Montvale Springs

Seven Gables Inn
By Unknown - (2010) Blount County, Arcadia Publishing ISBN: 978-0-7385-8571-0., Public Domain,Link

"Not far above the junction of the Little Tennessee and Holston rivers, immediately upon the banks of the former stream, occurs a level plat or "cove" as it is there called, of most romantic beauty Here the river suddenly ceases its wild leaping down the mountains, and, like a maiden about to be married, pauses to dream upon the alliance it is speedily to form with a mightier stream. On each side the wide expanse of this still river-lake, broad level meadows stretch away some miles down the stream ,until the hoydenish river wakes from its dream and again dashes down its narrow channel between the mountains." 

Sidney Lanier

Hurd and Houghton, 1867

Montvale Springs

By Steamer and Stage

Notice is hereby given to visitors to Montvale that  the light draught Steamer JO. JAQUE
Will run daily between Concord and Louisvllle, Tenn
connecting with a line of Four Horse COACHES, running dally between Louisville and Montvale.
The Steamer Jo. Jaque. having undergone thorough repair, will afford visitors traveling over this line a pleasant trip of one and a half hours on the Holston River, presenting some of the. most attractive scenery in the world.
The accommodations at Col. TIBBS' HOTEL, at Concord, will be as good as can be found in East Tennessee, and terms as reasonable.
Fare through from Concord to Montvale ....$3.00   SAFFELL. BRO. A CO. Louisville, Tenn., June 1, 1857

P. S. Passengers in Montvale should not fail to procure Tickets for Concord.
(Source: The Athens post. (Athens, Tenn.), 11 Sept. 1857. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress)

Sterling Lanier became the manager of the hotel in 1857. He and his brother bought the property in 1860. The Laniers paid $25,674 for the hotel and spent $15,000 on renovations to the building and its 4,500 acres (1,800 ha), hiring a Swiss gardener and two landscape gardeners. Lanier also brought in a French chef. The Swiss geologist Arnold Henry Guyot, after whom Mount Guyot is named, visited Montvale in 1859 during his survey of the Great Smoky Mountains. Sterling Lanier's grandson was the poet Sidney Lanier. Lanier conceived of his only novel, Tiger Lilies (1868), while staying at the resort in 1860. The first half of the novel is autobiographical, describing his vacation at the hotel.[21] With the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–65) Lanier closed the hotel, which he sold in 1863, and returned to Alabama. (From Wikipedia)