History of The Thomas Brabson House

History of the Thomas Brabson House

Image of Brabson Ferry
Brabson Ferry

The Sidecar Inn Bed & Breakfast is located in the Thomas Brabson House. The house was completed in 1854 by one of the descendants of John Brabson, an early settler in what was to become eastern Tennessee. John Brabson established Brabson’s Ferry Plantation after purchasing the ferry in 1798. He acquired additional farmland over subsequent decades. Two of Brabson’s sons, Thomas, and Benjamin, continued operating the farm after his death. They also established a business that catered to the ferry’s traffic.

Thomas’s house is a two-story frame dwelling in the Federal I-house style. A Greek Revival style portico adorns the front. This home, along with a similar home built the following year for Benjamin D. Brabson, made up two of the many dwellings located on the family’s 10,000-acre Brabson Ferry Plantation.

The Brabson family were one of the largest holders of enslaved persons in Sevier county. As the Brabson family supported the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War, most members of the family were forced to flee. The house became a local headquarters for the Union Army. Several family members eventually returned, and by the end of the 19th century had rebuilt the farm and ferry.

Historical photo of Thomas Brabson house
From Historic Architecture of Sevier County