Photo Courtesy: Katelyn Yarbrough
Katelyn Yarbrough brings fresh perspective to innkeeping in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Katelyn Yarbrough and her husband Blake, a housekeeper at the Historic Eureka Inn, had already been keeping a journal of observations that were going wrong there when one night Blake dreamed that they were in charge of the place. A few days later, they got a call from the inn’s owner, historic preservationist Dr. William Kennedy. Would they be interested in running the inn? “And,” says Yarbrough, 33, who was working at the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre at the time, “I was just like, ‘This is a sign.’”
That was seven years ago. Since then, the couple has invigorated the downtown landmark, used their creativity to adapt to COVID-19, and won the hearts of the people of Jonesborough while establishing the Historic Eureka Inn as a fixture in the community.
A born-and-bred Southerner from High Point, North Carolina, Yarbrough was in ninth grade when she moved with her parents and two brothers to Johnson City. Despite her creative personality, she set out to earn a pre-dental chemistry degree on a scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“I wanted to be a dentist for the longest time just because I really like teeth,” she says with a laugh. “The first thing I notice about somebody is their smile.”
Her career plans took a detour when after landing an after-school job at a pizza eatery, she loved it so much that she stopped going to class to pick up extra shifts. That didn’t go over so well with her mom, who promptly moved her back home. Once there, Yarbrough enrolled at a local community college.
But, she admits, “I just couldn’t sit through class.” Instead, she jumped back into the restaurant business, where she met Blake, a cook and bartender with hotel experience.
Her heart was in hospitality, she says, partly because it gave her a way to serve the public without having to be an extrovert like her “bubbly” parents, a nurse and an art teacher-ordained minister. Stints at several popular pubs and restaurants in Northeast Tennessee also primed her for what she does now.
“My husband and I like to consider ourselves the ambassadors for our guests to Jonesborough,” she says. “It is really important that we acknowledge that, as soon as people get here to check in, if they’re a little bit short with us or not exactly the most congenial on arrival, that they’ve either been on a plane or in a car cooped up with their family. Being able to read people and trying to be at least one or two steps ahead of our guests—it definitely helped working in the restaurant hospitality world because, as a server, you try to anticipate what people need so they don’t need to ask you for it.”
After three years of working nonstop as general manager at an upscale steakhouse-nightclub—she kept an air mattress in her office to catch a few winks between closing up after a late Saturday and opening for Sunday brunch—Yarbrough was burned out. So she decided to take a year off to travel with Blake, with Jonesborough as a landing spot for building stage sets, crafting costumes and occasionally serving as an extra in a performance at the repertory theater next door to the Historic Eureka Inn.
In an effort to save the financially-ailing inn, Kennedy reached out to the bright young couple, who brought to their first meeting the journal and a list of easy changes they could make in a hurry. After three months of jumping through hoops, including meeting with some of the town’s most influential planners, the Yarbroughs were hired 10 days before Christmas in 2014.
True to their promise, they started turning the Eureka around. They signed up to participate in community events, built a new website and transformed two guest rooms with the noisiest pipes in the building into a dining room with a made-to-order Southern breakfast. They also alerted Trip Advisor, where previous visitors had posted bad reviews, that the inn was under new management, joined as many neighborhood boards and committees as possible, and hosted murder mystery dinners several times a year.
“We had to open our brunch up to the public,” says Yarbrough, “because all of our Jonesborough neighbors could smell the bacon coming out of the kitchen.”
A turning point came when the Yarbroughs won a televised visit from Anthony Melchiorri, host of the Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible.”
“After that, people, including the Town of Jonesborough, felt comfortable sending VIPs, whether it was someone running for public office or a really well-known storyteller, where in the past they would not send them here because it didn’t have a great reputation,” Yarbrough says.
She also brought a unique perspective to nonprofit organizations, becoming chair of the New Generation Freedom Fighters and an advisor on diversity, inclusion and equity issues for both the McKinney Center at the Booker T. Washington School and the regional office of the American Red Cross. When Kennedy sold the couple the business in 2018, Yarbrough took the reins as a minority small-business owner.
The Yarbroughs were in the process of also buying the building and property when the pandemic hit. Phone calls from New York and other big cities poured in as would-be guests tried to book extended stays to escape their own COVID “hot spots.”
“[Blake and I] had a heart-to-heart talk and it was just like, ‘This does not feel right,’” Yarbrough recalls. “Jonesborough is a very old community. We didn’t need to bring [visitors] here to this small town and possibly spread COVID here quickly. So we just completely stopped taking reservations.”
As the months passed, they served curbside brunch and Yarbrough launched Side Hustle Custom Cookies to keep their business afloat. In early 2021, they reopened for overnight stays with six rooms (there were originally 14), made breakfast available for guests only, and set up a public bakery in the parlor. “It’s all working like clockwork,” she says, “which is crazy after the chaotic two years that we’ve had.”
In addition to working as a team with her husband, who manages the lodging, and being able to high-five each other at the end of a long, exhausting day, Yarbrough loves feeling a sense of belonging and acceptance from the community.
“It’s just really cool that we’re starting to be known for what we’ve done here. … We were given the opportunity of a lifetime to save the reputation of the business of this inn, and it’s just been a beautiful ride.”
Book a stay: eurekajonesborough.com
Katelyn Yarbrough: 3 Overlooked Stars of Jonesborough
The notebooks. Dr. William Kennedy, the previous owner of the Historic Eureka Inn, documented its restoration and 200-year-plus history in “almost excruciating detail,” says innkeeper Katelyn Yarbrough. Although they’re accessible to guests in the parlor, the notebooks “are like hidden Easter eggs here.”
Heritage Alliance walking tour. Curious visitors can start at the Chester Inn State Historic Site and Museum on West Main Street and learn about the vintage buildings and the people behind them. Yarbrough recommends asking for tour guide Bob Dunn.
Best view in town. Yarbrough suggests climbing the hill on Main Street for a beautiful, unobscured pic of the architecturally diverse town at sunset. “Residents do it all the time,” Yarbrough says. “You just get all of these different colors. It’s like a pure, unadulterated shot of what I picture Americana Main Street USA to be. It’s like, ‘This can’t be real.’”
The story above first appeared in our March / April 2022 issue.
