The West Crest Hotel was completed in the spring of 1894.  Arthur Ashley was the owner at that time, and later, as a result of Mr. Ashley’s financial difficulties, the hotel was sold at auction in 1896.  It was bought by Thomas Emmett Goff who was a resident of Livingston at the time he purchased the business.   Prior to his marriage, Thomas Emmett Goff and his father were in business together traveling about the country selling Seth Thomas clocks that sold between $8.00 each to a deluxe model for $15.00. Some additional interesting information about Mr. Goff is that his wife, Edna Reed Goff, was the only child of Dr. Daniel Reed and wife Matilda Reed, the owners of the popular Reed House in Livingston.   The Goffs were married at the Reed House on March 24, 1887, and to their union, five children were born whose names were Willie; Dock; Maudie; Dewey; and Jess.  The three older children were born at the Reed House.  Thomas Emmett Goff eventually took over the running of the Reed House, and spent eight years in charge of that establishment.  It was his experience with the Reed House that helped get the West Crest Hotel up and running again once he took over the ownership.  It wasn’t until 1903 that the completion of a 20-room addition to the West Crest was made.   This hotel, along with three other buildings, was destroyed by fire in 1905.  Two additional hotels, The Monterey Hotel and The Imperial Hotel, were built later with the railroader in mind, and therefore were not considered resort hotels.  When the Tennessee Central Railroad was completed from Monterey to Emory Gap on September 18, 1900, the town of Monterey became one of the leading summer resorts in all of Tennessee. 

 

In the summer of 1898, the Monterey Hotel Company was organized and soon thereafter, constructed a handsome resort hotel first known as the Reagan Hotel.  It was completed on March 1, 1899 and displayed modern architecture.  It was built to give comfort and pleasure to its guests.  The land surrounding it was well manicured and lots of shade trees.  Mr. William Reagan, an old hotel hand with wide experience, leased the hotel from the Monterey Hotel Co.  The Reagan Hotel stood on the southeast corner of Cleveland Avenue and Oak Street.  It was an imposing two-story wooden structure with a porch and balcony extending the entire length of the building in front.  There were twenty sleeping rooms, an office, parlor, dining room and culinary department all on the first floor.  Some extensive improvements were made to the building in 1901 with the addition of a 40X60 foot dining room, a new parlor, and sixteen new sleeping rooms.  Elegant furniture was purchased and everything was in readiness for a new opening date.  The hotel took on the shape of an “L” when the new addition was completed.  The opening of the remodeled hotel was held on June 10, 1901, and was quite a special event.  An all-day program included a musical in the afternoon and a ball in the evening.  The Reagan Hotel continued to be a bee hive of activity as trains stopped at the Oak Street crossing to discharge passengers for the short walk to the hotel.  Shortly after the 110-room Cumberland Hotel was completed in 1902, the Monterey Hotel Co., who owned both the Cumberland and the Reagan Hotels, converted the Reagan into a family dwelling place and placed Captain J. Orill in charge.  From then on the Reagan Hotel was known as the Park Hotel.

 

The Cumberland Hotel, originally known as the Ramsey Hotel, was built by Tilbert Ramsey in the early 1900's.  He came to Monterey from Overton County.  The hotel contained about 30 sleeping rooms and was completely surrounded by an upper and lower veranda.  There was a long table in the dining room and meals were served home-style.  One of the Ramsey granddaughters used to go through the hallways ringing the dinner bell, calling the guests to come and eat.  The hotel had two black cooks who did most of the cooking.  They lived upstairs over the storehouse and entered their sleeping quarters from an outside stairway at the rear of the hotel. The name was eventually changed to the Cumberland Hotel, and a grand opening was held on June 1, 1902 under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Jessie F. Miller.  Under their supervision, the Cumberland Hotel became one of the most famous resort hotels in the state.  It was preferred by most tourists because of Monterey Park and its recreational advantages.  It was built on a beautiful 105 acre tract of land that made up the park complex and contained a swimming pool and two bowling alleys.  There was manicured lawns with beautiful flowers, tennis courts, along with summer cottages that dotted the nearby landscape.  The water supply came from the nearby mineral springs.  A huge water tank that held several thousand gallons of the purest freestone water sat at the back of the hotel.  Two brick pump houses built just under the hill near the entrance to the park could supply up to 600 gallons of water per hour if needed.  The Commercial Hotel was described by a Knoxville newspaper reporter in 1910 as one of the most beautiful buildings in Monterey. 

 

The Dow Hotel was built by L. Jerdon Dow in 1902.  Mr. Dow offered an entire floor of his hotel to out-of-town students who were attending Monterey High School at a reduced rate of $9.00 per month.   Jerdon Dow operated this hotel for a little over two years and then leased the boarding department to Rollie W. King in 1905.  Mrs. Ann Dow, wife of Jerdon Dow, sold the hotel to Lloyd Chapin (this name should be William Paul Chapin) soon after her husband died in 1907, and his widow, Sibba Chapin, sold the three-story hotel to John Holloway in the summer of 1914.  The Chapins and the Holloways were related.  John Holloway moved his family into the Dow Hotel soon after it was purchased, and from then on, it was known as the Holloway Hotel.  Before coming to Monterey in the late 1890s, John Holloway operated a small country store at Mineral Springs.  His first business venture in the town of Monterey was a partnership with his brother, Thomas Bailey Holloway.  They constructed a wood-frame store building and went into the general merchandising business.  The two brothers also bought and sold real estate.  John Holloway was married to Lee Andrews and they raised five children.  At the time of Mr. Holloway’s death on December 1, 1943, he had been engaged in the mercantile business in Monterey for 40 years.  He also served for a number of years on the Putnam County Board of Education.

 

Monterey’s colorful resort ear reached its peak around 1905, and business continued to be good for the next eight to 10 years.  Tourists who came in by train were let off at the Oak Street crossing, sometimes called the Caraway Switch Crossing, which was close to the Cumberland and Park Hotels.  However, with the coming of the automobile, times changed, and so did the vacation habits of tourists.  Good roads were being built, meaning people no longer had to depend on the railroad for transportation.  Tourists who once rode the rails were now buying cars and driving to new places and seeing new sights.  By 1914, tourist business in Monterey had dwindled to the point that the Cumberland Hotel operated with three-fourths of its 110 rooms empty.  The hotel was eventually sold to The Episcopal Church in 1914, and two years later, the magnificent structure was destroyed by fire, claiming the life of one student.    The location of the once thriving hotel eventually became a service station. 

 

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The Chapin family and the Holloway family mentioned as having once owned the Dow Hotel are connected to my family tree through my grandmother Ninnie Draper McCormick’s side of my family. Although the information in the Monterey book says that the Dow Hotel was once owned by Lloyd Chapin, the correct name should be William Paul Chapin whose second wife was Sibba Daugherty.  Lloyd Chapin and William Paul Chapin were brothers, so it’s possible their names could have been confused.  John and Tom Holloway’s mother, Sarah Rebecca Chapin Holloway, wife of Sam Holloway, was a sister to William Paul Chapin and Lloyd Chapin.  When Sarah Rebecca Chapin Holloway died from T.B., her young children were raised by family members.  Her son, Tom Holloway, lived with William Paul Chapin and his first wife, Amanda Swift Chapin.  William Paul Chapin was my great-great grandfather, as well as the great-great grandfather of Peggy Smith Pangle of Livingston, and her sister, Patricia Smith Lander of Atlanta. 

 

The gift of the book on the early history of Monterey has been two-fold for me.  In additional to other historical and interesting information, had I not received that book, I would certainly never have known how my ancestors were once owners of a fine resort operated long ago in the neighboring town once known as Standing Stone, TN.