The Netherland Inn and Complex is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, its population was 55,442. Lying along the Holston River, Kingsport is commonly included in what is known as the Mountain Empire, w ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1802 to serve as a boat yard for salt distribution, the property was eventually sold, and in 1818 it became the Netherland Inn, serving travelers en route from

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the s ...

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

. The inn and boatyard is the only place on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

that served as a

stage stop A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...

and a boatyard.

History

The building was built in 1802, and then expanded in 1808, by William King. King built it with the goal of creating a

boatyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

to ship the salt he produced. The building was sold in 1818 to Richard Netherland, who built Netherland as it exists today: a 3-story building with an inn and a tavern on Great Old Stage Road, the main route between Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. Notable people such as

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...

, and

James Polk James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

visited the inn. Prominent state legislator

John Netherland John Netherland (September 20, 1808 – October 4, 1887) was an American attorney and politician, active primarily in mid-19th century Tennessee. A leader of the state's Whigs, he served in both the Tennessee Senate and Tennessee House of R ...

, a son of Richard, grew up at the inn.Marie Day and W. Calvin Dickenson, "The Netherland Inn," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', Vol. 60 (1980), pp. 75-76. The inn stayed in the Netherland family until 1906, when it was acquired by H.C. and Nettie Cloud, who used it as a boarding house and their own home. In 1968, it was bought by the Netherland Inn Association, who preserved the building as a historic house museum. The inn and boatyard was placed on the

on December 23, 1969, and is the only site that has served as both a boatyard and a stagestop.

Today

The inn is an example of

American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...

settlement, using documentation from the journals of Richard Netherland and related resources, to develop its museum experience. The first floor is a

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

, the second family quarters, and the third floor is guest rooms, all depicted as they would have been in during the early 19th century. The majority of the original contents of the inn were destroyed during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, however, selected pieces in the museum's collection are original.

References

External links

Official website
for the Netherland Inn and Complex
The Netherland Inn
from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Sullivan County, Tennessee Museums in Sullivan County, Tennessee History museums in Tennessee