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Archiver > RHEA > 1999-07 > 0931809067


From: Marie Eubanks <>
Subject: [RHEA-L] Re: [TNWHITE-L] Rhea House Hotel - Sparta (fwd)
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 14:51:07 -0500 (CDT)


I got this off the White County TN group. I thought the Rhea list would
be interested.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 11:55:23 -0500
From: sparrow <>
To:
Subject: Re: [TNWHITE-L] Rhea House Hotel - Sparta

Robie and all

This from "History of White County" by Monroe Seals, pub 1935:

page 65 _ The Rhea House was built for the Sparta branch of the old State
Bank.

page 112- James Whitcomb Riley spent a month once a the Rhea House on his
vacation, during which time he wrote some of his most famous poems.

Opie Reed stayed at the Rhea House in Sparta while he was writing the two
novels "The Waters of Caney Fork" and "The Jucklins."

page 138- Sparta has two excellent hotels and some inns and private
boarding houses. The Rhea House was originally build for a branch of the
State Bank. During the many years the Rhea House has run as a hotel it has
enjoyed a fine patronage of the traveling public and has been through all
the years a kind of family hotel as well, many of the business and
professional men and women of Sparta making their homes there. A number of
famous men and women from the outside have spent a while at the Rhea House.
James Whitcomb Riley once spent a part of the summer there, and while there
wrote some of his best known poems, among them being, so it is said, "The
Old Swimming Hole" and "An Old Sweetheart of Mine." Opie Reed spent a
summer at the Rhea House once and while here wrote probably his most famous
novel, "The Jucklins." It is said also that he gathered the material for
"The Waters of Caney Fork" while here. At present it is owned by Mrs
Stanton Dibrell, and the managers are her son and daughter, Mr and Mrs S. S.
Dibrell, Jr.

page 149- Sparta is well supplied with restaurants and eating houses. The
most popular of these being the Lee Hotel, B. & B. Restaurant and the Rhea
House.

Marna in Rockford, Illinois

-----Original Message-----
From: <>
To: <>
:

Date: Friday, July 09, 1999 7:12 PM
Subject: [TNWHITE-L] Rhea House Hotel - Sparta

>Does anyone know anything about the Rhea House Hotel that was in Sparta,
>Tennessee? One of my relatives ran and owned it and I was wondering it's
>history. Was it a large hotel? What years were it open? Etc. Would
there
>be any records left from it?
>
>Thanks for any information.
>
>Robie
>

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