Last updated: 11/22/2008
2645 Faulkner Springs Rd.McMinnville, TN 37110
Open 7 days a week for tours, lunch and shopping.
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Charlien Mcglothin
phone: 931-668-4444
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In 1896, entrepreneur Clay Faulkner told his wife Mary he'd build her "the finest mansion in the region" if she would move next to their woolen mill, 2-1/2 miles from downtown McMinnville.
Mary agreed, and Faulkner supervised construction as enthusiastically as he promoted the mill's "Gorilla Pants" (so strong even a gorilla couldn't tear them apart) and mineral water at the Faulkner Springs Hotel, the "ideal health and pleasure resort" he would eventually open on the lake across the road.
Faulkner's solid-brick, 10,000-square-foot mansion had all the "modern conveniences" when it was built -- electric lights, indoor plumbing, central heat, and more. Today, the National-Trust-award-winning property is filled with museum quality Victorian antiques, and some say it's presided over by a friendly ghost -- perhaps the proud builder himself.
George McGlothin bought the old house at auction in 1989, it was a ghost of its former glory. George and his wife Charlien began four years of restoration, tackling 95 percent of the work themselves. The results were well worth the effort. Today, Falcon Rest is more beautiful than the day Clay Faulkner's family moved in.
In 1997, the National Trust for Historic Preservation honored Falcon Rest's rebirth as first prize winner of their Great American Home Award for outstanding home restoration.
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