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Two of the oldest houses in East Tennessee were built on the Little Tennessee River about 1828. One was razed when backwaters were impounded by the Tellico Dam in 1971. The other was spared.
Brothers by the name of Hughes built the two houses. Local tradition is that one was a brick mason, the other a stone mason. There is a striking similarity in the original floor plans of the two homes. The stone house was destroyed. The brick house survived and is the centerpiece of Tuckaway Cove. |
| From 1809, when a land grant was signed by Tennessee Gov. Willie Blount, the state's fourth governor, the land has remained in possession of a Hughes. Miss Minnie Hughes, the last occupant, left it to three heirs upon her death in 1964.
The original Hughes home in Loudon County was a log house which was built above the spring on what in later years became known as the E. M. Hughes Farm. It was of hewn notched and had a split oak board shingle (shakes) roof. The family must have prospered, as one of the brothers (Robert) built a cut stone house near the banks of the Little Tennessee River, and the other brother, Moses, built a brick house on his land near the site of the original log house. Both houses are featured in "Beloved Landmarks of Loudon County, Tenn." published in 1962 by the Hiwassee Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The stone house and surrounding lands were sold out of the Hughes family many years ago but the brick and its surrounding lands were owned by the descendants of Moses Hughes until 1971. In 1971 the Tennessee Valley Authority acquired part of this land in connection with construction of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River and later in the same year the remaining acreage was sold to former Tenn. State Representative Carl Koella, Jr., of Maryville. The present owners acquired the property in 1995. The original log house stood until about 1920, when it was replaced by the present caretaker's cottage. |
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| The brick Moses Hughes house is a two-story structure with two large rooms and a hall downstairs and two large rooms and a hall upstairs. Originally there was a frame T addition at the rear which housed the kitchen and dining room, but this frame portion of the building was almost totally destroyed by a windstorm in the 1920's. A three-story addition was added in 2001. The brick used in the construction were handmade on the premises near the location of the house. They have a unique brown shading due to the mineral content of the clay used. Timbers used were hand hewn and boards hand planed. Walls are plaster and the ceilings made of boards. The original roof was of split oak boards (shakes) and the rafters are peeled pine poles. | |
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