Edgeworth Inn — Hotel in Monteagle

The Edgeworth Inn was promising given its location in the Assembly in Monteagle. For those of you that don’t know, The Assembly is something like Chautauqua during Summer. It is full of older, quaint homes and recent remodels that people hold in their families for generations. During the Summer there are constant activities for intellectuals and forest lovers...art and cooking classes, visiting lecturers, and yoga. ||In the middle of this enclave is a larger home, tucked away so you would barely know it was a bed and breakfast. It has a great face on it. Fits into the quaint part of the Assembly in which it rests. A beautiful porch around the outside with rocking chairs, swings, and tables.||It’s when you get closer that the luster begins to wear out. The chairs and tables are so unsteady that they make enough noice to wake the guests. The creaking floors are beautiful as they show a great history, but you will hear all of the guests coming and going at all hours, the staff arriving early to make breakfast, etc. while the fittings are eclectic...they are really actually quite junk like. Coffee in the morning is served out of a variety of decanters squeezed tight on a table in the hallway with less than adequate accoutrements- sugar and sugar supplements. The cups are turned upside down on a tray and soon dwindle - only some bear a resemblance to the others. The breakfast was moderately good...and cooked/served by very nice local staff. ||White I expected a bed-and-breakfast...I really got a crummy old hotel that left me without the experience I...

We were disappointed by the condition of the Garden/Family Suite, which was comprised of second-hand furniture in poor condition and one bed so ridiculously high off the ground that you had to crawl/hoist yourself up and onto it with a concerted effort (and we r of average height). Being the more comfortable bed of the two in the suite, hoist and crawl we did. Fortunately the bed was comfortable and the suite was clean, but the furniture was worn and stained. There was a tv stand with no TV but a cable sticking out of the wall where the TV had been, although they said they could probably try to find one if needed. The setting, in the Assembly campus in the woods, was very pretty and the common areas seemed a little nicer and cheerier than our room. Other rooms may be in better condition than where we stayed, based on the varying levels of satisfaction by different reviewers. The staff was friendly and the breakfasts were quite good. For what we paid, I expected a much, much nicer suite; the photos of the suite on the website are not representative of its...

Edgeworth Inn

I drive out the gate of the Monteagle Assembly, see a half dozen cars going this way and that, a woman in a minivan wearing a light blue shower cap, a man in a new car talking on his cell phone, a teenager who just got her license. For every

one of them I feel so sad, that they are not staying at the Edgeworth Inn, where the bacon this morning, with cheddar cheese scrambled eggs, was perfectly grilled to that high peak crisp.

When I caught the smell wafting up the stairs, I felt like I was waking up at my mother’s, and she’s no longer upset at me for not becoming a dentist.

I drive off to the Sewanee Reunion, which I hope will wash my sadness away, for these people—good people!— not staying at the...