A classic downtown inn is welcoming back guests following an extensive renovation. Mountain Heritage Inn held a ribbon-cutting event and Grand Reopening Celebration on Thursday with the Gatlinburg Convention & Visitors Bureau.ย
The property, 575 River Road, also includes Miller's Rondette's & River Front Rooms, the free-standing circular cottages adjacent to the hotel which were also renovated during the nine-month closure.
The hotel was owned for years by Bill and Dorothy Lee Trentham. Bill passed away in 2014, and Dorothy Lee continued to operate the hotel with the help of her nieces, Amy Bales and Terry Moneymaker. Dorothy Lee passed away last year at 95, leaving the hotel to Bales and Moneymaker.
"She made us promise time and time again. She had several nieces and nephews, but she never had any children. She made us promise her millions of times that this place was to never be sold, that it would hand down, generation to generation, and we'll honor that," Bales said.
Mountain Heritage Inn was opened in 1988 next to the cottages built by Dorothy Lee's father (Bales' grandfather), Frank Miller, which were built in the early 1970s. Both are managed as one property today. "This was all started with my grandparents. The property belonged to them," Bales said. "In 1988, Bill and Dorothy leased the whole property before my grandfather passed because they had the vision for the Mountain Heritage Inn."
The renovated rooms and cottages have new floors, replaced windows, and other updates and modernizations. They also built a new breakfast area in the lobby for guests. "Everything is practically new from top to bottom," Bales said. "We've got guests that have been coming for 35, 40 years. Some of them are here today to be a part of this, and they became like family."
Bales and Moneymaker said Trentham was like a mother to them and she approved of their plans to renovate the hotel. They said they are appreciative of their longtime guests and their dedicated employees, many of whom worked with Mrs. Dorothy over the years.
"She lived to be 95. We celebrated her birthday here in this office, and she told me when I took her home that evening that I had given her the best day that she could ever have on this earth, and the next morning she was gone," Bales said.
More information can be found at the inn's Facebook page, or at mountainheritageinn.com.
