We can trace our family’s history through this historic property, from a deed dated in 1792, before Tennessee was a state (statehood came in 1796; before that the region was known as the Territory South of the River Ohio.) Today, only about 50 acres of the original 400 acres remain, some of it covered by the water of Douglas Lake when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed up the French Broad River about 3 miles downstream in 1942. Miraculously for us, Samuel McSpadden, the builder of the Old Brick, had the foresight to site the house up on the hill above the river at approximately 1,050 feet of elevation, not knowing that the height of Douglas Dam’s spillway gates would end up being 1,002 feet of elevation; therefore, the house is now lakefront property, with a view to the south across the lake to the highest peaks in Smoky Mountains National Park.

Stories of the farm and our family have been collected in two books: Way Back When by Anna B. McSpadden and Becoming White by Margaret Blackburn White.