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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 18 Jul 2015.
Upland Chronicles: Davis Hotel offered modern conveniences
CARROLL MCMAHAN
The Davis Hotel was built in the early 1920s by Margaret Bowers Davis. The building was purchased by K. Rawlings in 1937 and converted to a funeral home.
Located at the corner of Court Avenue and Joy Street, the Davis Hotel became Rawlings Funeral Home after the Rawlings family purchased the building in 1915 (sic). The chapel was added in the 1950s.
The building on the northeast corner of Court Avenue and Joy Street in Sevierville has been Rawlings Funeral Home since 1937. Built about 1922, the two-story brick building was originally the Davis Hotel. When Margaret Bowers Davis, a widow, purchased the lot and built the red-brick hotel, she already had several years of firsthand hostelry experience under her belt.
She and her husband, James R. Davis, married Sept. 13, 1892. The couple resided in Seymour, where James served on the board of directors of Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy. After Dupont Springs Hotel opened in 1901, the couple began spending the summer months as guests in one of the cabins.
After a few years, the owners of Dupont Springs asked Mr. and Mrs. Davis to operate the hotel. They accepted the offer, and for a dozen years they packed up their family and moved to Bluff Mountain for three months. James Davis had to start early in the season to repair washed out roads and rockslides after the winter freezes. He used a horse-drawn hack to transport guests to and from Sevierville.
Meanwhile, Margaret Davis was in charge of the day-to-day operation and supervised the domestic staff. The hotel served three hot meals a day and held a big dance on Saturday night. The Davis family ran the Dupont Springs Hotel until 1912. They then moved to Sevierville to help Margaret's mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sing Bowers, and her sisters, Ida and Serena, operate Central Hotel following the death of their father, Joseph Elbert Bowers.
Unlike Dupont Springs, where guests stayed for several weeks, sometimes months, Central Hotel catered to businessmen. The imposing white-clapboard structure featured a stacked porch on the front. A "sample room" was provided near the entrance for traveling salesman to display their wares. The hotel was a seasonal home to traveling milliners who came to the various stores in town to create custom-made hats for ladies.
When Lizzie Bowers sold Central Hotel to a group of investors in 1919, James and Margaret Davis leased it from the new owners and continued operating the business.
In the early morning hours of April 2, 1920, a cloudburst upstream from Sevierville caused a big flood in downtown Sevierville. James R. Davis was gravely ill from influenza at the time, and friends rowed a boat in, carried him out in an ice wagon, and took him to a friend's house, where he remained until the hotel was safe and dry. Sadly, Davis died April 29, 1920 at age 47.
His death was especially tragic given that the couple had already lost four children. Sons Willie, 3, and Mell, 1, died 10 days apart in May 1906; a daughter, Dora, died in 1915 at age 21; and another daughter, Bettie, died in 1916 at age 16.
Three remaining children, Lucy, Ersa and Fred, continued to help their mother run the hotel until she purchased the lot two blocks away on which to build her own hotel. A few years later, the original Central Hotel burned. Born Jan. 3, 1874, Margaret Davis was approaching 50 when she built Davis Hotel.
When it was built, Davis Hotel was the first brick hotel in Sevierville and offered all the modern conveniences available in the 1920s. It was the first Sevierville lodging establishment to have hot and cold running water in each of the 22 guest rooms. There were four bathrooms in the building. The first floor consisted of a parlor, a lobby and a big dining hall where three hot meals a day were served.
The lot the hotel was built on was large enough for a big garden, which was plowed and planted each spring. Mrs. Davis grew most of the fresh vegetables she served in the hotel and preserved as much as she could for the winter months.
During the years Davis Hotel was in business, Richard Watson's garage was located next door at the corner of Joy Street and Court Avenue. Behind the garage Watson had a small insurance office.
The automobile was fast becoming the primary mode of transportation during the years the hotel was doing business. Meanwhile, stories of the wonders of the Great Smoky Mountains were circulating among those promoting the establishment of a national park. Tourists traveling to the Smokies began staying at the hotel, as well as businessmen.
Davis Hotel was known to offer comfortable and clean rooms. It was kept at the height of cleanliness. After putting her heart and soul into operating the hotel for 13 years, Mrs. Davis reached retirement age and decided to sell the property.
In 1935, she sold the property to the Rawlings family for the purpose of converting the building into a funeral home. K. Rawlings had been in the funeral business since 1911, when he began using the top floor of his furniture store on Main Street to display caskets. The renovation took place during 1935 and 1936, and the funeral home moved to its new location in 1937.
Dwight Wade Sr. and his wife, Kate, returned home from their honeymoon with plans to build a new home, using plans they purchased at the 1939 New York World's Fair. It was designed by Vera Cook Solomonsky and featured in the "Town of Tomorrow" exhibit. The newlyweds obtained the Davis Hotel garden plot and built their dream home where Mrs. Davis once grew vegetables for the hotel.
Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce and serves as Sevier County historian.
The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments, contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S112] Census, 1900.
Name: Margret Davis
Titles:
Residence: Civil District 10, Sevier, Tennessee
Birth Date: Jan 1874
Birthplace: Tennessee
Relationship to Head-of-Household: Wife
Spouse Name: James A Davis
Spouse Titles:
Spouse Birth Place: Tennessee
Father Name:
Father Titles:
Father Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother Name:
Mother Titles:
Mother Birthplace: Tennessee
Race or Color (expanded): White
Head-of-household Name: James A Davis
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Years Married: 8
Estimated Marriage Year: 1892
Mother How Many Children: 4
Number Living Children: 4
Immigration Year:
Enumeration District: 0145
Sheet Number and Letter: 1A
Household ID: 1
Reference Number: 2
GSU Film Number: 1241596
Image Number: 00113
Household Gender Age
Spouse James A Davis M
Margret Davis F
Child Dora Davis F
Child Lucy Davis F
Child Ersie Davis F
Child Davis F
George Davis M
- [S112] Census, 1920.
Name: Margaret Davis
Residence: , Sevier, Tennessee
Estimated Birth Year: 1875
Age: 45
Birthplace: Tennessee
Relationship to Head of Household: Wife
Gender: Female
Race: White
Marital Status: Married
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Film Number: 1821762
Digital Folder Number: 4390948
Image Number: 00238
Sheet Number: 2
Household Gender Age
Spouse James R Davis M 46y
Margaret Davis F 45y
Child Lucy N Davis F 24y
Child Ersa N Davis F 22y
Child J Fred Davis M 9y
Child Margaret Bernice Davis F 6y
Amanda E King F 22y
- [S87] Death Certificate.
Name: Margaret Bowers Davis
Event: Death
Event Date: 06 Jan 1946
Event Place: Jefferson, Tennessee
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Widowed
Race or Color: White
Age: 72
Estimated Birth Year:
Birth Date: 03 Jan 1874
Birthplace: Sevier, Tenn.
Spouse:
Father: James M. Bowers
Father's Birthplace: Tenn.
Mother: Margaret Bowers
Mother's Birthplace: Tenn.
Occupation: Housewife
Street Address: Brown Ave.
Residence: Jefferson City, Jefferson, Tenn.
Cemetery: Chilhowell Cem.
Burial Place: Sevier Co.
Burial Date: 08 Jan 1946
Informant:
Additional Relatives: X
Digital Folder Number: 4184907
Image Number: 1083
Film Number: 2137367
Volume/Page/Certificate Number: cn 936
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 233.
foot stone - 1874
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