The City Built on a River: Loudon Becomes Tennessee’s 51st Certified Local Government

Nestled within the switchbacks of the Tennessee River, as it winds it way through the state, the city of Loudon sits in the heart of Tennessee history. The land that comprises Loudon was once home to generations of Cherokee, during the Mississippian period, prior to increased European settlements and their forced migration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Following the close of the American Revolution, and the beginning of nationhood, new Americans began to explore and settle areas outside of the established states of the union. In 1790, six years before Tennessee earned statehood, white settlements began to occur within the boundaries of what would become Loudon County, along the banks of the Tennessee River, near present-day Loudon. These early families included the Blairs, Carmichaels, and Tunnells, emigrating from areas that had been North Carolina or the ill-fated State of Franklin.

As the eighteenth century passed into the nineteenth these early establishments formalized into towns in which business revolved around the river. A new mode of river transportation, steamboats, changed how the settlers interacted with the river and the surrounding landscape. Steamboats, offering commodious and economical means of transport and agricultural trade, first passed through the region in 1828. Around 1817, James Blair established a ferry service and storehouse, effectively gaining control of trade and traffic along the river. As such the community took on the moniker, Blair’s Ferry. The Blair’s Ferry Storehouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and continues to serve as an extant reminder of Loudon’s early history.  

Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the settlement of Blair’s Ferry continued to grow and prosper with the erection of churches, hotels, and stores. The Carmichael Inn, which had been established in 1810, remained the prominent resting place for travelers in the region.

Attempts to formally lay out a town occurred in the early 1850s by one of the Blair relatives, at which point the town was renamed from Blair’s Ferry to Blairsville. However, this enterprise failed as no one bought any lots in the newly laid out town. Not long afterwards, the formal town plan remained, and the name was changed from Blair’s Ferry and Blairsville to Loudon. This time, the town plan succeeded as plots were bought and the town saw growth.

Introduction of a rail line shifted the source of the economy in Loudon, but it did not completely end Loudon’s reliance on the river economy. The railroad bridge was completed in 1855, which allowed for the extension of the railway and East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad, the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, and the later combination of these lines: the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad. Attempts were made to destroy the railroad bridge, a strategic point of troop movement during the Civil War, and the bridge was ultimately repaired towards the end of the conflict.

Finally, in May 1870, Loudon County was established from portions of Roane, Monroe, and Blount counties, though it was originally called Christiana County before the name change in June of the same year. As the largest town with the newly established county, Loudon was selected as the County Seat, and the Loudon County Courthouse was built in 1872. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the red brick courthouse was designed in the popular Italianate style of the late nineteenth century, and it remains a vital reminder of Loudon’s history. With the establishment of the courthouse, a new commercial district began to grow.

Loudon moved into the twentieth century and continued to remain the center of political power in the county while retaining a mostly agricultural identity. New industries moved into the city, beginning with a hosiery mill in 1906 and others that followed. The Carmichael Inn, a legacy of the early settler families, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places until its relocation, and subsequent delisting, in 1987, when it was being prepared for use as the Loudon County Museum. Other symbols of that legacy, the Blair’s Ferry Storehouse and the Loudon County Courthouse, are constant reminders of the history and development of this city on the river.

It is this vast history that Loudon has sought to protect through preservation efforts. The city first established local historic zoning and districts in 1991 and has continually sought to protect the individual and unique history of the city. May 20, 2025 marked as Loudon joined fifty other communities across Tennessee in the Certified Local Government Program.

The Certified Local Government (CLG) program, created by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended in 1980 and 1992, is a preservation partnership to encourage local participation in, and cooperation with, state and federal preservation efforts. Administered at the federal level by the National Park Service and at the state level by the State Historic Preservation Offices-in Tennessee that is the TN Historical Commission-the program provides technical preservation assistance and financial incentives through the Federal Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) Grant to help local governments achieve their preservation goals and needs.

As an active participant in the Certified Local Government program, the City of Loudon will have priority access to technical assistance, an active role in the National Register process, and precedence in the Historic Preservation Fund grant application.

Cities and towns interested in becoming a CLG must have a practice and policy of preservation demonstrated through the enactment of a historic zoning ordinance which creates a historic zoning commission and allows for design and project review of buildings located within local historic districts.

More information about the Certified Local Government program can be found on our website or by emailing THC.CLG@tn.gov.

Sources

“Carmichael Inn,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Tennessee Historical Commission Info Files, Delisted November 25, 1987.; “Loudon History Exhibit,” Historic Downtown, Historic Loudon Tennessee, Accessed August 21, 2025, https://www.weloveloudon.com/pdfs/Loudon.pdf.

Mrs. Earl Alexander, “Loudon County Courthouse,” National Register of Historic Places, May 28, 1975, Accessed August 21, 2025, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/135818997.

Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee: Containing Historical and Biographical Sketches of Thirty East Tennessee Counties, (Nashville, TN: Charles and Randy Elder Booksellers, 1972), 826.; “Loudon History Exhibit,” Historic Downtown, Historic Loudon Tennessee, https://www.weloveloudon.com/pdfs/Loudon.pdf.

Joseph L. Herndon, “Blair’s Ferry Storehouse,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, National Park Service, July 14, 1977.

Loudon History Exhibit,” Historic Downtown, Historic Loudon Tennessee, Accessed August 21, 2025, https://www.weloveloudon.com/pdfs/Loudon.pdf.

Southern Railway History,” Southern Railway Historical Association, Accessed August 21, 2025, https://srha.net/about-us/southern-railway-history/?srsltid=AfmBOoowhElbjQHtGdVLoa0SM95oKZvn8wCPThvb9MOG8H_KtuA2Odoy.

Joe Spence, “Loudon County,” Tennessee Encyclopedia (Tennessee Historical Society), Last Updated March 1, 2018, Accessed August 21, 2025, http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/loudon-county/.