Pleasant Shade Hotel
Sharon Beasley Gregory provided these pictures.
Pictured is the Pleasant Shade Hotel from Hwy 80 looking northwest. This may be the largest and
most ornate dwelling ever constructed in Pleasant Shade. The date may be about 1890 but is a guess
on my part. I can barely remember seeing the old building in the late 1940s. It was torn down about
that time and much of the materials were reused to construct the present house located on the same
grounds. At one time, the hotel was owned by Johnnie Jenkins, father of Draper Jenkins, who died
only a few years ago. (Draper was affiliated with the Sanderson Funeral Home at Carthage for many years.)
Johnny Sloan (mail carrier for the Pleasant Shade area in the 1940s - 50s) bought the hotel from Johnnie
Jenkins and lived in it until he tore it down and built the present house.
The "brown" picture of the hotel was made in about 1915. This poor quality picture shows about seventeen
people standing on the two-tiered porches. The view is from the center of the Towtown Road and the Hwy 80
intersection looking to the southwest. Notice that telephone service had come to Pleasant Shade at this time.
The site of the hotel was the southwest corner of the intersection of Towtown Road and Sloan Branch Road
with Hwy 80. (Towtown Road and Sloan Branch Road were part of the old Fort Blount Road.) A schematic
of downtown Pleasant Shade in about 1950 shows the site of the hotel and may be viewed on this website.
Go To Pleasant Shade Schematic Late 1940's to Early 1950's
