Located on Taft Highway at West Fairmont and Anderson Pike on Signal Mountain, the Connor Toll House is the largest object in the History Center’s collection. It has two rooms down and two up, with a single chimney in the center. It sits comfortably under large shade trees and is a truly beautiful thing, thanks to the passage of time and the combination of natural materials used in its construction; logs, stones and locally produced clay mortar.
The cabin was built by James C. Connor in 1858, and served as a toll house on Anderson Pike from 1865 to 1892. It originally stood further down the mountain on Anderson Pike, near the top of the W road where the road was nearly vertical. If the road was dry, mule teams could travel it, but they had to haul their loads for about 50 feet, block the wheels, rest, and then go again. The house was occupied by Connor descendents until around 1970.
It was restored in 1976 by the Walden’s Ridge Historical Society, and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on August 22, 1977.
Unfortunately, the house came to the Center without funds for its maintenance, and though it is a remarkably solid structure, it does have some pressing needs. The greatest is for a new roof, which requires wooden shingles split by hand, a labor-intensive, thus expensive, undertaking. Its three windows all have sills which need replacing, and its chimney needs an inspection and cleaning/sweeping. All signage needs to be replaced and an interior interpretive panel should be created and installed.
Rotten sill on first floor window.
The Connor Toll House offers an excellent site for living history programs, and we will be holding the History Center’s “B Is for Books” session there in October (see What’s Going On). Help is needed, however, to make repairs before deterioration makes them more extensive and costly. If you, your business, or an organization with which you are associated may have an interest in helping out, please check out the wish list below, and contact us at 423-265-3247, ext. 10.
Connor Toll House Wish List
Roof (hand-made split shingles)—$3,000.00
Note: We could make a living history event of the creation and installation of the roof.
Inspection, cleaning/sweeping of double-flue chimney—$300.00
Replace 3 window sills—$500.00
Interpretive panel—$2,000.00
Exterior signage—$900.00
Miscellaneous Cleaning—$100.00
Total—$6,800.00
