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Chester Inn Museum opens for 2024 Season

Chester Inn Museum opens for 2024 Season with new exhibit and town tour times

The Chester Inn State Historic Site & Museum is now open for its 2024 season. The museum is currently on its spring hours and is open Monday and Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Hours will increase for the summer in May.

The museum offers permanent and rotating exhibits about the history of Jonesborough and the surrounding area. Visitors can participate in a site tour, which includes two restored floors depicting what the inn might have looked like as a functioning hotel in the late 19th century.

“The Chester Inn is truly one of Jonesborough’s historic gems,” says Dr. Megan Cullen Tewell, executive director at the Heritage Alliance. “The site is a favorite for all kinds of visitors, including local residents, K-12 school groups and out-of-town guests. We love that the museum enables a wide range of people to connect with and learn more about the town’s past.”

There is no admission price for the Chester Inn Museum, but there is a suggested $2 donation per visitor. The museum is also seeking new volunteers to serve as hosts, docents, and tour guides. 

Historic Jonesborough Town Tours returns on Saturdays starting on Saturday, March 16. Town Tours are available every Saturday at 1 p.m. Tickets are $6. The tour leaves from the Chester Inn and costumed guides share the history of Tennessee’s Oldest Town and the people who called it home.

The Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Historical Commission. For more information on the Chester Inn Museum or the Heritage Alliance, call the office at 423.753.9580 or the Chester Inn Museum at 423.753.4580. Follow the Chester Inn and Heritage Alliance Facebook pages for updates about events at the Chester Inn and other Heritage Alliance programs.

Chester Inn Museum Open for Chocolate Fest

The Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum will be open from 11:00-5:00 on Friday, February 9th and Saturday, February 10th as a part of Chocolate Fest in Jonesborough. We will have a Town Tour at 1:00 pm on Saturday. The museum is free of charge, but the tickets for the Town Tour are $5.00 and can be purchased at the museum. Come and tour the museum, see vintage Valentine’s, and check out the restored rooms.

Chester Inn Museum Opens for 2023 Season with New Exhibit and Town Tour Times

The Chester Inn State Historic Site & Museum is now open for its 2023 season! The museum is currently on its spring hours and is open Monday and Friday-Saturday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm and on Sunday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Hours will expand for the summer on Wednesday, May 3rd.

 

In addition to the museum’s permanent exhibits about the history of Jonesborough, special exhibits focus on local historian and explorer Paul Fink and his efforts to create the Appalachian Trail, the tragedy and triumph behind the Cherokee diaspora from Appalachia, and a closer look at abolitionism in Northeast Tennessee prior to the Civil War. There museum tour also includes three; restored rooms that depict what the inn might have looked like when it was a functioning hotel at the turn of the twentieth century.

 

“The State of Tennessee and the Tennessee Historical Commission completed a major, capital improvement project on the building last year,” says Heritage Alliance Executive Director Anne Mason. “Thanks to their restoration efforts, the building looks closer to its late 1800s appearance now than it ever has before, at least since the 1800s. We’re also excited to re-open the historic projecting porch this season.”

 

Site Manger Joshua Dacey explains, “Our new exhibits not only bring to light lesser-known histories of Jonesborough, but they also humanize seminal figures from Jonesborough’s past. We hope visitors can make meaningful connections to those stories and individuals.” The current special exhibits will be on display through the summer, so make sure you stop by and check them out. There is no admission price for the Chester Inn Museum, but there is a suggested $2 donation per visitor. Keep up to date with the museum by following the Chester Inn on Facebook and YouTube! The museum will also be hosting an Open House on March 9th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Visit the museum after hours that evening and learn how you can volunteer to be a museum host and/or a tour guide.

 

Historic Jonesborough Town Tours are also back in full swing on Saturdays starting on March 4th.  Town Tours are available every Saturday at 1:00 pm.  This year Town Tours will also be available at 3:00 pm on Sundays before Brews and Tunes from June through September. Tickets are only $5.00. The tour leaves from the Chester Inn and costumed guides share the history of Tennessee’s Oldest Town and the people who called it home.

 

The Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Historical Commission. For more information on the Chester Inn Museum or the Heritage Alliance please call our office at 423.753.9580 or the Chester Inn Museum at 423.753.4580. You can also contact the organization via email at info@heritageall.org.  Additional information about the Heritage Alliance and its mission can be found online at http://www.heritageall.org/. Be sure to follow the Chester Inn and Heritage Alliance Facebook pages for updates about events at the Chester Inn and other Heritage Alliance programs.

Chester Inn Museum Open House on March 9th

Have you ever visited the oldest commercial building in Tennessee’s Oldest Town. If not, the Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum is hosting an Open House on Thursday, March 9th from 6:00 pm until 7:30 pm. Come by and check out the historic site after hours and view our new exhibits. If you have visited in the past, we encourage you to come back and visit again. The Open House will also be the perfect opportunity to learn about becoming a volunteer for the museum.

 

Do you love history? Do you love talking to people about history? The Chester Inn Museum is currently seeking any and all volunteers to fill a variety of positions. In addition to giving tours and staffing the museum, we also need volunteers to work with our archival collection, processing historical documents, and organizing artifacts. We are looking for Town Tour guides to offer tours exploring the history and architecture of Jonesborough. Guides are also needed to give tours of Jonesborough’s historic cemeteries. We invite you to come learn more about these exciting opportunities at our Open House.

 

The Chester Inn Museum is open March and April on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11-6 pm, and on Sundays from 1-5 pm. From May-October the museum has regular hours 6 days a week before returning to a 4 day weekly schedule in November and December.

 

The Chester Inn Museum is a state-owned historic site and is staffed by the Heritage Alliance, a local organization dedicated to education and preservation. The museum is an integral part of community outreach, programming, and interpretation for the Heritage Alliance. Being a volunteer at the Chester Inn is a great way to get to know your neighbors while also interacting with visitors from around the world. Tens of thousands of people come through the museum every year.

 

The Chester Inn features a first floor museum that has a mixture of permanent and temporary exhibit space. The permanent exhibits include wall panels focusing on the origins and evolution of the inn and the town of Jonesborough. The temporary exhibits feature a rotating mix of artifacts, photographs, and other items from the Heritage Alliance’s archival collection and cover a wide range of topics that usually center on local history or putting regional history into a larger context of national and international trends.

 

The 2nd and 3rd floor of the Inn includes a tour of three restored rooms: a dining room, parlor room, and lodging room, all restored to what they would have looked like in the late 19th century. The first floor museum is self-guided, but the restored rooms’ tour is led by a trained guide.

 

This Chester Inn is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Historic Commission. For more information on the Chester Inn Museum or the Heritage Alliance please call our office at 423.753.9580 or the Chester Inn Museum at 423.753.4580.  You can also contact the organization via email at info@heritageall.org.  Additional information about the Heritage Alliance and its mission can be found online at http://www.heritageall.org/. Be sure to follow the Chester Inn and Heritage Alliance Facebook pages for updates about events at the Chester Inn and other Heritage Alliance programs.

 

Chester Inn Museum Open Feb 10-11 for ChocolateFest

The Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum (116 W Main Street) will be open during Jonesborough’s ChocolateFest on Friday, February 10th and Saturday, February 11th. The museum will be open from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm each day. There will be a Town Tour on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Tickets for the tour are $5.00. We’ll have special, vintage Valentine’s on display in the museum.

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