by Marina Waters
Since its beginning, the National Storytelling Festival has offered folktales, stories of Appalachia, humor, history and more. But, for the first time, this year’s festival will feature the story of storytelling in Jonesborough.
You can take a journey through the history of the National Storytelling Festival and the International Storytelling Center with the upcoming exhibit curated by the Jonesborough-based organization, The Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee & Southwest Virginia. The exhibit is set for the lobby of the ISC and kicks off during this year’s festival on Oct. 3-5.
“The premise behind the exhibit is to tell the story of storytelling,” said Ryan Nedrow, the Heritage Alliance’s museum manager, “focusing not only on the long history of the building and the location, but on achievements and milestones therein.”
The exhibit will take guests through the history of the various businesses that once stood where the ISC is today.
“Being that the ISC is the newest structure in the downtown,” Nedrow said, “there is a host of history that lays in the foundation — and every good story has a good foundation.”
You can learn more about John D. Cox Sr., who made his fortune in the Gold Rush, and brought Cox Block with various businesses to life in the 1800s before his son, John D. Cox Jr., created the hotel and coffee shop, the Andrew Jackson Tavern. The interior featured detailed marble accents, but suffered two fires before its demolition in 1942.
The exhibit also takes guests through time to the 1950s, when local World War II veteran Walter Lavender opened Lavender’s Market, the last business to precede the International Storytelling Center. The building was complete in 2002 as a two-story Greek revival-style building with Federal and Victorian-era features, serving as a nod to Jonesborough’s past architectural styles.
Each of those eras are represented in the exhibit with artifacts from the property’s past.
“We have a brick from the original Cox Block” Nedrow said. “We have some artifacts relating to the history of the businesses that were there on that block. We’re hoping to feature an artifact or two relating to each of these eras. There’s not much that remained the Andrew Jackson Tavern, except the huge sign that we’re hoping we can get a good picture of to put in that exhibit.”
Washington County’s smallest will and testament will also be represented in the display.
“In working through the research for this exhibit, I did encounter the smallest will in the history of Washington County,” Nedrow said. “John D. Cox Jr. has a will the size of a sticky note. Despite having hundreds of thousands worth of property and investments, he had no kids and his sister was his only remaining family member. So he ends up writing, ‘I give all my belongings to my sister,’ and then adds the addendum, ‘real and personal.’ It’s basically the least amount of words necessary to make it legal. And it was witnessed by Paul Fink, the locally noted historian and folklorist. It’s a neat little piece of history you’d rarely see today — a will the size of a Post-It note.”
The exhibit also details the festival’s history dating back to its start in 1973, when Jonesborough native and local school teacher Jimmy Neil Smith gathered eager listeners on hay bales in Jonesborough to hear stories told from the back of a flatbed truck.
“It’s grassroots at its heart,” Nedrow said. “The storytelling festival was the brainchild of Jimmy Neil Smith. He was listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio with his students and seeing their interest. If this can can interest young people, if this storytelling can really connect with folks of all ages, this might be a way to revitalize the town particularly. This movement was highly tied in to preservation.”
This year’s festival will be the first since Smith’s death at age 77 on March 15, 2025. But his contributions will live on once again through storytellers under large, white tents during the annual festival and on display as part of the history exhibit.
“We talk about the leaders of storytelling and the visionaries over the years,” Nedrow said. “What has become evident is that it’s not the people, it’s what they did and the impact they had. Jimmy Neil Smith had a huge impact and we want to feature that as well, this being a sort of tribute.”
The exhibit will also feature various recordings, giving visitors a taste of National Storytelling Festivals enjoyed long ago.
“We’re hoping to take a couple of the audio recordings from the CDs and vinyls that we’ve been working through and provide QR codes, that way a visitor could scan and get a snippet of the story here or a bit of a song here,” Nedrow said. “It would be very engaging for visitation.”
The hope is to connect visitors with the history of the festival and the ISC, all in Tennessee’s oldest town and the Storytelling Capital of the World.
“I think the best thing about this is, if you’re standing in the lobby for the next show, or if you’re waiting to get into the theater to see another storyteller,” Nedrow said, “you can be immersed in those moments in history and know why you’re there in the first place.”
The exhibit also serves as a connection between organizations within the Jonesborough community.
“We want to work with our community parters and stakeholders here in Jonesborough,” Nedrow said. “A big part of this town is collaboration and being able to work closely with the town, with the ISC and other organizations around town. A rising tide lifts all ships. In working as an entity that helps bridge community barriers, community gaps and fills that role of historic preservation and education, that’s vital to the success of our town since the 1970’s shift toward tourism.”
Pieces of the National Storytelling Festival and the ISC’s past are also part of the history exhibit found in the Jonesborough Visitor Center, located at 117 Boone St., Jonesborough. The displays contain everything from old magazines and books on storytelling (one of which was edited by Jimmy Neil Smith) to local newspaper sections dedicated to early iterations of the festival and event a flier for the first-ever storytelling gathering that started it all.
The Heritage Alliance is dedicated to the preservation of the architectural, historical and cultural heritage of our region and to providing educational experiences related to history and heritage for a wide range of audiences. The Heritage Alliance headquarters is located in the historic Duncan House in Jonesborough. The organization also operates the restored schoolhouse, Oak Hill School, and the Chester Inn Historic Site and Museum in downtown Jonesborough. For more information on the Heritage Alliance, call (423) 753-9580 or go to https://www.heritageall.org/.
The International Storytelling Center is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization and the premiere educational, arts, and cultural institution dedicated to enriching lives and building a better world through the power of storytelling. The ISC is located at 100 W. Main St., Jonesborough. For more information, go to https://www.storytellingcenter.net/.