Cabin restoration completed at Smokies historic Elkmont

  It still takes imagination to envision sitting among the suit-and-dress crowd listening to the orchestra on a Saturday night at the Appalachia Club House in the Elkmont Historic District of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Thanks to a National Park Service project, however, at least a part of what it was like during those 1910 glory days is being preserved.

Four structures have been opened after nearly a year of restoration at the district off Little River Gorge Road.

“We wanted to preserve the character of Elkmont,” said Historic Preservation Program Manager Randy Hatten. “We want people to know what it was like.”

Elkmont began as a place for loggers to live in the pre-national park days and evolved into a getaway resort for the Knoxville area’s finest families. In the early 1900s, families came here to cool off in the summer.

The community fell into disrepair, and it was once planned to demolish all of the structures here. Although more than 30 structures were brought down this past spring, the National Park Service is working to preserve more than a dozen buildings.

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