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.
