The Never-ending Story
It may not come as a surprise that the oldest town in Tennessee would also be a hotbed for storytelling. Jonesborough’s National Storytelling Festival, an annual October event that began with 60 attendees in 1973, now attracts more than 10,000 guests.
“Storytelling is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, and Jonesborough is the spiritual home of storytelling’s renaissance,” says Kiran Singh Sirah, executive director of Jonesborough’s International Storytelling Center. “Everybody has a story to tell.”
Indeed, the historic town of Jonesborough has plenty of stories up its sleeves. Spend a day or weekend exploring its walkable downtown and learning its past and present from the passionate locals who live and work here.
Guided Walking Tour: Clad in Victorian garb replete with top hat, Heritage Alliance guide Bob Dunn leads walking tours of downtown. Excursions begin at the courthouse, the legal center of Jonesborough since the late 1770s, and continue along brick sidewalks as Dunn details the history of the downtown, where many of the buildings date from the mid 1800s. “In the first half of the 1800s, Jonesborough was the western end of the stagecoach routes,” says Dunn. “Beyond here was wilderness, so Jonesborough was as far as most folks felt safe enough to travel.”
The tour highlights famous residents, including Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Andrew Jackson, who practiced law here for a time, and local landmarks such as the Chester Inn—the town’s oldest standing commercial building. Now a museum, the state-owned historic site has been painstakingly restored to its Victorian appearance.
Boone Street Market: The city of Jonesborough took over the gas station that was once on this site with dreams of developing a local business fueled on a farm-to-market philosophy. Boone Street Market marvelously fulfills that vision with all crafts and foods available made or produced within 100 miles—from the produce case filled with kale, mustard, pea shoots, and sorrel to the spread of sourdough bread, jams and jellies, and beef shepherd’s pie.
The Corner Cup: Stop here for locally ground coffee or an espresso drink, such as the popular Dirty Chai—a spiced tea latte spiked with espresso. Sweeten your coffee break with cookies from Carol’s Cakes of Jonesborough.
Tennessee Quilts: This colorful shop stocks batiks, Judy Niemeyer projects, and Kaffe Fasset fabrics, including discontinued styles. Shelves of Civil War reproduction fabrics and children’s fabrics fill a corner of the spacious building. Classes are available for beginners.
The Lollipop Shop: Fifteen years ago, Jeff Gurley was working at a dot-com company that went bankrupt—in hindsight, he says, the best thing that ever happened to him. One day Gurley and his wife were visiting Jonesborough, and he had an epiphany. “What this town is missing is a lollipop shop,” he recalls saying. Gurley says his most popular pops are the supersize marshmallow flavor as well as classic penny-candy types such as Kits, BB Bats, Sugar Babies, and Cow Tales. Prices start at five cents.
Earth and Sky Confections: Business manager Rob Parks takes pride in his family-owned and operated confectionary. “We make everything by hand in small batches of 100 pieces,” he says. “It takes three days to make a batch, and at any one time we have about 16 varieties.” Only real food products are used. “If the candy says banana, then it contains real banana, not extract,” he continues. The confections—works of art actually—vary in flavor from delicate Rosemary Caramel to in-your-face Wicked, a habanero caramel-chipotle pecan praline.
Main Street Café: A second-generation family restaurant, Main Street Café has anchored the Jonesborough scene since 1982. “I was born a block away and grew up in this restaurant,” says owner Zac Jenkins. “My mom would keep me in a bassinet under the counter, and probably half the townspeople babysat me back in the 1990s.” Popular menu items include made-to-order burgers, sandwiches on freshly baked baguettes, and coconut cream pie.
The Dining Room: Owners Christine Edwards and Hugo Angel hail from Florida and Venezuela, respectively, and specialize in Cuban-inspired cuisine. An array of seafood dishes includes such specialties as seared salmon with a bourbon-brown sugar glaze and red snapper with hearts of palm and artichokes. “We FedEx our seafood to ensure its freshness,” says Edwards.
Blair-Moore House Bed and Breakfast: Tami and Jack Moore have served as innkeepers in this circa 1832 Federal-style home for 19 years. “About 75 percent of our guests are repeats,” says Tami proudly. “I try to remember what each individual likes to eat for breakfast and what little extras will make someone happy.”
Southern Living Magazine called the inn’s fare a contender for the “world’s best breakfast.” The most popular repasts of guests, Tami says, are her variety of French toast entrées, such as French toast stuffed with Italian mascarpone cream. “Someone could stay here for two weeks and not have one of my French toast entrées repeated,” she says.
Gather ‘Round
Now in its 15th year, the International Storytelling Center’s Storytelling Live! program brings a new “teller in residence” to the town of Jonesborough each week through October to host a week’s worth of performances.
“We started the Teller-in-Residence program as a way to introduce some of our most talented entertainers from the National Storytelling Festival to a broader audience,” says Susan O’Connor, ISC’s director of programs.
The full lineup of master storytellers will pull from a wide array of oral traditions, including traditional tales, personal stories, mountain music, folk songs, and the blues. Returning favorites include Tim Lowry, Andy Offutt Irwin, Sheila Kay Adams, Donald Davis, and Minton Sparks. Irish teller Clare Muireann Murphy and musical talent Don White are among this season’s new voices.
All Storytelling Live! performances are in ISC’s intimate theater in Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall. Tickets for the matinee performances cost $12 for adults and $11 for seniors, students, and children under 18. Ticket holders will receive discounts at many downtown establishments on the day of the performance. storytellingcenter.net.