Circa 1792- Chisholm Tavern

The Chisholm Tavern was built around 1792, and demolished in December of 1966. It was located at what is now a grass- and tree-covered hillside on the east side of the Gay Street Bridge, the north side of what is now Neyland Drive, and just south of the Blount Mansion and its current-day visitors' center. According to the University of Tennessee Special Collections library, "John Chisholm built this structure, which he operated as Chisholm's Tavern, on land he bought from James White in 1792. He sold the property sometime before 1800."

The University of Tennessee Special Collections Library has a really good picture of the Chisholm Tavern on its website. You can see it here. The picture appears to have been taken from on top of the Gay Street bridge.

These two black and white pictures of the Chisholm Tavern were taken around 1941 by Barbara Wright, and are now included in a collection on the Library of Congress website. To give you an idea of its location, the tall tower in the background of the second picture is the Andrew Johnson Hotel, on Gay Street just north of the Chisholm Tavern.

Here are the links to each picture, as well as more information about them and the collection from which they came:

Picture 1 Picture 2

The picture below shows a modern-day view of approximately the same location as in the first black and white picture. You can still see the same Gay Street bridge arching above the road as in the c. 1941 shot.