Walker Sisters Place

The surviving structures-which include the cabin, springhouse, and corn crib-were once part of a farm.

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Walker Sisters Place Details

The Walker Sisters Place was a homestead in the Great Smoky Mountains. The surviving structures— which include the cabin, springhouse, and corn crib— were once part of a farm that belonged to the Walker Sisters— five spinster sisters who became local legends due to their adherence to traditional ways of living. The sisters inherited the farm from their father, and after the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was formed in the 1930s, they obtained a lifetime lease. The National Park Service gained control of the property in 1964 when the last Walker sister died. The surviving structures were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Former Great Smoky Mountains National Park historian Paul Gordon wrote, "of all the people who once lived in what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park, none exhibited better the character of the mountain people than the Walker family." While part of the Walker Cabin was built in the 1840s (this section later became the cabin's kitchen) by an early Little Greenbrier settler, the present cabin is mostly the work of Wiley King (1800–1859) and John Walker (1841–1921), the latter being the father of the Walker Sisters. Walker built the farm's corn crib in the 1870s,[1] and in 1882 he helped build the nearby Little Greenbrier School. An article about the Walker Sisters appeared in the April 27, 1947 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. Source: Wikipedia

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