Down on Main Street (Part 1)
Historic Jonesborough: Tennessee’s Oldest Town
Nathan has recently become an official homeowner, which calls for lots of new projects, furniture, and accessories. We enjoy finding treasures at antique stores and turning them into something beautiful, functional, and purposeful again. Well, Nathan does most of the work. I’ll take the credit of being a good supervisor. I suggested that since we usually browse our hometown downtown of Kingsport, TN for ‘treasures’, that we should spend the afternoon exploring downtown Jonesborough, TN and see what it had to offer.
We parked the car in front of the Boone Street Market- Jonesborough’s 100 Mile Food Store. Pretty ironic. Our antique shopping trip had now been turned into inspiration for a story. The market serves lunch and also had a variety of fresh produce, meats, jams, cheeses, beer, and breads. We decided we’d return at the end of our venture to make our purchases.
We went into several shops and antique stores along the brick lined sidewalks of downtown. My favorite store that we visited was called Type A Designs and Gifts. This store had a unique collection of chic, modern, and vintage household accessories, decor, and furniture.
After having no luck antiquing, we decided to enjoy a light lunch at Main Street Cafe & Catering. Their menu had so many selections, so it took us a few minutes to finally decide on our order. I chose the lunch combo with half of a chicken salad sandwich and half of a house salad, served with chips and a dill pickle. To drink, I had the citrus tea. Holy cow! That stuff was delish. A sweet and citrusy combo of sweet tea, lemonade, and orange juice. Nathan had a broccoli and cheese quiche and an Italian sausage and vegetable soup that was to die for! Perfect for a chilly, (finally) wintery day.
On our way back to the car, we noticed some historical buildings that rested on the street above Main Street. One was the old salt house, which has now been transformed into a distillery. Unfortunately, they were closed. The other building was an old church. The misleading sign out front that read The Parsons Table led us to believe it was a restaurant. Thanks to Google, we found out that it was indeed a restaurant at one time, but it now serves as a venue. I’ll be keeping that little tid-bit in the back of my mind for a (hopefully) future event…
If the streets could talk… that’s what I was saying to myself on the walk back to the car. I am quite certain that the quaint town of Jonesborough has so many stories, past and present, to tell from down on Main Street.
Things I’d still like to visit/attend in Jonesborough:
- Jonesborough Days
- Jonesborough Storytelling Festival
- Chester Inn Museum
- Main Street Brews and Tunes
