Blackwells Rekindle Farm House Spirit In High Country By Mike Shands Helping rekindle the Farm House spirit are, from left, Shirl and EJ Blackwell, John Woodall and Amy Young. EJ and Shirl Blackwell started a Blowing Rock tradition in 1954. Fifty years later they’ve created a similar High Country custom, but in a different location. The Blackwells, who helped operate the Farm House Inn and Restaurant for almost 45 years in Blowing Rock, opened the Farm House on Doe Mountain last month in Butler, Tenn. The restaurant will operate on a theme similar to that of the former Farm House, which featured musical performances by its staff members for almost 50 years. It was sold in November 1997 and later razed. During its heyday the restaurant used college students as servers, cooks and cleaners. In addition to their normal duties, staff members also performed musical numbers in a large parlor room. “When I first came to the Farm House in 1954 I was the only singer, and the rest of the staff was just kind of wait staff,” Shirl Blackwell said. “The musical tradition grew and grew and grew until we had upwards of two and three dozen college singers.” People would come from as far away as Lenoir and Morganton just to enjoy dinner and music at the Farm House. “That was the beginning of what we thought was like a heritage – something that would go on well past our lives,” Shirl said. “Then it was sold – not with our approval – and was razed.” The Blackwells knew that they wanted to create a new Farm House if conditions ever permitted, and now they finally have. “It is a dream, especially for my husband, because the two of us felt that we did not have a decision to make about the old Farm House,” Shirl said. “We would like to have had it continue so this is sort of like a continuation in a way, and yet it’s a brand-new start because it’s in a new location.” Finding A New Farm House The search for a new Farm House location began not long after the original restaurant closed. “Obviously none of us were in a financial position to buy anything equal to that and start that way, but we did look around during every summer when EJ and I would be here,” Shirl said. “We’d be looking at old houses and things. “We have over the years driven around – just if you’d see an interesting property or found something in the paper – and gone and looked at it. “We’ve looked extensively in Ashe County and other places, but never found any facility that was suitable without taking an old house and having to totally redo it.” A few years after the original Farm House closed some of its former musical employees decided to hold a series of summer reunion performances in Blowing Rock’s Broyhill Park. The series, called Farm House Live, began in 2000 and has continued every summer since. Spearheading the effort was Amy Young, who worked and sang at the Farmhouse during its last year. “The last season at the Farm House was 1997, and when that was over (the employees) were so disappointed. That helped start our Farm House Live,” Blackwell said. The Blackwells continued their search for a new Farm House location until early last summer. “(Last) summer we had personally sold a couple of properties, which gave us a little bit of money that we didn’t have available before,” Shirl said. “We just picked up a paper outside of a grocery store on a Sunday, and the backside of it said, ‘Inn for sale.’ “It’s located up on Doe Mountain, and it’s about eight or nine miles out of Mountain City towards Watauga Lake. It’s in a beautiful part of Tennessee.” Two days later the Blackwells met with the inn’s owners, and by the end of the week they had agreed on a selling price. “This seemed to be the thing,” Shirl said. “So EJ and I went ahead with the plans. We brought Amy immediately to see it because she’s interested always in being a musician and a music director, but she was not particularly interested or qualified in the kitchen with the cooking and the food.” That’s where John Woodall came in. Another Farm House musical alumnus from 1997, Woodall has worked in a wide variety of restaurants. “The bottom line was that he was interested someday in having an inn, and his wife, Amy Walls Woodall, was an (Appalachian State University) graduate also, and was a music teacher,” Shirl said. So the Blackwells contacted the Woodalls, who were living in Nashville, Tenn. at the time. “EJ and I are not in an age category that you’d be starting up an inn so with their help and interest and willingness to move over here we decided to give it a go,” Shirl said. “John’s wife, Amy, had been a music teacher in Nashville, and when they made the decision to come do this there happened to be a vacancy in the downtown Mountain City school, and she got that music job.” Young had also found a job in the Mountain City area as a choir director so she, too, was convenient to the area. “It seemed to be almost providential – almost like we were led to this place at this time – then were able to make a purchase and had the key personnel,” Shirl said. The Blackwells closed on the inn in July and spent the summer and fall enlarging its kitchen and making other renovations. “It has a great deal of stone work. It has big columns of stone,” Shirl said. “It has several fireplaces in it. It’s quite lovely and impressive. “The unique part about this property was that of all the ones we’ve ever looked at, it’s the only one that had a facility like our old music parlor that was at the Farm House. “This has the perfect room. It is a long, relatively narrow room, but a stage is at the end – a better stage than we had at the Farm House.” The new Farm House doesn’t have quite the seating capacity that the previous one did, but it can accommodate about 120 people. The new facility features two deluxe suites above the restaurant in addition to several hiking trails, a gazebo and plenty of parking on its 20 acres. “It’s peaceful – really nice,” Woodall said. “It has a view of Iron Mountain. You kind of feel secluded even though we’re just a half-mile off Highway 67. “It’s a complete experience. We feel like we’re breathing life into it. We’re going to take all of the positive things from the Farm House before and keep doing them.” The Farm House on Doe Mountain offers a variety of dinner items such as chicken, trout, pork, turkey, prime rib, shrimp, soup and salad. “It’s something between casual and fine dining so anybody can find something they like,” Woodall said. The new Farm House will operate year-round, but will open on weekends only during the winter. The Blackwells will expand their operating days sometime this spring. Those planning on dining there should call (423) 727-2726 for days and operating hours. The restaurant is located at 412 K&K Road in Butler, about 40 minutes from the Boone and Blowing Rock areas. “It’s not very far from Elizabethton, Johnson City and Bristol,” Shirl said. “So its distance from Boone and Blowing Rock is not an alarming thing, but it is going to make some difference. We have to establish ourselves in a new community and let them get to know us.”