Hamilton County's oldest house - Brown's Tavern in Lookout Valley - has been sold with the adjacent 16 acres, preservationists said.
Ann Gray, executive director of Cornerstones, said the preservation group has been seeking to acquire the cabin portion of the property to no avail thus far.
The house has been vacant since the death of longtime owner, Joan Franks, in April, 2013. It passed to her daughter.
Ms. Gray praised the Franks family for their longtime stewardship of the property.
Ms. Gray said Cornerstones sought to buy just the tavern and not the rest of the property.
She said a sale has been reached for the entire property with another party and the buyer has a 90-day due diligence period before closing the deal.
Ms. Gray said the home "is of national significance," and she said national groups that include the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Trail of Tears Association and the Civil War Trust have expressed an interest in helping save it.
She said the National Trust for Historic Preservation is considering declaring Brown's Tavern as "a national treasure." Ms. Gray said the only other structure here that obtained that designation was the Delta Queen, which has now sailed away.
Ms. Gray said the site was the home of the mysterious John Brown, who also established a nearby ferry across the Tennessee River. She said there are two springs on the property, which is why the log cabin was built on a hill nearby.
Ms. Gray said the remainder of the property is in the flood plain and would have to be filled in order to be developed.
She said Cornerstones might hold the log cabin temporarily, but she hopes that it eventually would go to the National Park Service.
Lookout Valley historian Alex McKeel wrote, "John Brown was a man who has become a legend in Lookout Valley. There is not much known about the early life of this half Caucasian and half Cherokee. What is known is that he is listed as one of the first settlers of the city of Chattanooga. He established a tavern off the Tennessee River and later the tavern was moved to the Old-Post Road, present day Brown’s Ferry Road, that was built in 1803 by Caspar Vaught. The tavern was built on a knoll along an ancient trading path where cattle and other supplies were brought up to the hinterland from the coast of Augusta, Savannah and Charleston. The tavern was called either the Brown’s House or Brown’s Tavern. According to legend, John Brown robbed and killed many of the people who stayed in the tavern and their bodies were dumped in the Tennessee River or buried around the tavern.
"The tavern was built with heavy logs and is two stories tall. The porch across the front, facing the river and in the middle of the porch, has a 'dog trot' in the middle. On both sides of the tavern are fireplaces with a width of over eight feet. The fireplaces can accommodate logs up to five feet long. The staircase is boxed in leading to the second floor, which has three extra-large rooms.
"Outside the tavern had a hewed-logged kitchen, a smokehouse, log stables, a log barn, a milk house, stables and a hen house. Sadly, only the outdoor kitchen remains. The orchards that John Brown had consisted of pear trees, apple trees and peach trees; furthermore he also had a huge open field used to plant corn for grazing many other foods. According to legend, Chief John Ross and his wife Quatie, who was a relative of John Brown, spent their honeymoon at the tavern.
"John Brown is supposedly buried on his 347-acre farm, which was land that surrounded the tavern. When John Brown passed away, sometime in the 1840s, his second wife, Elizabeth Brown, sold the 347 acres of land and the tavern to William Cummings, the father of John Cummings, in 1847. In 1857, Jeremiah Fryar, Jr. purchased the house and his family owned the house until the American Civil War.
"In 1903, Edger Boydston purchased the house from the Sevier Fryar Family. In 1911, 127 acres and the tavern were sold to the West Chattanooga Land Company. The house was occupied by the family of Daniel Monroe Jackson, his wife, Lula Caledonia Brown Jackson, and their 10 children, in the 1920s . The property was bought in 1952 by Dr. and Mrs. S.S. Marchbanks and they began its restoration. In 1960, much of the land that was designated as the farm land of John Brown was purchased by Hamilton County to build Valley View Elementary School.
"Later the tavern was owned by Mrs. Joan Franks who kept the tavern up and restored it to its original condition. Also, the tavern has the distinction of being the oldest house in Hamilton County, in which in 2003 it celebrated its bicentennial. On September 25, 2004, a marker was dedicated at Brown’s Ferry Tavern establishing it as a part of the Historic Trail of Tears. Mrs. Franks noted at the time, 'I am elated to finally realize that the significance of the 200-year-old house is being recognized as a historical site on the National Historic Trail of Tears.'
Ms. Franks had opposed a softball field being built near the log cabin on school property, but it was erected.