valley is bound t ...
and the lower
Mississippi Basin
The Mississippi River is the primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, ...
.
They came to relax with their families and to drink "... the healing waters of the springs."
A stage line from Knoxville to Montvale was open by 1837.
If guests caught the 6:30 AM stage coach in Knoxville they would reach the hotel in time for lunch at noon.
In the 1840s the hotel included a store.
Foute is listed as operating a post office at "Montvail Springs" in 1846.
Seven Gables
In 1850 Foute sold including the hotel to Asa Watson.
Watson tore down the log hotel in 1853 and built a much grander structure.
The new three-story hotel was named "The Seven Gables Hotel", an elegant building with large porches on each floor, long.
The hotel, with 125 rooms, could accommodate 300–400 guests and was the largest in the region.
There were also sixty cottages, some for use by the servants of the guests.
Watson landscaped the site with exotic trees and bushes from as far afield as Japan and California, some of which are still present. The hotel became known as "The
Saratoga of the South".
At its peak, Montvale was one of the most fashionable of the great watering places, providing luxurious accommodation, food and entertainment.
Railroad communication between Georgia and Knoxville made the Springs much more accessible.
In the summer of 1857 the ''Maryville East Tennessean'' reported that the Springs were All the go' nowadays. Passengers go through this place by ''fifties''". By the late 1850s the majority of the guests were from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
.
Some guests would spend the entire summer at the resort, paying $40 per month for room and board to escape from the heat of the south.
The spa's water was advertised as providing a cure for a great range of health conditions.
John Jennings Moorman, who spent several weeks at the springs in the summer of 1854, noted that the waters as analyzed by Professor Mitchell contained
sodium chloride
Sodium chloride , commonly known as Salt#Edible salt, edible salt, is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. It is transparent or translucent, brittle, hygroscopic, and occurs a ...
,
magnesium sulfate
Magnesium sulfate or magnesium sulphate is a chemical compound, a salt with the formula , consisting of magnesium cations (20.19% by mass) and sulfate anions . It is a white crystalline solid, soluble in water but not in ethanol.
Magnesi ...
s,
lime
Lime most commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Bo ...
,
soda, and
lime
Lime most commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Bo ...
and
iron carbonates.
He said the waters proved effective in curing many dyspeptic depravities. They had a high reputation for curing chronic diarrhea, a common and often fatal disease, when used in moderation.
However, the
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
general
Daniel Smith Donelson
Daniel Smith Donelson (June 23, 1801 – April 17, 1863) was a Tennessee planter, politician, and soldier. The historic Fort Donelson was named for him when he was serving as a Brigadier in the Tennessee militia, early in the American Civil W ...
died of chronic diarrhea at the resort on 17 April 1863.

Sterling Lanier became the manager of the hotel in 1857.
He and his brother bought the property in 1860.
The Laniers paid $25,674 for the hotel and spent $15,000 on renovations to the building and its , hiring a Swiss gardener and two landscape gardeners.
Lanier also brought in a French chef.
The Swiss geologist
Arnold Henry Guyot
Arnold Henry Guyot ( ) (September 28, 1807February 8, 1884) was a Swiss-American geologist and geographer.
Early life
Guyot was born on September 28, 1807, at Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was educated at Chaux-de-Fonds, then ...
, after whom
Mount Guyot is named, visited Montvale in 1859 during his survey of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Sterling Lanier's grandson was the poet
Sidney Lanier
Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...
.
Lanier conceived of his only novel, ''Tiger Lilies'' (1868), while staying at the resort in 1860.
The first half of the novel is autobiographical, describing his vacation at the hotel.
With the outbreak of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
(1861–65) Lanier closed the hotel, which he sold in 1863, and returned to Alabama.
After the war the wealthy southern clientele did not return.
With no direct railroad service, the hotel was forced to rely on guests from closer by, with less money to spend.
Various owners after the war improved the hotel, adding a ballroom, bar and piazza for smokers. Guests could play in the new billiard hall, with three tables, in the ten-pin bowling alley or on the croquet pitch.
Mary Noailles Murfree
Mary Noailles Murfree (January 24, 1850 – July 31, 1922) was an American author of novels and short stories who wrote under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. She is considered by many to be Appalachia's first significant female writer an ...
often visited the resort after 1886 to find new material for her stories of the
mountain people
Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains.
This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation.
The climate is generally harsh, with s ...
. Although she was known for the realism of her tales, in fact she was from a wealthy family and would have had little real contact with the local people while staying at the resort.
Montvale Springs was incorporated as a town on 28 March 1891.
The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1896.
Third hotel
The
Little River Railroad made the area accessible in 1901. In 1902 Andrew Gamble of
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
built a new hotel on the site. The new hotel mainly served middle-class guests from
Maryville and Knoxville.
The new hotel was smaller, with room for 100 guests. Ludwig Pflanze, of Maryville, purchased the hotel in 1911. He built a dam across the creek that created "Lake Sidney Lanier". With the advent of the automobile, allowing for much easier travel to more distant locations, Montvale Springs and other small resorts went out of fashion. On 20 November 1933 the hotel was burned down and was not rebuilt.
Summer camp

The site of the former hotel at Montvale Springs was unused until 1947, when the Knoxville
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
purchased the property.
The YMCA arranged for summer camps and group retreats for children and families, with a range of outdoor sports and activities.
Over the years that followed the camp was steadily improved with construction of a Director's cottage, cabins, band stand, spring house, ball field,
Rotary chapel and caretaker's house.
The Seven Gables Pavilion was built on the site of the original hotel, entered by the original stone steps.
Major renovations were undertaken in 1998 in preparation for celebration of the 50th anniversary of the camp.
The East Tennessee YMCA decided to discontinue residential camping after the 2005 season. It seemed probable that the property would be sold and redeveloped as an upscale residential community. However, a group named the Friends of Camp Montvale was formed.
The Harmony Property Group purchased the site, with an agreement that the Friends of Camp Montvale would reopen and run the camp. However, Harmony Property Group found itself in difficulty after launching an 80-lot development just before the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
, and was
foreclosed
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mort ...
on by Knoxville auctioneer Sam Furrow. Furrow's Camp Investment LLC leased the property to Harmony Adoptions, and in 2012 successfully secured a protective easement to prevent any future development.
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Montvale Springs
Blount County, Tennessee