Eureka Inn to hit the real estate market this summer | WJHL

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) – A centuries-old landmark in Jonesborough will be hitting the real estate market soon, and current owners and innkeepers are reflecting on their time at the inn.

Business owners and innkeepers, Katelyn Yarbrough and her husband, Blake, are saying goodbye.

“I affectionately call this place Rose Red sometimes,” Yarbrough said. “That’s a reference to a Stephen King novel where the house has it’s own mind and does it’s own thing.”

During the pandemic, the tourism industry was hit hard, weighing heavily on the couple financially.

“We had every intent and purpose to buy the property here,” Yarbrough said. “But with the slow down for two years, it’s just we couldn’t recover quick enough to be able to gain the revenue needed to get the capital to purchase the property.”

Looking towards the future, Yarbrough said she hopes the inn will fall into the hands of the right owner.

Across the street at the Chester Inn, staff are hoping the same.

“The sale of any historic building is always kind of trepidatious because you don’t know if the new owners are going to preserve it or if they are going to try and come in and renovate it,” Chester Inn Site Manager Joshua Dacey said. “Hopefully, they will keep it the same way’s it’s been.”

Inns are an integral part to Jonesborough’s history after all.

“People were coming here to stake there claim in land, and of course they had to have somewhere to stay,” Dacey said. “So, that’s really what gave the town it’s foothold.”

Yarbrough said she’s served guests who came from as far away as Tasmania and that she’ll forever remember the good people she’s met and memories she’s made.

“I just hope that they really cherish what they have here and that they do you know embrace the town, because the town certainly will embrace them,” Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough and her husband plan to pursue new passions and businesses in real estate, and their bakery, Side Hustle Custom Bakery.

Yarbrough said her last day is June 30, and she expects the property owner to list the inn sometime this summer.